Got my hugs in later in the day and all within an hour. I wonder how I can spread these out through the day. Got a bonus hug from the kid today, normally I don’t see her on Thursdays… hooray for volleyball games!
The other hugs. I went in to work (ComedyCity. Last night was Stand-up comedy night.) Got a hug from Owen Boardman, stand-up comedian, improvisor, writer and friend. He actually approached me and asked if I had met my hug quota for the day. The initiation on his part was nice.
Third hug Rochelle Allen. She was just coming to see the show. She came in with friends, saw me and said “Oh, I’ve got to hug this guy.” while in the hug she said, “Oh, that’s right, you’re doing that hug project thing.” Which made me thing what she said earlier was either a sincere need to hug me, or she was subliminally tricked by knowing about this project. Either way, good hug.
Then I just went forward with her group. Hugged her roommate, who I had by chance met the other day at the dentist office, so we weren’t total strangers. Then I hugged her roommate’s boyfriend who was there too. He have me a one-arm “man hug” but I went all in. Not sure how he ultimately felt about it.
We had a brief talk about how women are better than men at hugging. Rochelle believes it’s because boys are taught not to touch people. I said I think it’s because women are squishier in general. We’re probably both right.
I was at my quota, and leaving for the night, but saw Aaron Kornowski (friend and musician) coming in to perform the post-show. I just went in for the hug as a way of saying “Hi.” Don’t know if he knows about the project or not. I just took the hug. Took it! He didn’t seem to mind, he laughed about it, actually.
So, really I ended up with 3 hugs that I initiated without really asking for consent. But, they were all received well enough. And, really, is a free hug that bad of a thing?
Went home and later felt lonely… well, I live alone, so not surprising. What was interesting was that I felt lonely, but not the sad desperate lonely I’ve felt before. Difficult to explain. I’ll talk about this more in upcoming blogs. Loneliness and being alone is an ongoing theme with this project.
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