The Best Laid Plans....

I posted an ad on Craigslist recently, seeking someone to hang out with. Sex was not explicitly contemplated in the ad; I was just looking to meet some new people to hang out with or something. [It's remarkably difficult to type with your fingers crossed behind your back.]

Among the small handful of responses I received was an email from a guy whose screen name I will slightly change: we'll call him "Johnny2321". The point being, the guy's screen name included only his first name, probably because he probably wants to keep some semblance of anonymity for a bit. (I'm the same way, so I can't blame him.)

Strangely, though, the subject line of his email read: "CL ad / Hill." I don't know where the word "Hill" came from, since it's not referenced in my ad. [For those of you outside the D.C. metro area who may not know this, around these parts we commonly refer to the Capitol Hill area -- all the government buildings and the residential expanse near it -- as "The Hill."] I don't live near the Hill, so really, I had no idea how that word made its way into his response to my ad.

So we exchange an email or two, and after a while I ask him, "So you live on the Hill?" Actually, no, I come to find out. This guy lives out in Bethesda, a Maryland suburb of DC. Confused I am, because I still don't know where the word "Hill" come from if neither of us is actually on the Hill.

Eventually our email exchanges ended, since time constraints prohibited me from trekking all the way out to Bethesda, though at some point I did mention to him that I head into that area from time to time and maybe we could get a drink next time I found myself there.

Last night, on a lark, I sent him another email to tell him that I was probably going to be in Bethesda again in the next few days, and did he want to get a drink or something. I wasn't really expecting a response -- D.C. gay men are so flaky -- but I thought I'd just put it out there.

Here's a random helpful hint for those of you who use multiple email addresses and probably use one mail reader to read them all: If you really care about your anonimity, be very careful which email address you use to send out responses to your emails.

I can only assume that's what happened to Johnny, because I did not receive a response from Johnny2321. My response -- including the quoted text of the sent emails below it -- came from JohnLee. As in, his full first and last name. Oops.

Curious that I am, I googled the guy. (Oh come on, it's not like you don't do it too!) And that's when I finally came up with the Hill connection.

The guy works for a very prominent senator. Hm. This ought to be fun.

I doubt I'll ever actually meet the guy, but in case I do, I need to start thinking up some intelligent things to say about politics and certain political parties.