The Test Run.

My suddenly single lifestyle has made me more ambitious, outgoing, and uninhibited. The lack of inhibition is what led me to meet a complete stranger on Friday night. And while I’m not ready to date yet, it doesn’t hurt to distract the mind for a bit.

I shouldn’t say he is a stranger, however, as I have spoken to Craig over the phone well over a dozen times for work. The calls were always kept short, polite, and professional. Sure, we’d have small talk every now and then but mostly to maintain this business relationship. To me, he was just another voice, a contact, and most importantly a good source of information.

I was on deadline. I began doubting I’d get the information on time when the phone ran.

“Hey Sandra, its Craig.” He had a friendly voice.

I have so many contacts, I sometimes forget who’s who. It took me 30 seconds to realize who he was but only 2 seconds to react like I did. He caught on quickly.

“You see what I did?” he said. “I made you think you knew me.”

At that very second, I remembered where he was from and who he was. I remembered him well.

When I had first started working, I had no idea how to do my job. I was given a topic and told to find the story. Craig was on top of the list of phone calls I had to make. I picked up the phone and dialed his number. In the most vulnerable and politest way, I had probed him about the issue. Craig, recognizing the newbie in my voice, took the opportunity to belittle me and tore me apart. It was weakness and in this business, you cannot be weak. It is the nature of the job to be assertive and know what you’re asking.

Since then, I’ve learned how to do my job and do it well. Craig was part of that process, and now he was on the phone with me again. I would strike up a witty conversation, and weave my questions into it.

“Listen, I know you’re about to head to happy hour and you want to get out of the office but I promise if you have the information I need, I’ll stop bothering you long enough for you to get drunk tonight. What do ya say?”

He chuckled and two minutes later I had my answers.

Three minutes later, I received an email from him with my original inquiry in the subject line. Did he have more information than what he told me over the phone?

The email said the following:
“I’m actually missing happy hour today to watch a rock concert.”

It was completely irrelevant to work. I had a choice. I could respond back to the email and show him I was interested in getting to know him or I could ignore it and continue having Craig as the person-less voice he was to me.

Five emails exchanges later, we agreed to meet for drinks the night after.

It would be a blind meeting.

With the technology we have nowadays, blind meetings are a rarity. A quick search on Google can pull up pictures of even my mother. Part of me felt like I didn’t want him to be real. I liked the way I imagined Craig and meeting him would ruin it.

The next night I brought my girl friend to the bar with me. If he was a loser, at least I could have a clean escape. At 10PM, my phone rang and Craig’s name popped up. This was it.

I walked outside to meet him just outside the bar. I would finally connect the voice of Craig to the person. My phone rang again as I headed out the door. I look cautiously around me when I picked it up to see if I could match the voice with a face. And there he was.

Craig wore a brown corduroy jacket matched with slim jeans and a pair of retro sneakers. His iPod headphones were hanging from his jacket, Blackberry comfortably in his left pocket. The hair was intentionally messy, layered, and resembling Paul McCartney in his Beatle days. This was my ten-second evaluation of Craig. The voice of Craig was yes— a hipster.

“Hey, what’s going on Sandra?” he inquires. His voice sounded so familiar but his face was that of a strangers. I knew him but I didn’t. What I did know was that I wanted to get to know him better. This time, I’d get to know Craig as a person.