<span style="font-family:Arial;"><b>The Diane report:</b></span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">You know it’s going to be interesting when the first time you talk to a woman she says, “You can meet me at the Park Plaza hotel. I work in that building and there’s a bar downstairs.” I thought that the whole saloon downstairs and “hotel room” upstairs thing was a relic from the old west, but apparently this practice is still alive and flourishing in Beantown.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">I think Diane must have been hitting the beer fridge in her office that morning because she gave me directions to a non-existent intersection that I, surprisingly, had a hard time locating. <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"> We eventually found each other and decided to hit the aforementioned saloon. As we walk in Diane explains that she only been in this place once….for lunch. Mmm, hmm….ok….whatever you say. I believe you Diane. The bartender waves to Diane as we walk in and says, “You back here again already?” We sit down and order drinks. I order a Blue Moon and Diane orders the “usual” – 2 shots of Jack and a pint of grape Mad Dog. From there, things got interesting…..</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">Ok, more seriously, it was great meeting Diane. She was very easy to talk with and, she’s right, it was like we had known each other for a long time after talking for only a few minutes. Lots of interesting topics – from running, to kids, to working with the disabled, to this thread and its participants and more (including her PacerChris obsession :roll<img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">. Btw – Diane DID mention something funny as our server was standing next to us once, but I’ll let her disclose tha t topic if she wants to. It was pretty funny though.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">And now, to clear up a few potential misconceptions about Diane:</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">A) Diane would have us think that she’s not so good at this running thing that we all love to do. This is untrue. I point to her half-marathon time from last October (1:57:31 in case anyone forgot). Once she completes her rehab with respect to her stress fracture, she’s going to kill that time next Spring.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">2) Diane would have us think that she’s shy. Umm, not true. One of the first things out of her mouth was that she needed to take some booty shots at the request of Nettie. Whether she’ll share them with Nettie, I’m not sure. There was more, but I’ll be nice and let her disclose those discussions if she wants. I also found her quite engaging, funny and rather charming. So, yeah, shy isn’t a word that I’d use to describe her.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">d) Diane has told us on many occasions that there is no way that she’d ever post a picture of herself on the thread. I can assure you that there is no basis in fact for her to think this way. She looks around 10 years younger than me (although that's not hard to do) and I thought that she was very pretty – and much <i>taller</i> than I imagined. Heck, she even had her sandal matched to her air cast <i>and</i> her toenail polish (see, some guys do notice feet). So, as far as I’m concerned, she shouldn't be permitted to hide from the camera any longer.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">All in all a great time and I’m looking forward to seeing her again next April, if not sooner.</span>
