Hide and Seek
I haven't been in Dallas since last Thanksgiving, and I had Julie with me then. Fortunately I have yet to be subject to any questions regarding that situation, because the chances are high I'd go off on an angry rant. But that's not what I'm writing about today, no no no.
In fact I'm not really writing about a damn thing. I think maybe I should just write more often and then people would actually be forced to stop scanning over my crap on their friends pages.
Anyway, in Dallas with the family, coming back tomorrow after the whole dinner/lunch event. Mini-family reunion we always have. At least I think I'm coming back tomorrow. I should, because I didn't really practice today. But then again the buildings close tomorrow at 6 pm because of the holiday so I might stay an extra night, hang out with mom and dad and sis and cousins.
I bought my dad this hand-painted calligraphy framed version of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, "If," at an antique store in Whitesboro last week when I was there to request deferred adjudication for a B.S. ticket I got. I gave it to him a little while ago and everyone now thinks I'm the greatest guy in the world, oh so thoughtful. I'm aware, people, that I'm pretty great, but maybe not so much praise is due. I saw this poem dad used to recite to me, in his typical fashion of memorizing really long poems and telling them to us until we're numb in the ears. He and mom are the only reason I'm a pretty...literary person (if there was any hint of bitterness at the repeated recitation of poetry, it wasn't intended), and of course dad got me into music all around. I don't usually buy people (that I'm not dating) I-love-you gifts, so I guess I'm pretty damn sweet.
Last night I went on this sorta-kinda date with this gorgeous girl I met a while back. I've been catching some shit for the circumstances of the pseudo-date. I should explain--I met this girl around the beginning of October, because she was selling some old percussion books on LJ. In fact I'm realizing just now that she is probably an avid user of the site, and I am currently writing about her on it, BUT we're not LJ friends yet so I'll just write here...then hope she doesn't see it (unless it's gonna help me out) and then I'll add her in a week after everyone does or does not read it, and make this entry private or else delete it. Or take this part out.
Anyway, so at the time we met I discovered she was pretty damn cool, really pretty (way more attractive than I deserve to be seen in public with), used to be a percussion major (!!!--a nice change from an ex-girlfriend who genuinely didn't enjoy most of my concerts and was largely unable to even pretend she did), and of course taken. I had to go and see her again once after the sale of books to pay her the rest, and both times I went over there we ended up talking/hanging out for an hour or so. I had to force myself to write her off, understandably, despite her complaints about how she and her boyfriend weren't doing too well, yadda yadda, there's nothing you can do to get a girl to make the right decision in that department, they have to figure it out for themselves.
I didn't hear from her for several weeks, then the other day she IMed me and says something along the lines of, "My boyfriend and I broke up--if you want a new DVD player it will be at Goodwill tomorrow." She sent this, obviously, to many people, it wasn't a personal thing. But, having gotten tired of being timid and ...poontarded, I might say, for 21 years, combined with the artificial confidence AIM, like alcohol, provides, I almost immediately told her I was sorry about that, but let me know when you're ready to start seeing other people because I was extremely disappointed to find out she was dating someone when I first met her. Assertive, that's the new Nate. I've only got but a few months left in this town so if I say something stupid I only have to deal with the aftermath for a little while. Anyway, a few compliments, a nice "that's sweet," etc., we talked a while and she said we should go out to eat the next night.
Now here's where I got confused--I didn't expect ANY reply to my request to let me know when she was ready to date again, let alone the same night I asked. I didn't expect much and since I actually like this girl, I didn't even want to rush things, especially considering her circumstances. Was this a date? I don't know.
We went out last night. She seemed pretty calm about having been dumped, and said she was already done being upset, that she had gone through the worst part while she was still dating the guy. She was upset, or at least distracted, a little bit throughout the night, though.
Anyway, I asked if she wanted to go somewhere nice or what kind of place? Am I paying, is this a date, what's the deal? I thought this was a date, question mark?
She says, "Oh," but she guesses, if I want it to be a date it can be a date but that she would be understandably bad company.
I told her I wouldn't expect her to act too normally or for things to go very fast, that I thought she was pretty great and would be patient, but also that I didn't want to be the "make the ex jealous" guy.
