at long last, a date
Before I tell you about my date with Subway Guy, we've come to point in the story where he needs must graduate to a new name. Now, I'd thought about what I was going to call him in case this went past a couple of dates, and I hadn't quite decided when suddenly I was presented with the obvious choice of nicknames.
In the course of our emails this past week he'd shared with me that he spent several summers in Nashville. Joking and flirting as you do, I -- being a huge dork -- asked him if it was because a) he's a rodeo star or b) he's a pirate. I told him I was pulling for the latter, because c'mon how cool would that be. (No really, how cool??) Anyway, the night before our date he responded to my query:
So let's meet at two. You might want to consider bringing a life jacket...
I'll see you on the platform.
(And okay, yes, he wanted to meet ON THE PLATFORM like uh, we do every morning. Such. A. Dork.)
However, attached to the email was a picture. When I clicked on it I realized it was a picture of a pirate. That made me giggle. Then I looked closer and I realized that it was not just a pirate, but was, in fact, SUBWAY GUY dressed up AS A PIRATE. Okay, at that point I spit out my tea. I finally was able to take in the whole thing and dear lord, not only was Subway Guy dressed as a pirate, Subway Guy was dressed up as a PIRATE performing in front of clearly delighted children. Yes yes, collective AWWWWW now, all together! Ohmigahd, I couldn't stop laughing; I shared it with serialkarma and we realized that it was destined to be that Subway Guy is now:
Captain Jack. Captain for short, or Cap'n if I'm feeling frisky.
So, hey guess what? Captain and I went on a date!
And what a lovely date it was. I was nervous, I admit it. I got ready two hours before I even needed to leave and then sat around and stood up and paced the apartment and finally left a 1/2 hour before I had to meet him. (We met at the station. ON THE PLATFORM). As I approached the station, I saw an older gentleman walking toward me. His hat was at a jaunty angle and he had a pipe clenched between his teeth. He was walking and reading the paper at the same time; cleaned up a bit he could almost be distinguished and dapper. When I passed by him, he gave me a little half-nod and then drawled, "Speeeeccciiaall". Which, okay, amused me and horrified me in equal parts but I figured I must look pretty hot and it all evened out in the end.
Down to the platform I went; I was early, and Captain showed up right on time. We got off on the stop for the Botanic Gardens and were heading there when he asked me if I'd seen the composers busts in Prospect Park. "No!" I exclaimed, because hi, there's this whole huge garden with tall statues of classical composers in the friggin' park! So we wound up walking into the park and he was all excited to show me around; we walked practically the whole thing it felt like, around the lake and down over the bridge, across to some benches where we sat and talked for a long time. We got along really well; he's a bit of a deep thinker, which I think stems mostly from the fact that he's in school right now for philosophy. I remember how it was to be so immersed in thinking and discovering all the time -- so I like the fact that we had a lot to talk about in terms of ideologies, religion, politics and so forth, but it almost felt like he was experiencing the world for the first time, and I was the old cynic. I dunno, that could be just how I viewed it; I mean, he wasn't pompous or arrogant or argumentative about anything, he genuinely wanted to know my views on lots of different topics and we discussed not debated, which was very pleasant. I appreciate the fact that he has this gorgeous writer/philosopher/thinker outlook on life, I just don't know if I'm ready to be living it all the time.
But then we exited the park and went to dinner, where we talked about our families and how being in your thirties is way cooler than the twenties (and here I was SO RELIEVED because I was really worried he was 25 or something. I figured he had to be at least 28; when he told me he'd just turned 31 last week (!) I was like OHTHANKGODIMTHIRTYTWO.)
We took the bus back down Coney Island Avenue and got off at our street; we live equidistant from the subway, which means about ten blocks apart from each other. Captain pointed out his apartment building and then walked me home. We chatted a bit and then he asked to see me again (internal WOOT!) and then leaned over and kissed me goodnight, just a nice sweet kiss.
So there! I had a date with Subway Guy, now to be known as Captain Jack! I will go out with him again; I wasn't as bowled over as I thought I'd be, but I enjoyed his company, want to know more about him and shit, y'all, he's hella cute. We could possibly even MAKE OUT!!
eta: I'm adding that I had fun! I had lots of fun! This post isn't as gushy as even *I* thought it would be about the date, but he's really funny and playful, and he kept touching me the whole time, so I think he's definitely interested in finding out where this might lead. Which is good! I just thought there would be more sparks on my part, but maybe this one is a slow simmer where all my other ones have been uh, explode quickly and burn out even faster.
