I Don't Want to Sit Across the Table From You Wishing I Could Run

  So, hey. This is the tenth anniversary of my first date with John. I am including the post I originally wrote about that situation. After reading it, I think we're both STILL not ready to be in any kind of serious relationship, but we're just going to keep on laughing our way through this one:

 

Mystery Is What This Is to Me

Stinky making that face before the Homecoming dance.

Soooo. Let's see. Remember how I told you I was going out to dinner with a friend? Well, I wasn't sure if it was a friend thing or a date. We had talked about things the week before, and he said he was just out of long term relationship, and thought he needed to be single for a while. I had had that confusion with other guys, and figured I should just assume it was a friend thing to protect myself. You know, 4,213 times bitten, 8,426 times shy and all.

Then on Friday morning he sent me this:

How can I possibly be nervous about our date tonight?

How long have I known you?

How old am I?

Just how scary are you?

Geez!

So, then I knew it was a date and got a little nervous myself. We also agreed that I was pretty damn scary.

I got off work, went running, and then met him for dinner...It was very nice and we had a great talk. Afterward, we decided to go to George's for a drink and to stay away from the Dublin and people we knew. Of course, we were there for all of 5 minutes when my friend G. walked in with some of her family members who were in town for the game. We all laughed at the odds of her hanging out there, since she hadn't been at George's for at least a year. I really don't think it's possible for this town to be any smaller.

We had a good talk about things. He's still pretty confused about how ready he is to be in a relationship, but he wants to at least date and see how it goes. We've decided to take things really slowly and that works for me too.

Saturday it rained and rained and rained. Stinky worked all day. I went for a run, but then spent the rest of the day cleaning my place and listening to music. It was a very nice way to spend a rainy day.

In the evening, I went to Stinky's friends house and took pics before the Homecoming dance. The kids all cleaned up pretty nice.

I got home and talked to the guy. We were originally going to meet at the Dublin, but he said he didn't sleep very well the night before. So, he bought a bottle of wine over and I made some food and he came over and we talked and ate and drank it was wonderful. Stinky and her boyfriend came home after the dance and before they went back to their friend's and they all got to meet. Stinky thought he was really nice and he and Stinky took a moment to bond by making fun of me, so he thought she was pretty cool too. So far so good.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. I think we both want to make sure we're still friends no matter what happens with our dating. I really hope that's possible.

Posted by Churlita at 11:07 PM 10 comments:

 

Well, I'm Accustomed to a Smoother Ride, Or Maybe I'm a Dog Who's Lost Its Bite

It is officially butterfly season around here, as the Monarchs get going on their migration...Or, at least it was until last week where it went from a high in the 90's with no rain for almost a month, to being in the lower 50's with non-stop rain for four days in a row. If I were butterfly, I would start my migration early too.

I thought I'd use this post as one of my "What am I doing/reading/listening to/watching/eating lately thingies. So, here goes:

We saw these beautiful turtles sunning themselves on a gravel ride last month.

What have I been doing lately? Well, with this pandemic, my options have been limited, so instead of gearing up for Cyclocross racing season, we've just been doing fun rides around and outside of town, and I'm still trying to get back into running, but my feet haven't been super on board. We are thinking we will try to ride more gravel around, just to change things up. I'll have more on that in another post...

I am partly working at home and partly working in the office. Since our town has the second highest Covid cases per capita in the world, we are trying to be very careful. Only one of us can work in the office at a time. Since there are three of us, we each work for one week in the office, every third week. We haven't had tons of people come into the office, which is good. It is really hard to police college kids about wearing masks and following all of the Covid guidelines we have in place.

What am I eating? Besides too much of everything, we have been so lucky to eat tons of food from the garden. We are getting to the end of that bounty, which really makes me sad, but we had a very good run this Summer. I have been eating so many garden tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and zucchini lately. I also have a friend who grows kale in the community gardens across the street, and she hooks me up with some whenever I see her. I never thought I liked kale before, and I still can't eat it by itself, but it is really nice in stir-frys or mixed with other lettuces for salads.

I'm sure in the next month or two, we'll have to buy most of our veggies at the store again, and they won't be half as good as what we've had this Spring and Summer. I guess all I can do, is be grateful for what we do get from the garden.

What am I listening to? I know the photo above has nothing to do with music, but it is a photo of something I love. I know I keep saying this, but Gus-Gus has been such a joy for us. He is so sweet and so damn entertaining.

Oh, yeah. What am I listening to? I have really gotten into listening to the soundtracks from the show "Insecure". I love the show too, but I already watched it earlier in the Summer and I'm still listening to the soundtracks from all of the seasons. They are such a good mix of  recent rap and R and B.

What am I reading? Reading has been kind of weird for me lately. With all of the scary stuff going on in general, and living in a dystopian society with our crooked president, I'm having a hard time reading anything too hard to deal with, you know? For some reason, I can read more non-fiction than normal, maybe because I usually know what the outcome is, and there aren't any depressing surprises like there can be in fiction. 

I read Michelle Obama's memoir "Becoming" and really liked it. I saw the Netflix show and it made me feel hopeful for the first time since the election in 2016, and I needed more of that. So, I borrowed the book from my daughter and devoured it. I'm also reading the collection of Maya Angelou's autobiographies. I had read " I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas" before, but it has been so long ago, that I didn't remember them all that well, and the other three are intriguing as well.

The other series I read like I was eating candy, was the "Crazy Rich Asians" trilogy. Holy cow! If you ever want to just read escapist fun fiction, this is your trilogy. Although, it was kind of like watching "Sex int he City" for me, because I have no idea about any kinds of name brands or couture, and I've never even had a manicure or pedicure, so all of the parts where they talk about designers and spa treatments are TOTALLY lost on me.  The rest though? The rest is just fun, and that's what I need to read right now.

What am I watching? John and I got on this big comfort movie kick. We watched "Little Shop of Horrors", "Bull Durham", and "Amelie" all in one weekend. We also started watching "The Andy Griffith Show" again.When I was a kid, it was syndicated and came on right before the news, and we'd watch it while eating dinner. So, every few years, I just dip into that nostalgia again, and it can be like a balm to my overworked psyche.

I've also watched some documentaries. I watched the Hillary Clinton interview one on Hulu. I thought it was pretty good, and didn't let her off the hook for some of the things I've had issues with about her. I also watched the Margaret Atwood documentary. I love her so much, and I just bought another copy of "The Handmaid's Tale",  so I can read that again, and the sequel, "Testaments" that just came out in paperback. I'm excited that I have those to look forward to this Fall. On HBO, I watched the Mike Nichol's and the Gloria Steinem documentaries too.

As far as newer movies and shows are concerned, we loved "The Peanut Butter Falcon", and we're enjoying the HBO show, "Lovecraft Country". I read that book a year or two ago, and really liked it. I think the show is a little more confusing than the book, but it might be something that they pull together at the end.

Okay. It's almost Fall. Both John and Stinky have birthdays next week, so I have that to look forward to. I am a little nervous about how Covid will play out this Winter with our numbers so high already, and don't get me started about this election. I'll just have to vote like our country depends on it, because it does, eat well, play bikes, and give myself all the mental and emotional breaks I need by escaping through books and movies and shows. I hope the best for all of you.