somewhere between reality and the mystics.

À la vie is said as a toast, it means to life and that is something I will raise a glass to.Life, that serendipitous dance partner I often tango with spun and held me once again. Although many nights were spent in our tiny pub that's usually filled with expats and cigarette smoke tonight the stars had a far more interesting evening for Heidi LeeAnn, and I think if I were listening I could of heard them giggling at my predicament. Now to preface this tale of twisted fate I must remind you that most nights spent here are remembered in a foggy blur some where between reality and the mystics, a dream within a dream. The aggressive encounters or tiny interactions that seem to only make for memorable stories all presented themselves in that same tiny bar over my pint of 1664. Luckily my leather jacket provided just enough confidence to make these reunions pleasant and silly instead of heavy in the bag of awkward I usually carry with me. " Heidi!, Heidi!" I hear barking behind me "Caitlin is someone calling my name?" She says no but her eyes read that I simply don't want to respond to the person requesting my attention. I turn around and find a familiar Italian that we will refer to as "the catalyst". At this very bar close to where I am standing now about a month ago him and his francophone friend bought Caitlin and I drinks. Telling us it was "the new in thing" he had the bartender put a tequila shot in all of our beers, being a classic girl, I declined the offer that sadly Caitlin was not to aware of. After one sip and a sour face she offers this 13 dollar drink to the dapper man standing next to her, Raphael. They hit it off and we spent the whole night dancing and ditched our above mentioned "spring board" for new Swiss friends. Since their relationship has blossomed into something rather nice we should be thanking the guy I am turning around to, but instead smile and act like its a reunion of old friends. A bit later whilee ordering a drink I realize that I have been spotted. Shit, I mumble and hide my face with my hair but I know its to late, the Irish ginger I talked to for entirely to long last weekend remembers the American girl he tried to teach a jig too. For almost the entire evening I master the art of avoidance. During one of my many dodging secessions a beautiful Swiss girl taps me on the shoulder, what now'I wonder, but her news is pleasant and welcomed. "My friend thinks you are very pretty, but is too shy to say it so, now I say for him, you should talk, yes?" Alex from Zurich, I've met him before and will probably always recognize that tousled hair. Very early in the trip when we were only three students from MSU Caitlin took notice to him just as he was leaving our infamous pub. In a mood far unlike me I pull Caitlin along onto the stoop and stare at him, shamelessly with no real plan of what will happen next. But it works. We talk outside about his grad school program and our livings in Geneva but only for a few minutes and then he troops off into the night, assuming to never be seen again, assuming. That is until we laugh and talk until last call, all the while the Swiss girls gives me thumbs up from across the table, proud of her match making. "I hope to see you again" he tells me after the customary alternating cheek kisses. "Of course" I tell him remembering the phone number I acquired from the first meeting in early September. As I wait out side for Caitlin to ditch the abrasive Canadians shes been defending America to, a certain drunken Irish man comes barrelling out of the bar full speed, directly at me. " You!!" he yells far too loud with a thick accent. If he wasn't such a short man I may have been nervous, but with a face as red as his hair it was really just humorous. He invites me dancing but I decline. "Always leaving me this one is." he tells the people trailing out of the bar. Caitlin being one of them, links arms with me and pull me away and off down the cobble stoned hill, away from all these unlikely characters. Part of me wonders still if they ever existed at all.