From 556 Miles Away

What can you expect from someone you've only seen five times in your life? How about the best compliment of my year?

At the Belvidere back in October, I'd met a man and woman who were here on business from Boston. She soon left for the hotel, but he stayed and struck up a conversation about dining (he eats out as much as I do), traveling (he travels a great deal on business and almost as much for pleasure), and art (a former artist, he had little tolerance for no-talents).

At the end of that rainy night, I told him he was a great conversationalist and he suggested we hang out the next night so I could show him the beer places in RVA that had been recommended to him. The beer part aside, it sounded like fun.

When he returned to Richmond a few weeks later on business, he let me know in advance so we could hang out again. This time, there were no beer joints, but just as much fun; we did InLight, we ate, drank and were merry and we over-shared our life stories, just for grins.

Then he went back to Boston and except for a few e-mails asking for my thoughts on an 18th-century poem and a Beat poem, we've had little communication.

So when I opened a recent e-mail from him, I couldn't have been more surprised at its contents:

I wish you much happiness and love during the new year...
You were the most interesting person I met in 2010.

High praise indeed from a guy who meets people practically everywhere and can talk to anyone.

Maybe there's hope for me yet.