She said she didn't do that kind of thing. Anyway, long story short, she and I went to Olive Garden but she wouldn't let me pay for her (I offered), citing it being not fair since she was so out of it as the reason (that might sound crappy on the surface, but your average girl will let the guy pay just for the free food even if they have no plans for a second date). She got kind of nauseous or something, a little physically uncomfortable (no fault of my own, she said she just changed meds), for much of the date and we were only out for a little under two hours. But she had a good time, I can tell that, and hugged me at the end of the night unprompted, said she had fun, nausea and distraction aside, and requested we go out again. She also mentioned that because she was treated so shittily in her last relationship (that again, ended the day before we went out) her standards of how a boyfriend should treat her had skyrocketed, and I told her I had every intention of trying my hardest, and asked that she let me know of any unknown infraction I might make so that I could continue hanging out with her, because I really enjoyed being with her.
So I guess I at least have my hat in the ring and should be at the front of the queue when she's ready to start dating again (me!). I have high hopes. Maybe I'm unrealistically optimistic, but I really think this chick is great. I'm just not exactly sure what to think of last night. If what happened had happened with someone who hadn't been broken up with the day before I probably would think much less of the evening, but I wouldn't expect her to be at her best after that. Either way, I'm going to keep bugging her until something happens, good or bad. I'll call her tomorrow to wish her happy Thanksgiving and see if she wants to go see a movie this weekend.
So that's about all I have to update everyone about (this last story is largely directed at Ranger, who insisted that a half-date wasn't usually a date at all, or to paraphrase him, "1/2(date) = 0/2(date)." Nerd. Besides, dude, that would throw an error anyway, you can't divide zero by anything. Without imaginary numbers, at least. [EDIT: my bad, of course Ranger is a math major and would have known this, but Ben corrected me. 0/x = 0; x/0 = undefined. I got it backwards WAY TO GO MUSIC MAJOR]
Oh, and here's my best friend Amy and me on Halloween at Hailey's. She was an emo kid and I was an Abercrombie kid slash frat boy. All you can see in this is my pooka shells and popped collar, but I also had ripped up jeans and spiked hair and flip flops and a hemp bracelet. My costume did NOT go over well, in fact most people just wanted to punch me in the face the whole night. No one really realized it was a costume, they just thought I turned into a douchebag overnight.
Nate
In fact I'm not really writing about a damn thing. I think maybe I should just write more often and then people would actually be forced to stop scanning over my crap on their friends pages.
Anyway, in Dallas with the family, coming back tomorrow after the whole dinner/lunch event. Mini-family reunion we always have. At least I think I'm coming back tomorrow. I should, because I didn't really practice today. But then again the buildings close tomorrow at 6 pm because of the holiday so I might stay an extra night, hang out with mom and dad and sis and cousins.
I bought my dad this hand-painted calligraphy framed version of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, "If," at an antique store in Whitesboro last week when I was there to request deferred adjudication for a B.S. ticket I got. I gave it to him a little while ago and everyone now thinks I'm the greatest guy in the world, oh so thoughtful. I'm aware, people, that I'm pretty great, but maybe not so much praise is due. I saw this poem dad used to recite to me, in his typical fashion of memorizing really long poems and telling them to us until we're numb in the ears. He and mom are the only reason I'm a pretty...literary person (if there was any hint of bitterness at the repeated recitation of poetry, it wasn't intended), and of course dad got me into music all around. I don't usually buy people (that I'm not dating) I-love-you gifts, so I guess I'm pretty damn sweet.
Last night I went on this sorta-kinda date with this gorgeous girl I met a while back. I've been catching some shit for the circumstances of the pseudo-date. I should explain--I met this girl around the beginning of October, because she was selling some old percussion books on LJ. In fact I'm realizing just now that she is probably an avid user of the site, and I am currently writing about her on it, BUT we're not LJ friends yet so I'll just write here...then hope she doesn't see it (unless it's gonna help me out) and then I'll add her in a week after everyone does or does not read it, and make this entry private or else delete it. Or take this part out.
