social habits

It is indeed more fun to watch a sporting event surrounded by loud boisterous fans than to watch it alone.  Last Saturday I was watching the game in my apartment and we were winning and about half way through I went to the downstairs bar to increase my enjoyment, to be surrounded by like-minded, blue-clad fans, and it was great.  I made friends (though I haven't seen them since), discussed why Maddon shouldn't  be bringing in Chapman so soon, and later agreed with them that Maddon was a genius when Chapman mowed down the side.  Beagles used to talk about how people (mainly he was talking about the kids on his schoolbus, but  I reckon it applies to everybody) like to get excited, and I guess here was an occasion where I liked being excited, and it's more fun to be around other people who are excited at that time.

Even in my careless youth I never cared much for crowded bars.  I like to have a place to sit down and to be able to hear the person I am talking to and more important, to have them hear me. I expect that the reason your friends wanted to go to the bar with the full parking lot is that more people meant it was more likely that there would  be somebody there that they knew.

I guess in the old days it  was in the back of my mind when I went  to the bar that I might get lucky, but that almost never happened and I knew most likely it wasn't going to and I mainly went to shoot my mouth of with my friends,  Still do.

I am with Old Dog in my puzzlement about a woman sitting alone at the bar for a long time until one guy approached her.  In my experience it is never long before the smooth characters and overconfident drunks move in,

When I first started flying it was exciting, and I admit I was a bit scared, and I'd always start up a conversation with my seatmates.  Anymore I have an array of magazines and books and I get my nose buried in them right from the get go and nobody every intrudes on my solitude,  Maybe things are different in the hat on top of the hat on the top of Michigan.

I still see people reading books and magazines on the el.  I am always curious as to what they are reading.  Once I was reading a book by Truman Capote and another guy who had just finished a different Capote book noticed what I was reading and gave me his book/  For awhile kindles were popular on the el, but I almost never see that anymore, mostly it is the infernal clickety clack of the thumbs.