Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Girls Night Out at Rayuela

Last night, I ventured down to the Lower East Side to meet up with Denise, Lauren and Kimi -- three fellow travel PR gals in town from L.A.

Our culinary destination was Rayuela, a “freestyle Latino” eatery known for refashioning traditional Latin American and Spanish dishes. Specialties of the house are ceviche and tapas, and we enjoyed both, with tuna in watermelon ceviche and crab-infused guacamole among the delectable menu items we sampled.

Though our conversation began with subjects like hotel openings and corporate PR strategy, we eventually moved on from the shop talk to affairs of the heart. I couldn’t help noticing the stunning diamond rings adorning both Denise and Lauren’s left hands and couldn't help asking about the stories behind the sparklers.

Lauren spoke of meeting her Melbourne-bred fiance while studying abroad in Australia. As someone who once lived in Sydney and has visited the land of Oz three times, I can most definitely vouch for the irresistible charms of Aussie men.

I don’t know what got to me more about Denise's tale -- how she met her Mr. Right or his fabulous moniker, Hobson. Denise was three months into a membership with Match.com when she decided to cancel. The very next day, Hobson emailed her. Her sister convinced her to go on one last date. As it turned out, she quipped, that was indeed her last date ever because she and Hobson were mutually smitten.

Denise’s tale of online dating success inevitably got me to thinking about my experience with Match.com -- a series of fruitless first dates and a tumultuous 16-month relationship that unraveled with not one but two breakups.

Though I’ve since decided that Internet-generated romance is not for me, Denise’s story was a wonderful reminder that you never know where or when love is going to come into your life. Thankfully, I’ve never had more fun on the journey to finding it.

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