Anyway, so at the time we met I discovered she was pretty damn cool, really pretty (way more attractive than I deserve to be seen in public with), used to be a percussion major (!!!--a nice change from an ex-girlfriend who genuinely didn't enjoy most of my concerts and was largely unable to even pretend she did), and of course taken. I had to go and see her again once after the sale of books to pay her the rest, and both times I went over there we ended up talking/hanging out for an hour or so. I had to force myself to write her off, understandably, despite her complaints about how she and her boyfriend weren't doing too well, yadda yadda, there's nothing you can do to get a girl to make the right decision in that department, they have to figure it out for themselves.
I didn't hear from her for several weeks, then the other day she IMed me and says something along the lines of, "My boyfriend and I broke up--if you want a new DVD player it will be at Goodwill tomorrow." She sent this, obviously, to many people, it wasn't a personal thing. But, having gotten tired of being timid and ...poontarded, I might say, for 21 years, combined with the artificial confidence AIM, like alcohol, provides, I almost immediately told her I was sorry about that, but let me know when you're ready to start seeing other people because I was extremely disappointed to find out she was dating someone when I first met her. Assertive, that's the new Nate. I've only got but a few months left in this town so if I say something stupid I only have to deal with the aftermath for a little while. Anyway, a few compliments, a nice "that's sweet," etc., we talked a while and she said we should go out to eat the next night.
Now here's where I got confused--I didn't expect ANY reply to my request to let me know when she was ready to date again, let alone the same night I asked. I didn't expect much and since I actually like this girl, I didn't even want to rush things, especially considering her circumstances. Was this a date? I don't know.
We went out last night. She seemed pretty calm about having been dumped, and said she was already done being upset, that she had gone through the worst part while she was still dating the guy. She was upset, or at least distracted, a little bit throughout the night, though.
Anyway, I asked if she wanted to go somewhere nice or what kind of place? Am I paying, is this a date, what's the deal? I thought this was a date, question mark?
She says, "Oh," but she guesses, if I want it to be a date it can be a date but that she would be understandably bad company.
I told her I wouldn't expect her to act too normally or for things to go very fast, that I thought she was pretty great and would be patient, but also that I didn't want to be the "make the ex jealous" guy.
She said she didn't do that kind of thing. Anyway, long story short, she and I went to Olive Garden but she wouldn't let me pay for her (I offered), citing it being not fair since she was so out of it as the reason (that might sound crappy on the surface, but your average girl will let the guy pay just for the free food even if they have no plans for a second date). She got kind of nauseous or something, a little physically uncomfortable (no fault of my own, she said she just changed meds), for much of the date and we were only out for a little under two hours. But she had a good time, I can tell that, and hugged me at the end of the night unprompted, said she had fun, nausea and distraction aside, and requested we go out again. She also mentioned that because she was treated so shittily in her last relationship (that again, ended the day before we went out) her standards of how a boyfriend should treat her had skyrocketed, and I told her I had every intention of trying my hardest, and asked that she let me know of any unknown infraction I might make so that I could continue hanging out with her, because I really enjoyed being with her.
So I guess I at least have my hat in the ring and should be at the front of the queue when she's ready to start dating again (me!). I have high hopes. Maybe I'm unrealistically optimistic, but I really think this chick is great. I'm just not exactly sure what to think of last night. If what happened had happened with someone who hadn't been broken up with the day before I probably would think much less of the evening, but I wouldn't expect her to be at her best after that. Either way, I'm going to keep bugging her until something happens, good or bad. I'll call her tomorrow to wish her happy Thanksgiving and see if she wants to go see a movie this weekend.
So that's about all I have to update everyone about (this last story is largely directed at Ranger, who insisted that a half-date wasn't usually a date at all, or to paraphrase him, "1/2(date) = 0/2(date)." Nerd. Besides, dude, that would throw an error anyway, you can't divide zero by anything. Without imaginary numbers, at least. [EDIT: my bad, of course Ranger is a math major and would have known this, but Ben corrected me. 0/x = 0; x/0 = undefined. I got it backwards WAY TO GO MUSIC MAJOR]
Oh, and here's my best friend Amy and me on Halloween at Hailey's. She was an emo kid and I was an Abercrombie kid slash frat boy. All you can see in this is my pooka shells and popped collar, but I also had ripped up jeans and spiked hair and flip flops and a hemp bracelet. My costume did NOT go over well, in fact most people just wanted to punch me in the face the whole night. No one really realized it was a costume, they just thought I turned into a douchebag overnight.
Nate