Strange bedfellows

I got to talking last night at a reception with a very nice guy from Playboy. (Yes, that Playboy. And I have no idea what he does other than it’s something with their website.) He lives in Naperville, works in Chicago, went to University of Illinois, is a Cubs fan, wife grew up in Moline…regardless, we had a lot to talk about.

As dinner was winding down, he mentioned that a big group was going out and asked if I wanted to join them.

No thanks, I said. I had been up since 4 a.m. (for the first time in a long time, I couldn’t sleep so I just got out of bed and went to the gym). It was already 10:30 at night and I needed to finish up some work and go to bed. Plus, I’m staff. It was possible that he was just asking me as a nicety…how much fun could they really have with me tagging along? And it was also a possibility they’d want me to pick up the check, which was a bar tab that I did not want coming out of my budget.

As I was getting up to leave, I asked my new friend who was joining him for this post-dinner entertainment. He motioned to the other side of the table, where four people from Encyclopedia Britannica were all very animated and engaged in conversation. Heading back to my room, I got to thinking about the interesting discussions that could ensue when you mix a guy from Playboy with a bunch of bookworms. Talk about strange bedfellows.