response 125 of 155:

Jan 11 19:12 UTC 2002

        Re: #119

        Yes, they do, but ironically, Ann Arbor is a horrible place to do it.
The further out you go, the more willing people are to start conversations
with strangers, or invite people they don't know all that well to do things
with them.  Ypsilanti and Saline both have thriving coffeeshop communities,
and it's the same way further downriver. 

        Re: #122

        Nobody goes to coffeeshops to cruise - my point exactly.  There are
a lot of really wonderful people out there who *never* go to a place with the
intention of trying to pick someone up, and they're generally saner and more
desirable as a rule.  If nothing else you know that they're not serial
monogamists who find it easier to pick someone new up than to maintain their
existing relationships.  

        It's a completely different ballgame, meeting, spending time with, and
occasionally dating people who aren't actively looking.  You have to have a
different attitude about things - you have to be looking for a good time out
first, and a date second - but you get a good chance to get to know someone,
and to see how they interact with people around them, and that's proved very
valuable to me.

        All things considered, I have probably a dozen close friends whom I've
met through coffeeshops, and at least three times that number of casual
acquaintances, and at least three long-term relationships have come out of
that, not counting the one I met at a coffeeshop at a GREX-sponsored event.
;)