My Dates with Jessica Simpson
Last weekend, I went on my first "first date" in over five years.
And yesterday, a second followed.
There was a girl named Jessica Simpson in a class or two of mine in high school. We never spoke, but she was friends with one of my friends (Colleen Roache), who happened to be the first girl I ever went on a "date" with, so she (Jessica) knew a little about me and had the general impression I was a "nice guy".
About six months ago, various people from my high school class were finding each other on Facebook and adding each other as "friends", and she added me; but again, we never spoke. She had a website about herself, but for various reasons, that gave a fairly intimidating impression of her, so I was all the more hesitant to talk to her.
A couple weeks ago, we found each other on OKCupid. Her profile there was much less intimidating and actually gave the impression we'd get along really well; so I sent her a message letting her know I recognized her and felt like we'd get along well. We e-mailed back and forth a few times and finally ended up on Yahoo IM. I was so impressed after one conversation that in the interim between our first and second conversations (which was about 5 days), I decided to ask her on a date to see Saw VI (since she's a horror fan and a recent conversation with Samantha had me wanting to see it anyway); I asked her about 20 minutes into our second conversation and she agreed.
We talked most nights for the rest of the week or so it took for my next paycheck, and usually found ourselves connecting in unusual and highly unexpected ways and finding a lot of common ground.
Then the day actually came, about 10 days ago.
I drove to three different houses on her street before finally getting to the right one. I'm sure my "I hate your street" text message just before arriving at her house will become historic somehow (in part for actually saying "I have your street").
Her dad felt the need to take pictures of us before we left the house and I didn't have a problem with it, so we did that.
We listened to the most recent version of my "Empathy" playlist (songs with which I "empathize" due to the lyrics speaking to me or for me) on the way to Olive Garden for dinner. The first thing I said to her in the car was that she looked really nice -- and I wasn't just being polite. We talked intermittently through dinner (we were both nervous) and ended up seeing Paranormal Activity instead of Saw since Saw didn't let out until after she wanted to get home. I took her hand about half way through the movie and we held for the duration.
We ended up back at her place around 9 and watched some of the music-only channels, then Jay Leno and Conan. I left around 12. We both agreed the date was a success and we should do another.
We continued talking daily.
We had our second date planned for this past Thursday, but that was the day the "hurricane" hit and everything was flooded, so it ended up not happening. Incidentally, me driving around trying to find a way to Portsmouth that didn't involve a tunnel or something flooded became an exciting (and sometimes scary) adventure all its own, ending in doing IHOP solo, but that's a story for another day.
Yesterday (Saturday), I picked her up and we drove to Radio Shack in an attempt to pick up a cable for her to connect her laptop to her TV. As it turned out, the cable wasn't nearly long enough and extensions are expensive, so that trip was fairly futile.
Then we hit IHOP and went between bouts of me talking a lot and us being pretty quiet/nervous/hungry.
We went back to her place and watched Across the Universe, which turned out to be a lot better than I'd anticipated. Around the middle, I took her hand and eventually had my arm over her shoulder without making the all-too-common yawn-stretch-shoulder move. You know the one.
We then headed to her room and played video games on her laptop. That is admittedly the most fun I can remember having playing Super Mario Bros. 3; and also she is way too good at Tetris Attack. I wasn't entirely sure how successful that "date" was toward the end, but when I suggested we meet up again Wednesday, she didn't resist at all, so I suppose it must have been successful enough!
Neither of us is entirely sure we see each other "that way" (and there seem to be a few issues that have us hesitating even if we do), but we seem pretty easily synched as friends once we get past our inhibitions and we both seem to be moving at the same pace physically and emotionally, so whatever we end up becoming (even if only friends), it can only improve from here.
And yesterday, a second followed.
There was a girl named Jessica Simpson in a class or two of mine in high school. We never spoke, but she was friends with one of my friends (Colleen Roache), who happened to be the first girl I ever went on a "date" with, so she (Jessica) knew a little about me and had the general impression I was a "nice guy".
About six months ago, various people from my high school class were finding each other on Facebook and adding each other as "friends", and she added me; but again, we never spoke. She had a website about herself, but for various reasons, that gave a fairly intimidating impression of her, so I was all the more hesitant to talk to her.
A couple weeks ago, we found each other on OKCupid. Her profile there was much less intimidating and actually gave the impression we'd get along really well; so I sent her a message letting her know I recognized her and felt like we'd get along well. We e-mailed back and forth a few times and finally ended up on Yahoo IM. I was so impressed after one conversation that in the interim between our first and second conversations (which was about 5 days), I decided to ask her on a date to see Saw VI (since she's a horror fan and a recent conversation with Samantha had me wanting to see it anyway); I asked her about 20 minutes into our second conversation and she agreed.
We talked most nights for the rest of the week or so it took for my next paycheck, and usually found ourselves connecting in unusual and highly unexpected ways and finding a lot of common ground.
Then the day actually came, about 10 days ago.
I drove to three different houses on her street before finally getting to the right one. I'm sure my "I hate your street" text message just before arriving at her house will become historic somehow (in part for actually saying "I have your street").
Her dad felt the need to take pictures of us before we left the house and I didn't have a problem with it, so we did that.
We listened to the most recent version of my "Empathy" playlist (songs with which I "empathize" due to the lyrics speaking to me or for me) on the way to Olive Garden for dinner. The first thing I said to her in the car was that she looked really nice -- and I wasn't just being polite. We talked intermittently through dinner (we were both nervous) and ended up seeing Paranormal Activity instead of Saw since Saw didn't let out until after she wanted to get home. I took her hand about half way through the movie and we held for the duration.
We ended up back at her place around 9 and watched some of the music-only channels, then Jay Leno and Conan. I left around 12. We both agreed the date was a success and we should do another.
We continued talking daily.
We had our second date planned for this past Thursday, but that was the day the "hurricane" hit and everything was flooded, so it ended up not happening. Incidentally, me driving around trying to find a way to Portsmouth that didn't involve a tunnel or something flooded became an exciting (and sometimes scary) adventure all its own, ending in doing IHOP solo, but that's a story for another day.
Yesterday (Saturday), I picked her up and we drove to Radio Shack in an attempt to pick up a cable for her to connect her laptop to her TV. As it turned out, the cable wasn't nearly long enough and extensions are expensive, so that trip was fairly futile.
Then we hit IHOP and went between bouts of me talking a lot and us being pretty quiet/nervous/hungry.
We went back to her place and watched Across the Universe, which turned out to be a lot better than I'd anticipated. Around the middle, I took her hand and eventually had my arm over her shoulder without making the all-too-common yawn-stretch-shoulder move. You know the one.
We then headed to her room and played video games on her laptop. That is admittedly the most fun I can remember having playing Super Mario Bros. 3; and also she is way too good at Tetris Attack. I wasn't entirely sure how successful that "date" was toward the end, but when I suggested we meet up again Wednesday, she didn't resist at all, so I suppose it must have been successful enough!
Neither of us is entirely sure we see each other "that way" (and there seem to be a few issues that have us hesitating even if we do), but we seem pretty easily synched as friends once we get past our inhibitions and we both seem to be moving at the same pace physically and emotionally, so whatever we end up becoming (even if only friends), it can only improve from here.