4/24/09 - Date Forty: Tree Lecture

Can you believe I'm on Date Number Forty?? Crazy, right? Well, Date Forty is Date Two with JS. This guy gets major points for creativity and balls. And I a giving myself points for going along happily with his suggested plan for our date. We planned to meet via email (he doesn't like the phone so we communicate almost exclusively over email, makes it hard to plan but whatev) and he suggested going to a lecture at a local museum given by a female scientist who has spent her professional career studying and writing about trees. Yep. Trees. Ohhhh, so sexy. Ok, ok, I'm being a little mean but I was totally anticipating some really, really dry jargon littered lecture that I would not get and would not have any interest in whatsoever. He sent me her name and I googled, reading ever so briefly about her so i would have some context for the talk.

We met in the outside courtyard of the building on this really nice Friday evening. The courtyard has all of these natural elements in it ... large trees with birds chirping, a little man-made stream running among big rocks ... the scene was actually quite beautiful and it got me really excited to see him and have this experience. He walked up and my heart skipped a few beats. I don't know why exactly. I just got this huge smile on my face, he did too, and then he scooped me up in another big, tight hug and said hi. I said hi back and we sort of stood there for a minute, commenting on how nice the night was and how cool it was to hear the birds singing in the middle of the city. And, at that exact moment, I really, really, really wanted to kiss him. I didn't but wow! the urge was so strong and I think for the rest of the night I had a huge smile on my face just at that thought and the excitement that I'd met someone who I was really excited about.

We sat inside, chatted a bit before the speaker came out and he admitted to me that he didn't know anything about her or the topic, but just thought that it would be something different and interesting. He told me that he really appreciated my willingness to do this with him. No prob, I thought. I mean really ... going out for drinks and dinner is always fun but it's gotten kind of old so I was happy that he made this suggestion. The speaker introduced herself, and began to talk to us about trees, the forest canopy, and conservation. It was actually really interesting and very accessible to those not science minded (i.e. me ... JS works in the ecology/environmental planning field). After she finished, there was a short question and answer session where JS actually asked a question which quite impressed me. Everything about this guy screams that he's stable, self-aware, self-confident. Very attractive.

We left the lecture hall and walked a couple blocks to the place I suggested for dinner. We got food and drinks and much like our first date, we had great conversation, uninterrupted by awkward silence or weirdness. So nice. I as feeling very comfortable and happy because he kept complimenting the restaurant and said he loved his food and kept saying over and over that the music was great. So, I'm feeling awesome, really having a great time ... everything's coming up roses. And it's usually at these times that something horrible happens, right? Right.

We're done and I take the opportunity to excuse myself to go to the ladie's room. Disaster. Period. All over my light gray linen pants. DAMN. My mind raced!!! What do I do?? I look around the bathroom. No feminine supply center. I look through my tiny bag, hoping against hope that inside I had left a tampon or pad ... NO!!!!! I finally look at my jacket and see it as the only option. We have now switched from "lookin' cute/feelin' good" mode to disaster control. I tied the jacket around the waste, rolled out of the bathroom head held high, and tried to will my uterus to stop, just ever so briefly, from continuing it's recycling efforts so that I could just get through the rest of the evening. Thankfully, it was getting late so I thought we wouldn't be out for much longer. We walked up the street and got some ice cream, sat and talked some more and then both mutually decided that it was time to go home.

I was sad but secretly thanking the lord above because as much as I was mentally begging and pleading with my body to just cooperate with me for this one night, it was not listening. He was really cute and took my mind off of my troubles when at the end of the date he looked down at the ground, sort of swung his leg out and kicked the parking meter pole, and shyly looked up at me asking whether I'd like to go out again. I sort of laughed and said of course and his face brightened, he smiled, gave me another wonderful hug, and said that we'd talk next week and try to meet up before I left town. We parted ways and I swear to god I flew home, I could not wait to take care of my little situation and do some emergency laundry maintenance on my pants.

Unfortunately, we haven't made plans to meet this week and i leave this Friday but we have had some emails and I'm pretty confident that I'll see him when I get back too. So seems like what we have here is a race between JS and SpryGuy ... but ... a new wrinkle has presented itself. The Gentleman is back.