I don't really understand why people like bars. I find it impossible to really "meet" someone at a bar, and I don't just mean picking up girls. Beyond getting someone's name and shaking their hand, how much can you really learn about someone in that atmosphere? It's impossibly frustrating to communicate at all given the general cacophony of loud music and other drunk people yelling. It's hard enough when you're sober, and that fuzzy, sounds-blend-together muffler you get when you're drunk doesn't help at all.

I haven't been to bars much, but I've never had a meaningful conversation at one. When I used to go to the bars with Vicki, we'd basically make "the rounds," run into some people you either shared a dorm with, shared a class with, or possibly seen once or twice, exchange vague pleasantries and move on. Then we'd dance for awhile, and then repeat for about three hours, maybe seeing a new face, maybe seeing a new bar, but that was the core of the experience.

Now dancing is mostly fine and good, but I can't imagine how this whole bar mating ritual plays out. I've had the benefit of being attached since I've been old enough to go to a bar, but I can't imagine it could be comfortable for either sex. Again, I've always had the benefit of being able to go home and make love to / have wild drunk sex with the girl that I was (as Dane Cook so eloquently put it) banging my cock into all night (i.e. dancing, i.e. grinding, i.e. humping). For most people, it seems it's just a crapshoot. I don't believe that anyone at a bar meets someone and "feels a connection" beyond animal lust. I wonder what the percentage of bar hook-ups that lead to anything significant is.

There's more I wanted to say, but I've run out of steam. Probably not to be continued.