Three Dates and a Crab

I've been experiencing some writer's block. Not so much in what I wanted to write but how I wanted to express myself. But I think I'm okay now. Hopefully my writing will be coherent...*LOL*.

I had a pretty eventful weekend (for me). I had a Friday evening date with a guy named Michael. He emailed me the day before on my favorite site A4A (*LOL*...I'm too socially inept to go clubbing). We chatted for about an hour on the state of dating, general life, and other topics. He showed me a picture and he reminded me of a slightly heavier and darker version of Michael Ealy of Barbershop and Halle Berry fame...*LOL*.

So after work on Friday, I drove over to his place to meet for a movie. We had to choose between Brokeback Mountain or Memoirs of a Geisha. We used the old flip coin method and chose Brokeback. It was still another two hours before the movie was scheduled to air. To kill the time, we chatted and watched VH1. We also watched Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child fame fall down a dozen times on 106 & Park. That never gets old...*LOL*. I left for him some dessert treats from my job's International Food day, which he enjoyed.

Aside from some annoying youths that chose to park their dumb asses behind us (I always no matter where I sit, seem to attract rude people), the movie was excellent. I can see why it's gotten so many high marks in the Academy and by the general viewing public. It provided plenty of fodder for Michael(not Ealy..*LOL*) and I to chat about on the trip back to his place.

I dropped him off and then headed home. We promised to hang out again. Overall I got some good vibes from him. We'll see.

Date #2 occured Saturday morning with breakfast at 9:30AM at Wishbone. It was my second date with Starbuck. He actually called me at 7:30AM like he promised, which impressed me. So Hemingway, I arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes early. The wait staff directed me to a table where I sat and waited. Starbuck finally arrived around 9:40. Breakfast was great. The restaurant was off the chain and I'd definitely come back.

So we finished breakfast and we were walking back towards our cars. We parked on the same street but was on different blocks. The restaurant was two blocks from where we parked on my side of the block.

Starbuck and I were walking and he started crossing towards his side. Since we were conversing, I followed him across. So we finally get to the block in question. There was a bit of an awkward moment and then he just said 'bye' and walked off. I was a bit taken back since I expected like a handshake or something. My adrenalin was pumping overtime, telling me to run across the street. But I had to wait for a couple cars to pass before I could cross to my side, which made it all the more awkward for me.

On my way back home, I decided to stop at a seafood place for some frozen crab and lobster. I love me some seafood and nothing like seafood cheers me up. When I got home, I took care of some things around the house, fooled around online, and then plopped down to watch the first few episodes of North and South on DVD. I'd forgotten how hot Patrick Swayze was back in the day. However, James Read definitely took the cake as hot dude. My favorite performer on the series was Terri Garber, who played Ashton. You could totally tell how snooty she was but it was a character I loved to hate. I later on warmed one of my crabs I bought for supper. It was the bomb.

Date #3 occurred on Sunday. It was with another A4A encounter I'll call Beans. Beans is a 40 year old guy that's in the midst of pursuing a degree for his second career in administration. We chatted on and off for about a week and had some profound conversations. He admitted that he's currently seeing a psychiatrist and therapist for depression. He lost part of his hearing in an accident and I found myself shouting over the phone in order for him to understand. Sounds like a great catch, right...:-) Honestly I knew that I would only be interested in being his friend and he really seemed like a good guy.

So since he was broke, he invited me to hang out at his place and enjoy a meal that he cooked. He lived in a studio apartment in a pricey burb. When I got there, he didn't have the ingredients he needed so we walked to the local Dominick's for the items in question. When we got back, he invited to sit in the kitchen while he cooked. The meal was rice w/ground turkey and kidney beans. The meal was delicious.

Beans was a really great host. I unfortunately during the course of Saturday caught a cold and had a sore throat again. He provided me with peroxide to gargle my throat with. He also provided Tylenol and an orange for Vitamin C. He also had plenty of bottled water. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

We talked about our experiences on A4A, including the games that guys play on there. It was a pretty cool conversation. But then his phone rang and he had a call that he needed to take. He took the phone into the bathroom and closed the door. A few minutes later, I started feeling a bit gassy from the beans I ate and had a feeling that a number higher than one was brewing in my stomach. I decided that I wanted to go home. So I called him from my cell phone while he was in the bathroom. He hung up, flushed the toilet (guess I wasn't the only one feeling a higher number...*LOL*) and after washing his hands, came out. We parted ways and he seemed to think that we probably weren't going to hang out again. I reassured him that wasn't the case, though I wasn't going to sit around while he talked endlessly on the phone. (I've done that before but usually I was stuck there for whatever reason and there was no escape so I grinned and beared it...*LOL*) I think I'll hang with him again. Besides he seems like he'd be a good friend.

Speaking of friends, I came home and received an email from Starbuck. He mentioned something about thinking about me since the restaurant, enjoying the conversation, and wondering where we could go from here. I know in the "normal" dating world, typically the third date is the sex date. I mean, not necessarily all the time, but it's likely when it happens. So he then said, the more he thought about our commonalities and our differences, the more he realized that we were better off as friends.

I sorta laughed a bit after reading it. I was wondering if he was reading too much into my nonverbal signals. I certainly didn't tell him that I wanted to have a relationship with him. But I did wear a little bit of cologne. I also looked at him a lot when we were talking. I mean, he is an attractive guy. I wouldn't mind hitting it...*LOL*. Then there was the awkwardness of our goodbye. Maybe he thought I wanted to kiss him...*LOL*. In a public street, yeah okay...*LOL*. I will admit to maybe wanting to walk to his car to prolong the conversation.

I don't know. I told him I was fine with being friends without really elaborating. I mean, we only saw each other twice in two months. Was his telling me that his way of gently dumping me?

I'm cool. I don't care either way.

Then today came. Blah.