joining the club

Several days ago the organization for older students at my school sent out email about a Happy Hour gathering. It sounded fun and so at the appointed time I showed up at the bar where the meeting was scheduled.

When I entered, I saw a very young looking woman sitting near the door, looking expectantly at the entering customers. I smiled tentatively at her, unsure as to whether she really belonged to the older students group, but unwilling to ask such a potentially rude question. She smiled back, and asked me if I was there for the meeting. I nodded, relieved. She introduced herself as the president of the club and suggested we get a table together while we waited for the others.

I found J. very friendly, but it became increasingly clear to me that she was substantially younger than me. Finally, unable to resist any longer, I asked her, "So, what did you do before law school?"

"Well," she replied apologetically, "not much, because I just graduated last June."

I was a little startled, but I told myself not to be narrow-minded about membership in the older students club, especially with the president of the club herself.

Our dinner came, and we continued chatting about law school, classes, and our lives before school. Then she looked at me, and said ever so casually, "It's really hard to come out here at school, isn't it?"

"Um," I sputtered, immediately debating how best to politely mention my husband without sounding either weirdly homophobic or terribly insecure, "yeah." Unsure how else to proceed, I knocked back the rest of my vodka tonic.

J. continued on, "I mean, I am very happy about Schwartzenegger, but I can't really talk about it much at school, you know?"

This was not exactly the followup question that I would have expected from her previous question.

J. smiled at me with genuine delight. "I'm so happy to have another member of the Republican club!"

I realized that this was not, in fact, the older students meeting.

I felt terrible as I explained my now-obvious mistake to J., as there was no way I was going to join the Republican club (or the Democratic one, for that matter), but she thought it was very funny. We stayed for another hour or so chatting.

I never did find the older students meeting.