Always hopeful

I went to the monthly HOG meeting last night and had a blast. Normally these things are so boring I find myself belittling most of the people that show up. From the speakers with their penchants for spewing about Harleys like they were some sort of God-like devices to the "fans" in the audience that are really pencil-pushing-never-getting-their-hands-dirty-geeks pretending to be hard-ass bikers. Even the prez of the chapter seems like a sell-out with his thick bearded look and his ability to turn his monthly talks into a sales push for the Harley dealership that sponsors our chapter.

So back to the fun at the meeting... There's this team we played late last year during HOG bowling night, we clicked and have been hanging out ever since. These guys were at the meeting and we spent the entire time goofing around with them. I admit, I have an ulterior motive, one of the guys is an IT manager at NML (please, please give me a job!). They urged us to sign up for the SPAM ride in July so we did.

As I went up to the sales table to write a check for some patches I bought, I could feel eyes on me. I knew what it was instantly. It was one of those feelings of old fat men staring at my ass type feelings that I've sensed many times before. But there's this one guy in particular that I haven't decided whether he's scary-weird or weirdly-harmless. But Jeff does not like him much. He stares at me constantly. It's the kind of stare that Billy Pratt (aka Michael Hagerty) used on Annie Profitt (Goldie Hawn) in the movie Overboard when Dean asked Annie if she still had feelings for Billy and Billy sat there staring back like he was either going to drool or barf. Of course after Annie took one look at him she instantly shook her head and said, "Nuh-uh!" (I will watch Any movie with Kurt Russell in it but I will save that for another day.) So I always get that "look" from this guy. At bowling last weekend I accidentally rubbed (boobs first) up against him while trying to navigate the crowd. I apologized for bumping into him and got the response, "Thank you." And now I know for sure he's also a great conversationalist - NOT!

I don't know why I go to these meetings. It must be some sort of eternal hope they are going to do something interesting. Almost every ride involves food. There's the Sunday brunch ride, the ice cream ride, and the fish fry ride. "Live to ride, ride to eat" should be the HOG motto. Occasionally they do come up with some good ones like the bike blessing and the ride to the Valley of the Kings, which is a wild animal sanctuary with lions and tigers that you actually get to feed. (Bring your own raw chicken legs!) So there it is...hope springs eternal.