You may be surprised at which one of us wrote this post!

Yesterday I did some shopping in Doylestown after work. Some friends were meeting up later so I had 90 minutes or so to kill until they arrived.

I’ve written about the Friday-after-work-bar-beer and how romantic it seems despite never really doing it. Yesterday, I put that notion to the test. Is it as fun and novel as it seems? Or is it awkward and boring?

I was pleasantly surprised with my experience. I walked into Chambers small bar, sat down, ordered a beer, and didn’t take out my phone. HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED.

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Conversation 1 – Two girls my age with an infant to my right, just friends, not lesbians. We began talking when the baby wouldn’t stop staring at me. I asked how old and mentioned that me and my WIFE are expecting a baby in a few weeks. I asked if the anniversary gifts I bought for her were good (happy anniversary Meghan!) which they said yes and we shot the shit a bit more.

Conversation 2 – A ~70 year old couple on my left. We began talking when the musical performer walked in and they said he was amazing, that they follow him from bar to bar. I faked interest and said I’ll have to come back when he starts, as he wasn’t playing for another hour.

I then walked to Hop Scotch down the street for a new vibe and started off with a Lavender Mist cocktail.

Conversation 3 – A woman born precisely in 1960. We began talking when she was bobbing along to the song that came on which I recognized but couldn’t place. I asked her who sang it. She mentioned that she’d just come from the theater seeing the movie about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. We talked for ~15 minutes about the Beatles. She took offense when I said Ringo was the least important and she said she explicitly didn’t like Paul which I said was a bad take. We transitioned to talking about late 60s politics, Vietnam, and how it’s not so different from today.

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My take away is that the romantic notion I wrote about a year ago isn’t a fantasy. Is it possible that I try again next Friday and don’t talk to anyone? Of course. But, people are still people, and part of what makes us human is wanting to interact with each other. When you’re drinking a beer alone and so is the person next to you, there’s a feeling of wanting to break the tension and start talking, about anything. This isn’t the case at the grocery store when people are there for a purpose. But when you sit alone at a bar, you’re sort of wearing a sign that says “I’m down to talk“, and most adults recognize and respond to that. Give it a try!

Lastly, I have to address the smart phone in all of this. I’ve written about embracing the boredom and not taking out your phone when you’re in a waiting room for example. The dynamic here is even more pronounced. In a waiting room, you don’t want to be there, so taking out your phone is a viable option. At a bar, alone, you’re choosing to be there, and it feels like there’s a conscious effort from most people to not be on their phone for that exact reason, which is nice.