it's raining men

Three men asked me to go out with them today. Asked today.  Each of these men are acquaintances I barely know for whom I feel no wish to take the acquaintance beyond friendship. So what did I say?  Nothing.  I did not acknowledge the invitations.  "Let's go to Jupiter's, have a drink and shoot the breeze."  I could be mistaken. That invitation might not have been a 'date', just two acquaintances going out. 

Jupiter's is a pizza place a block or so from where I live. It seems like a dingy bar to me. I don't drink. I don't eat gluten or dairy, central pizza ingredients.  I wanted to say "Jupiter's?  Ugh. No way."

Instead, I acted like I had not heard him.

The Jupiter guy has asked me to go out to eat with him several times, to go to movies with him more times than I can remember. I wonder if he stepped up to a place serving alcohol to see if booze would interest me.

I think he said 'let's shoot the breeze' to appear nonchalant but maybe he wasn't asking me on a date.

Another guy from one of my storytelling groups asked me to meet him for a drink, suggesting 'the bar scene' in Oakland.

I have almost never gone to bars.  Very briefly in college, I hung out with another coed who liked gin and tonics. I'd go along because she would plead with me to keep her company. I even said "Why don't you just buy gin and tonic and drink here? She did not flirt with anyone. She was not in that bar on the prowl. Maybe she was an alcoholic.

My ex liked to go to bars. When we first dated, I would go but gradually I stopped. After we were married and had moved to his hometown, he met an old friend of his at his friend's hangout bar. This friend was definitely an alcoholic and I thought my ex was.  Then again, I am such a teatotaler that I tend to judge most drinking as a sign of alcoholism. Anyway, my ex and I went to a bar and he ignored me to talk to his old friend. I had suggested he go on his own but he said that wouldn't look right to leave his wife home. The friend didn't bring his girlfriend.  So I sat at the end of a dark bar ordering one G&T after the next until I was hammered. Really drunk.

Gradually, I noticed a man old enough to be my father next to me. He bought me a couple drinks, but not to flirt.  When I told him I didn't really like gin, vodka, whiskey or any booze in particular he said he had good news for me. He said alcoholics all have their favorite booze. If you don't like any booze, I wouldn't be worried, he said, about being drunk now. I had expressed concern that since I was quite drunk, maybe I was an alkie. He actually asked me lots of questions, like a screening for alcoholism.