Hurdle 1...Cleared.

Well, the first hurdle was pretty much cleared.


I met my date at Le Rendez-Vous wine bar on the Upper East Side. Cheesy name, huh? But a very nice place.

Now, I have run into this women a few times over the years at either one of my favorite bars near her, Doc Watsons, or at my local, P.J. Clarke's. I picked a wine bar because A.) It was neutral territory, and B.) Sipping wine is more civilized, and on a scorching hot and humid day drinking beer would surely test my goal to keep it at just two drinks.

She being a nurse at Sloan-Kettering, dealing with cancer patients, first generation Irish, and seemingly always at a bar I assumed my teetotalery would be awkward for her. However, it became apparent that the Encouraging Nurse was far from a bar-fly, never drinks more than one or two when out, and was actually staying off the sauce this week (she is also a runner) - she was only drinking because she thought it would be awkward for me! So, in this NYC culture of the drink being the ties that bind, we both realized our foolish assumptions, and that sipping seltzer would have been just fine on this first date. But, being 2 glasses in before our mutual confessional it was a little late.

I also found out that the only reason she went out with me is that I now look different and seem different; not so much because I am slimmer, but I look healthier, and my skin looks more alive (yes, longtime astute readers, that's right, I heard the same thing from the Skeptical Doctor - really, I didn't have bad skin before!)

Well, we shared a bottle of wine, and as a gentleman I picked up the slack, so I had 3 glasses of wine to her 1 to finish the bottle.  And then we got up to go walk her dog (Old me would have said, "Screw the dog, let's go to another bar!"), but the bartender poured us another glass on the house. Being the height of ungentlemanly and uncouth behavior, they had to be drunk...drank? Drunken? Whatever, we stayed for the buy back. However, over the course of a full four hours I had only four glasses of wine - I mean, I could drive a car after that!

So to me, that was a victory. It wasn't two, but it was greatly slowed to 1 per hour. The real victory, however, was as I walked home (we met at 6 PM and didn't have dinner), I craved every bit of food that I passed on 2nd Avenue, so in succession starting at 75th it was Mexican, Italian, Pizza, Italian, Sushi, Burger, Thai, Burger, Pizza, etc. It was a gravitational pull no matter how sober I was! But...

I grabbed a Mediterranean salad and happily chomped on my greens at home.