04/23/2003 Entry: "He Sees Things From Under Glass."

I don't normally get out during the week, but Monday night I got out from behind the glass of the monitor and met the charming and handsome Glenn, who's visiting this week from New York, and his friend D. I was surprised at how familiar D. looked, but San Francisco is a pretty small town in some ways, so there's nothing unusual about that. We met at the Hole In the Wall Saloon for beer and debauchery.

It was soon clear that the only debauchery happening was the man standing behind us touching himself, so D. figured it was time to leave. Though, you know, it's the Hole in the Wall. Isn't there always supposed to be someone there touching himself?

We got a little nosh, and had some good conversation. I also briefly got to meet the recently-relocated Michael, who I'll keep an eye out for at Bingo next month.

The funny thing was discovering why D. looked so familiar. Turns out he had been in one of the user testing sessions at my work last week. I'd spent an hour watching him from behind one-way mirrored glass. No wonder he looked familiar. Actually this is kind of what it's like meeting people whose Websites you read—you've watched them for a while and might think you know what they're like, but when you come around from the other side of the glass, you might not even recognize them.

Just to further bludgeon the metaphor, the next few weeks are going to bring a lot of out-from-behind-the-glass activities, starting with Dining Out for Life, a fundraiser for AIDS charities in various cities across the country. The Boyfriend suggests that if you can't make it to a participating restaurant here, just eat out somewhere and then write a check to the Stop AIDS Project. That'd work too.