"This isn't a date, is it?"

Before heading to DC, I made plans to meetup with Mysterious Blog Reader for a long over due beer. You may remember her as one of the responders to my dating manifesto posted back in July. Her and I were supposed to meet back in mid August -- incidentally the same day as my first job interview -- but plans fell through. Fastforward to October when we finally found time in our busy schedules to catch a beer.

However there was a small wrench to this plan. Having casually mentioned to Holly that I was getting a beer with a friend after work, she wanted to come along. Normally not a problem, but in this case the friend is a blog reader. Holly doesn't know I have a blog. Oy vey.

I could have concocted an elaborate lie as to why Holly couldn't come along (or I could have just kept my mouth shut), but instead I placed a semi-frantic phone call to MBR and some ground rules were placed:

1. Don't call Holly Holly! You think I use real names on this blog??
2. Don't mention the BLOG!
3. If she asks how we met, tell her that we met online. I have a habit of meeting strangers off the internet so this won't seem so strange.

So much subterfuge. And yes I feel guilty for it and the indirect lying. Thankfully MBR did a good job of sticking to rules one through three. It was great to finally meet her and maybe I can make Holly a little jealous as MBR is very cute.