Angela what was that you said about not dating anymore HA HA HA HILARIOUS
In a plot twist surprising absolutely NO ONE, least of all me, and certainly not my mother, Forrest and I are now dating. ...Seriously, we've been spending SO MUCH TIME TOGETHER, and for weeks it's been like, "Is this a date? I'M NOT SURE," and we'd go do whatever and then I'd come home and I'd be like, "...I'M STILL NOT SURE." Like, he'd insist on picking me up and buying my dinner and buying my movie ticket, but then no moves would be made. It was HIGHLY CONFUSING but also highly enjoyable. I call it Captain America Dating. You know, dating the way Captain America would date you. Extremely politely and with no indecency of any sort.
But anyway, as I said, we spend ALL OUR TIME TOGETHER. On Halloween, I drove down to his in my Captain America costume, of which he has been highly complimentary, as he should be, because I looked AWESOME. We went down to Banyan Drive for Party #1; we were meeting his friend Floyd but he was running late, so we took a walk along the beach first (CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING). Floyd showed up and we went in and got food and sat through one of the musical sets and Forrest bought my drinks (CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING) and we talked to friendly, slightly-tipsy party denizens. There was a Loki there, and I kind of eyed him up when we came in, like, ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT? He came over eventually and introduced himself and we geeked out about superhero stuff for awhile, and it was all very awkward because he was playing the Friendly Conversation card but it was definitely flirting, and Forrest my not-quite-date-maybe-almost-date-soon-maybe was sitting RIGHT THERE, and Skylar-Loki asked for my number and I gave it to him. So yeah. Awkward. XD;
We moved to Party #2, which was TCBES grad students and assorted hangers-on. There was music. There were scary-hot nachos. There were cookies. There was heavily-spiked but highly-delicious sangria of danger. Cohort-bro Chris was Dr. Shotz, with a lab coat and an ammo-style belt with test tubes full of assorted liquors, so that was also dangerous. There was a Thor, and we did the PUT THE HAMMER DOWN scene. There was a flying monkey, and I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE. There was beer pong. I kicked Forrest's ass at beer pong, then made the mistake of accepting a second shot from the good doctor, after which I very slowly lost at doubles beer pong.
When Party #2 wound down, Forrest and I and a select handful ended up across town at another house for Party #3, impromptu dance party. I amazed people with my masterful command of the lyrics of "Bad Touch". The hosts' EXTREMELY MELLOW cat amazed us all by being EXTREMELY MELLOW, like, being chill in a room full of wildly dancing people with the music on loud. At one point kitty ended up folded into my plastic Captain America shield like a taco, lifted above our heads and bounced to the music. UN. FAZED. Vibranium Taco Dance Party Kitty is the best kitty ever, SERIOUSLY.
After Party #3 Forrest and I headed back to his, and I spent about an hour sobering up before heading home.
Friday afternoon I met up with Forrest again for a picnic/fruit-picking expedition in the arboretum. ...A PICNIC, YOU GUYS. This is when he finally broached the subject of "hey I don't want to mess up a good thing but do you want to go on a date?" (Still wondering if the Loki incident forced his hand.) We walked barefoot in the grass and picked lots of fruit and had to hop the fence because they closed the arboretum gates on us.
That night was Black & White Night. We met up at my friend's art show, wandered downtown for a bit, and hit up the wine-tasting at Extreme Exposure. Then I met up with my mom and dance friends as planned, and Forrest followed us around to all our favorite jazz bands and watched me dance and even, with TOTALLY UNSUBTLE PROMPTING FROM MY MOTHER, asked me to dance for a slow song. He seemed terrified. It was adorable. He wants to learn, though! He says he'll join our Beginning Whatever-We're-Teaching classes in January! :D
Saturday night was our first official date; he picked me up and took me to this adorable little bring-your-own-wine Italian café, Café Concerto. Then we went to see Ender's Game, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We also enjoyed the rousing conversation in the lobby with all of our friends who coincidentally went to the same show about how much we loved the books and how sad it is that Orson Scott Card is a homophobic douchebag. One couple invited us to join them for a drink, so we allowed our date to get sidetracked to their house for some bubbly and conversation, then Forrest took me home. The only way the evening was different from previous outings was a slight increase in leaning into each others' space in the theater, and an awkward, lingering, wait-are-we-kissing-oh-okay-I-guess-not goodbye hug. ...CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING.
Sunday-Monday-Tuesday was WORK WORK STUDY PAPER CLASSES STUDY STUDY WORK, and then I went to his for our second official date, dinner and Agents of SHIELD. I brought beer and fresh Waipi‘o poi and all the fruit mochi from Two Ladies Kitchen (strawberry, grape, and poha); he made fish tacos with ono he caught himself. The tortillas were fried. THEY WERE DELICIOUS. (He cooks. This is the second time he's cooked for me. He's a good cook. He is such a fucking keeper I can't even.) After dinner we sat on the couch with our pear ciders and watched the EXCELLENT episode, and spent the first 90% of the episode doing the slooooooowwwly-awkwardly-attempting-to-initiate-handholding thing, which was SO ADORABLE AND HILARIOUS I wanted to giggle into my cider. SUCCESS WAS ACHIEVED, and after the episode we moved on to the first three episodes of Arrow and fried bananas in brown sugar with vanilla ice cream and top-notch, grade-A snuggling. I was going to leave after the third episode, but we were loathe to cease snuggling and ended up talking FOREVER. A bit before midnight I begged off and he helped me carry my things to the car and I kissed him. It was the tiniest, littlest kiss, and it was very nice. CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING.
Everyone should try Captain America Dating, it is the best.
