Single People Have The Ones

“Married people have the one, single people have the ones.”  This is one of my favorite lines from Bella DePaulo, and it’s true.  When a person gets married (and I’m generalizing), the spouse becomes the person’s “everything,” and most cultures revere it.  But when you’re single, you have multiple people in your life, and for me, it’s a lot richer.
 
Take my weekend, for instance.  I just finished my first week at my new job in my new city and was looking forward to unwinding.  Friday afternoon, I did just that on the tennis court.  After driving to Rose Park in Georgetown, I met up with Enrique, who posted on a tennis group in Meetup that he was looking for a volleying partner.  I hadn’t even picked up a racket in a year and a half (I had gotten complacent with it in Hampton Roads), but in the city of Washington, DC, there are tennis players galore, so I had browsed some Meetups for it.  There was quite the line of people waiting to play, so Enrique and I got to know each other.  A lighting technician in the theater, he was out of work due to this damdemic (I’m calling the pandemic the “damdemic;” it just seems fitting).  I feel for you, dude.  We had a good volley, even though I’m super rusty and have trouble letting the ball bounce before charging into it.
 
Saturday morning, I went for a brief hike with Guy, who I met on a runner’s meetup group.  We met at Bread Furst, that aromatic bakery on Connecticut Avenue, and went on a trail.  We shared tales of our travels.  That afternoon, it was a trip to the National Gallery of Art with Joel, who I met through a writer’s Meetup group.  He brought his buds Jacob and Rob.  I was able to talk movie soundtracks and music with Jacob, Jewish lingo with Joel, and philosophies of creativity with Rob; after the museum, we went to the café where we talked about sweets.  I never thought a topic as mundane as cookies would create such an enthralling dialogue, but there you go.
 
Yesterday was the CoSP meetup with Misti, where we walked around the National Mall and saw two people flip off the White House.  Right on!  We talked politics, travel, singlehood, and I love Misti’s insertion of popular culture references into conversation (Steve Martin’s The Jerk, Aerosmith’s “Jaded,” and I’m referring to the desolate DC landscape at DC: Zombie Apocalypse Version).  We have plans to play tennis, grill, and see some socially distanced outdoor live music.
 
All in all, a hell of a weekend.  Way more interesting than some backyard conversation about which lawn mower or juice box is better.