Adventures in babysitting

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a friend's birthday party at Dominick's, a New York-inspired restaurant and bar in West Hollywood. About thirty people showed up for dinner, only two of whom I had met previously. It was a very friendly group, and I was down to socialize, so it was all good.

A few hours later, we were all stuffed. The party was set to continue at a club called Guy's, which was having jazz night. I'm not really big on jazz, and was pooped anyway, so I was planning to be a lameass and head home. I had just grabbed my jacket and was saying goodnight to a few new friends when a guy who'd been sitting at my table came up to me.

"Hey! You and I have to dance!" he almost shouted. He was an amiable teddy bear of a guy that I had chatted with earlier in the evening. He'd shown up with a model, so what was he doing squeezing my arm? I suspect he'd been drinking a bit too much of the house red.

"Oh, sorry, I'm headed home. Good night," I said, and started to walk away.

"Oh no! You can't leave! You have to dance with me," he protested. "I said to myself, 'I'm going to dance with that redhead.' Seriously, come to Guy's."

"No, I can't." The crowd was slowly filing through a long hallway towards the front door. Teddy Bear and I kept having this "no I can't/oh, sure you can" exchange as we followed the herd.

"Hey, listen, is it because you don't know me? My name is Todd," he said.

"Don't take it personally, Todd. I'm exhausted, and I've got to be at work early tomorrow," I said. "I'm Ginger, by the way." Frankly, Dear Readers, I'm open to dancing with a friendly stranger if I've got the energy. I really wasn't up for it, and I can't blame a guy for trying. I didn't think anything was weird about the situation until...

His eyes lit up. "Ginger? Really?! I had a babysitter named Ginger! Oh, I loved her. C'mon, now you have to stay."

Um....

"I have to stay because I have the same name as your babysitter?"

Now he was excited. "No, really! You even kind of look like her!"

"O...kay." I know that I was was not imagining Teddy Todd's crazy eye look, and I was definitely not digging it. I bowed out of going to the club a final time, and caught a ride home.

He definitely had too much of the house red.