So anyway, this is a thing that's happening, to my giddy delight and utter dismay. I'D SWORN OFF DATING ENTIRELY. THAT WAS TOTALLY A THING THAT I DID. But this progressed very slowly and is continuing to do so and I gave him the quick version of the "please casual dating thank you" speech and I have a decent idea of where previous attempts went wrong and also I REALLY LIKE HIM A LOT A LOT A LOT so uh, we'll see how this goes. /o\
But anyway, as I said, we spend ALL OUR TIME TOGETHER. On Halloween, I drove down to his in my Captain America costume, of which he has been highly complimentary, as he should be, because I looked AWESOME. We went down to Banyan Drive for Party #1; we were meeting his friend Floyd but he was running late, so we took a walk along the beach first (CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING). Floyd showed up and we went in and got food and sat through one of the musical sets and Forrest bought my drinks (CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING) and we talked to friendly, slightly-tipsy party denizens. There was a Loki there, and I kind of eyed him up when we came in, like, ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT? He came over eventually and introduced himself and we geeked out about superhero stuff for awhile, and it was all very awkward because he was playing the Friendly Conversation card but it was definitely flirting, and Forrest my not-quite-date-maybe-almost-date-soon-maybe was sitting RIGHT THERE, and Skylar-Loki asked for my number and I gave it to him. So yeah. Awkward. XD;
We moved to Party #2, which was TCBES grad students and assorted hangers-on. There was music. There were scary-hot nachos. There were cookies. There was heavily-spiked but highly-delicious sangria of danger. Cohort-bro Chris was Dr. Shotz, with a lab coat and an ammo-style belt with test tubes full of assorted liquors, so that was also dangerous. There was a Thor, and we did the PUT THE HAMMER DOWN scene. There was a flying monkey, and I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE. There was beer pong. I kicked Forrest's ass at beer pong, then made the mistake of accepting a second shot from the good doctor, after which I very slowly lost at doubles beer pong.
When Party #2 wound down, Forrest and I and a select handful ended up across town at another house for Party #3, impromptu dance party. I amazed people with my masterful command of the lyrics of "Bad Touch". The hosts' EXTREMELY MELLOW cat amazed us all by being EXTREMELY MELLOW, like, being chill in a room full of wildly dancing people with the music on loud. At one point kitty ended up folded into my plastic Captain America shield like a taco, lifted above our heads and bounced to the music. UN. FAZED. Vibranium Taco Dance Party Kitty is the best kitty ever, SERIOUSLY.
After Party #3 Forrest and I headed back to his, and I spent about an hour sobering up before heading home.
Friday afternoon I met up with Forrest again for a picnic/fruit-picking expedition in the arboretum. ...A PICNIC, YOU GUYS. This is when he finally broached the subject of "hey I don't want to mess up a good thing but do you want to go on a date?" (Still wondering if the Loki incident forced his hand.) We walked barefoot in the grass and picked lots of fruit and had to hop the fence because they closed the arboretum gates on us.
That night was Black & White Night. We met up at my friend's art show, wandered downtown for a bit, and hit up the wine-tasting at Extreme Exposure. Then I met up with my mom and dance friends as planned, and Forrest followed us around to all our favorite jazz bands and watched me dance and even, with TOTALLY UNSUBTLE PROMPTING FROM MY MOTHER, asked me to dance for a slow song. He seemed terrified. It was adorable. He wants to learn, though! He says he'll join our Beginning Whatever-We're-Teaching classes in January! :D
Saturday night was our first official date; he picked me up and took me to this adorable little bring-your-own-wine Italian café, Café Concerto. Then we went to see Ender's Game, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We also enjoyed the rousing conversation in the lobby with all of our friends who coincidentally went to the same show about how much we loved the books and how sad it is that Orson Scott Card is a homophobic douchebag. One couple invited us to join them for a drink, so we allowed our date to get sidetracked to their house for some bubbly and conversation, then Forrest took me home. The only way the evening was different from previous outings was a slight increase in leaning into each others' space in the theater, and an awkward, lingering, wait-are-we-kissing-oh-okay-I-guess-not goodbye hug. ...CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING.
Sunday-Monday-Tuesday was WORK WORK STUDY PAPER CLASSES STUDY STUDY WORK, and then I went to his for our second official date, dinner and Agents of SHIELD. I brought beer and fresh Waipi‘o poi and all the fruit mochi from Two Ladies Kitchen (strawberry, grape, and poha); he made fish tacos with ono he caught himself. The tortillas were fried. THEY WERE DELICIOUS. (He cooks. This is the second time he's cooked for me. He's a good cook. He is such a fucking keeper I can't even.) After dinner we sat on the couch with our pear ciders and watched the EXCELLENT episode, and spent the first 90% of the episode doing the slooooooowwwly-awkwardly-attempting-to-initiate-handholding thing, which was SO ADORABLE AND HILARIOUS I wanted to giggle into my cider. SUCCESS WAS ACHIEVED, and after the episode we moved on to the first three episodes of Arrow and fried bananas in brown sugar with vanilla ice cream and top-notch, grade-A snuggling. I was going to leave after the third episode, but we were loathe to cease snuggling and ended up talking FOREVER. A bit before midnight I begged off and he helped me carry my things to the car and I kissed him. It was the tiniest, littlest kiss, and it was very nice. CAPTAIN AMERICA DATING.
Everyone should try Captain America Dating, it is the best.
So anyway, this is a thing that's happening, to my giddy delight and utter dismay. I'D SWORN OFF DATING ENTIRELY. THAT WAS TOTALLY A THING THAT I DID. But this progressed very slowly and is continuing to do so and I gave him the quick version of the "please casual dating thank you" speech and I have a decent idea of where previous attempts went wrong and also I REALLY LIKE HIM A LOT A LOT A LOT so uh, we'll see how this goes. /o\