Wait. Collect Call is still a thing?
So, this happened.
I recently reconnected with an old friend, and it has been super nice. We've hung out a few times, and it's been really pretty pleasant.
I knew he had a crush on me forever ago, and I kind of new that by reconnecting, it would probably come up. In my effort for a better, braver 2012, I decided to forge through my unsettling feelings of premature regret and give it a shot.
Anyway, the first sign this probably wasn't going to go super well was when, on a Wednesday, he asked me to hang out on a Saturday. In text-y banter, I told him I had a Groupon for horseback riding and asked if he'd want go. I assumed the word "sometime" was implied somewhere in there. Anyway, a miscommunication happened and he thought I meant that Saturday. So...he canceled all his plans.
Why he had plans I'll explain in a second.
So I get really, really busy on Thursday and Friday. Not an "I'm kind of a big deal" kind of busy, but an "I may or may not be a little bit of a slacker and it's all catching up to me" kind of busy. So I don't text him until Friday night, after he texted me an "I don't know what happened" text. So I call...which was a huge mistake...to explain that I had just gotten home from a birthday party, I really had been super busy, and hadn't had a chance to sit down in the last two days.
It was a huge mistake because he goes on to explain his roommate had to cancel a surprise dinner she was throwing him. I assumed the dinner was for getting his license back after 2 years of non-driving after 3 DUIs. Well, I was wrong. The dinner was for his birthday...which was that day...which I had no idea about.
Great. So I spend the next, I swear, 20 minutes apologizing while he continues to let me feel bad about it, and continue to bring up that it only takes 5 seconds to text. After 20 minutes of go-nowhere apologizing, I have to tell you. I was ready to say, "Okay, look. If I liked you more, I probably would have texted."
So whatever...out of guilt and his passive-aggressive shaming, I schedule the horseback riding for Sunday. Which was 3 hours away. Except four hours for me because, unbeknownst to myself, I had to pick my friend up. And he lives an hour away.
Anyway, we go riding. And you know what I didn't do? I didn't control the horse. So after an embarrassing amount of time on the back of an aimless horse, and one tackled sapling later, we leave, and make the 3 hour drive back. We had great talks. He is a dear, dear friend. He's been through a lot in he last 10 years, and he seems to have grown because of it: and I think that's hard to do. The experience was largely enjoyable.
As he gets out of the car as I drop him off, he asks me if he can take me out on a date.
I knew it was coming, but hadn't prepared. So you know what my response was?
"Fine." I actually said, "Fine."
And he said, "A reluctant 'yes', but I'll take it."
So that was that, and that's not even the crux of this story.
So he calls to ask me out. He calls me...COLLECT...to ask me out.
1. Who knew calling collect is still a thing? and
2. Can you do that? Doesn't that break some kind of dating etiquette? Or some kind of bro code?
I try not to be too judgmental. The 3 DUIs...whatever. The limited license? Whatever. We all make mistakes, and I maintain that few of us are really, actually bad people. But, come on. Call a girl collect? For a date? There has to be a better way.
I recently reconnected with an old friend, and it has been super nice. We've hung out a few times, and it's been really pretty pleasant.
I knew he had a crush on me forever ago, and I kind of new that by reconnecting, it would probably come up. In my effort for a better, braver 2012, I decided to forge through my unsettling feelings of premature regret and give it a shot.
Anyway, the first sign this probably wasn't going to go super well was when, on a Wednesday, he asked me to hang out on a Saturday. In text-y banter, I told him I had a Groupon for horseback riding and asked if he'd want go. I assumed the word "sometime" was implied somewhere in there. Anyway, a miscommunication happened and he thought I meant that Saturday. So...he canceled all his plans.
Why he had plans I'll explain in a second.
So I get really, really busy on Thursday and Friday. Not an "I'm kind of a big deal" kind of busy, but an "I may or may not be a little bit of a slacker and it's all catching up to me" kind of busy. So I don't text him until Friday night, after he texted me an "I don't know what happened" text. So I call...which was a huge mistake...to explain that I had just gotten home from a birthday party, I really had been super busy, and hadn't had a chance to sit down in the last two days.
It was a huge mistake because he goes on to explain his roommate had to cancel a surprise dinner she was throwing him. I assumed the dinner was for getting his license back after 2 years of non-driving after 3 DUIs. Well, I was wrong. The dinner was for his birthday...which was that day...which I had no idea about.
Great. So I spend the next, I swear, 20 minutes apologizing while he continues to let me feel bad about it, and continue to bring up that it only takes 5 seconds to text. After 20 minutes of go-nowhere apologizing, I have to tell you. I was ready to say, "Okay, look. If I liked you more, I probably would have texted."
So whatever...out of guilt and his passive-aggressive shaming, I schedule the horseback riding for Sunday. Which was 3 hours away. Except four hours for me because, unbeknownst to myself, I had to pick my friend up. And he lives an hour away.
Anyway, we go riding. And you know what I didn't do? I didn't control the horse. So after an embarrassing amount of time on the back of an aimless horse, and one tackled sapling later, we leave, and make the 3 hour drive back. We had great talks. He is a dear, dear friend. He's been through a lot in he last 10 years, and he seems to have grown because of it: and I think that's hard to do. The experience was largely enjoyable.
As he gets out of the car as I drop him off, he asks me if he can take me out on a date.
I knew it was coming, but hadn't prepared. So you know what my response was?
"Fine." I actually said, "Fine."
And he said, "A reluctant 'yes', but I'll take it."
So that was that, and that's not even the crux of this story.
So he calls to ask me out. He calls me...COLLECT...to ask me out.
1. Who knew calling collect is still a thing? and
2. Can you do that? Doesn't that break some kind of dating etiquette? Or some kind of bro code?
I try not to be too judgmental. The 3 DUIs...whatever. The limited license? Whatever. We all make mistakes, and I maintain that few of us are really, actually bad people. But, come on. Call a girl collect? For a date? There has to be a better way.