In the course of our emails this past week he'd shared with me that he spent several summers in Nashville. Joking and flirting as you do, I -- being a huge dork -- asked him if it was because a) he's a rodeo star or b) he's a pirate. I told him I was pulling for the latter, because c'mon how cool would that be. (No really, how cool??) Anyway, the night before our date he responded to my query:
So let's meet at two. You might want to consider bringing a life jacket...
I'll see you on the platform.
(And okay, yes, he wanted to meet ON THE PLATFORM like uh, we do every morning. Such. A. Dork.)
However, attached to the email was a picture. When I clicked on it I realized it was a picture of a pirate. That made me giggle. Then I looked closer and I realized that it was not just a pirate, but was, in fact, SUBWAY GUY dressed up AS A PIRATE. Okay, at that point I spit out my tea. I finally was able to take in the whole thing and dear lord, not only was Subway Guy dressed as a pirate, Subway Guy was dressed up as a PIRATE performing in front of clearly delighted children. Yes yes, collective AWWWWW now, all together! Ohmigahd, I couldn't stop laughing; I shared it with serialkarma and we realized that it was destined to be that Subway Guy is now:
Captain Jack. Captain for short, or Cap'n if I'm feeling frisky.
So, hey guess what? Captain and I went on a date!
And what a lovely date it was. I was nervous, I admit it. I got ready two hours before I even needed to leave and then sat around and stood up and paced the apartment and finally left a 1/2 hour before I had to meet him. (We met at the station. ON THE PLATFORM). As I approached the station, I saw an older gentleman walking toward me. His hat was at a jaunty angle and he had a pipe clenched between his teeth. He was walking and reading the paper at the same time; cleaned up a bit he could almost be distinguished and dapper. When I passed by him, he gave me a little half-nod and then drawled, "Speeeeccciiaall". Which, okay, amused me and horrified me in equal parts but I figured I must look pretty hot and it all evened out in the end.
Down to the platform I went; I was early, and Captain showed up right on time. We got off on the stop for the Botanic Gardens and were heading there when he asked me if I'd seen the composers busts in Prospect Park. "No!" I exclaimed, because hi, there's this whole huge garden with tall statues of classical composers in the friggin' park! So we wound up walking into the park and he was all excited to show me around; we walked practically the whole thing it felt like, around the lake and down over the bridge, across to some benches where we sat and talked for a long time. We got along really well; he's a bit of a deep thinker, which I think stems mostly from the fact that he's in school right now for philosophy. I remember how it was to be so immersed in thinking and discovering all the time -- so I like the fact that we had a lot to talk about in terms of ideologies, religion, politics and so forth, but it almost felt like he was experiencing the world for the first time, and I was the old cynic. I dunno, that could be just how I viewed it; I mean, he wasn't pompous or arrogant or argumentative about anything, he genuinely wanted to know my views on lots of different topics and we discussed not debated, which was very pleasant. I appreciate the fact that he has this gorgeous writer/philosopher/thinker outlook on life, I just don't know if I'm ready to be living it all the time.
But then we exited the park and went to dinner, where we talked about our families and how being in your thirties is way cooler than the twenties (and here I was SO RELIEVED because I was really worried he was 25 or something. I figured he had to be at least 28; when he told me he'd just turned 31 last week (!) I was like OHTHANKGODIMTHIRTYTWO.)
We took the bus back down Coney Island Avenue and got off at our street; we live equidistant from the subway, which means about ten blocks apart from each other. Captain pointed out his apartment building and then walked me home. We chatted a bit and then he asked to see me again (internal WOOT!) and then leaned over and kissed me goodnight, just a nice sweet kiss.
So there! I had a date with Subway Guy, now to be known as Captain Jack! I will go out with him again; I wasn't as bowled over as I thought I'd be, but I enjoyed his company, want to know more about him and shit, y'all, he's hella cute. We could possibly even MAKE OUT!!
eta: I'm adding that I had fun! I had lots of fun! This post isn't as gushy as even *I* thought it would be about the date, but he's really funny and playful, and he kept touching me the whole time, so I think he's definitely interested in finding out where this might lead. Which is good! I just thought there would be more sparks on my part, but maybe this one is a slow simmer where all my other ones have been uh, explode quickly and burn out even faster.