Dela Dejavoo writes in gray and was the first to edit this proof. Julian Muffinbot writes in blue and is adding her comments to what Dela has already written, below.

Dela: The person who I was to meet was Julian Muffinbot. We chose to meet at 8:30PM (though she called at 8:26 to change the time to 9:00PM).
Julian Muffinbot and I are very good friends. We have even been told by people that we have a telepathic connection. That said, we very rarely "meet" places. We don't have places we go to hang out together and are not the sort to get together for coffee or drinks or dinner. This arbitrary rendevous thus had the potential to work out either very well or very poorly.

Julian: I also felt this could go either very well or very poorly. I feared we would second-guess each other into an infinite loop of second-guessing. Would I be trying to go where she would go, while at the same time she would be going where I would go? Would she, thinking of this, try to go where she thought I would think she would go? Would she think that of course I would think she was doing that, and thus return to going where she thought I would go originally? What if my #1 spot was her #2 spot, and vice versa, and we just missed each other??

Dela: In preparation for the rendevous, I made some notes:

Julian: I would like to comment on these notes she has made on my brain.

Alliance Bakery: Yes, it is the default meeting place in our neighborhood, especially now that Filter was replaced by a Bank of America. But I felt it was a bit too obvious, and impersonal, since everyone in Wicker Park meets there.

Dela: Alliance Bakery called to me as the most obvious choice. People I know who like to meet people at places tend to do it there. But because of its obviousness, I could not bring myself to go there first. Muffinbot would know I would never go to a place so obvious. I decided it would remain the default location though, so I would go there second, fourth, sixth, etc, interspersing all destinations with quick treks back to the bakery to see if she had made her way there.

Julian: Beechwood Inn: A good choice, but one I actually thought of last, as I usually do not meet Dela there. It wasn't until I had already come up with several other places (all on Dela's list as well) that I remembered that I always go to the Beechwood for free pool on Tuesdays with Gremlin Jane. My normal Tuesday evening schedule had been disrupted by other plans, so it wasn't on top of my mind.

Mercury Cafe: I knew this was one of Dela's favorites, but I also knew that she did not associate the place with me. Rather, I associated it with her. But would she think of this and go there?? I wasn't sure, but until I remembered the Beechwood, it was my #1 choice. After I thought of Beechwood, it moved into spot #2. I planned to go there if she was not at Beechwood.

Dela: A big part of me thought it made sense to go to Mercury Cafe first. I had been talking up the place for the past few months, telling her of its unusual size and interesting patrons. She would definitely be considering it as a likely place for me to head. But it was the furthest away of all the potential places and also had an early closing time that she may or may not be aware of. I decided to forego it and risk letting her make the trek down there and then leave when she found it no longer open to find me at another location.

This left Beachwood Bar as my first choice. Though she's really not the sort to go to bars, her recent obsession with learning to play pool well enough to one day beat me had meant going to the free pool night there on Tuesdays had become a bit of a habit for her. And though we had only ever met there once and thus she wouldn't really associate the place with me, I had believed that in her mind Tuesday night equaled Beachwood, and that is a powerful thing.

Julian: The remaining things on Dela's list were not places I had in mind.

Food Places: Regardless of whether I'd already eaten, I would not go to a food place for this task at all and none were on my own list. I am a foodie. Dela would get her sustenance in pill form if she could. We do not have this in common at all. Even if she were thinking of where I would go, she would know I wouldn't go somewhere she would truly not go at all.

Polish Bar: I actually hadn't thought of this one. We only went there the once, and while it was an interesting time (1 AM on Christmas Eve) and we saw interesting things (drinks that were on fire), it was not on my mind. I suppose I would have thought of it eventually if I had needed to later on.

Dela: So I set out with a plan.
1. Beachwood, wait 10 minutes
2. Alliance, just pop in
3. Polish Bar (where we once played pool), wait 10 minutes
4. Alliance, pop in
5. La Pasadita (she is always hungry), wait 10 minutes
6. Alliance, pop
7. Jewel, pick up some groceries and check all the aisles
8. Alliance, just look in window
9. Wander streets calling her name, until I get cold
10. Alliance, until I warm up again
11. Call her and tell her I'm going home

Julian: In contrast, I did not have much of a plan. After Beechwood and Mercury Cafe (which I thought closed 1 hour later than it actually did) I was just going to go on instinct.

I arrived at Beechwood at 8:58 PM, bought a cider, and sat down at the same booth Dela and I had sat at when we tried to meet there to play free pool, but found that the pool table was taken. I took out some materials I was working on for Reverse Shoplifting, and then realized I had just bought a cider, I'm a slow drinker, and well, I was thinking that maybe I would just be lazy, and stay in one place, and let Dela do all the wandering around trying to find me. I was sure eventually she would make it to Beechwood. I briefly considered whether she would also stay in one place, but I know her too well. She would never just stay put. Technically, I am also too impatient to do that, so I figured if she didn't come in 15-20 minutes, I would head to Mercury. So, with about 2 minutes until rendezvous time, I began work on the item I would later reverse shoplift.

Dela: So much thought went into all of this. You can imagine my disappointment when I walked into Beachwood at 9:00PM:


And found her sitting there drinking a cider:
Julian: Dela arrives at Beechwood, looking less than excited. Personally, I thought it was awesome that we met on our 1st try.
I mean come on, look at this sad face.