Prepared

I was looking forward to Four because in addition to presenting a fun date idea, I already knew that he was a person I wanted to get to know better.

I picked him up and the conversation was super easy from the start. We were headed to Longwood Gardens, a place I drive to all the time, but somehow I managed to get lost. He was so easygoing about it, and that was pretty great because getting lost is either very nice or very stressful. We didn't bother with a GPS because who cares?  His stories were strong, he was funny, yeah. Well done.

Here are some things we saw:

• Christmas lights
• Venus flytraps
• A bug house that has room for everybug
• Award winning bathrooms
• A tree covered in red lights that's far out in a meadow and they won't let you touch it
• A glass floor from below (*whistle noise and eyebrow raising*)
• The Perfect Apron

A tree covered in red lights that's far out in a meadow and they won't let you touch it

Following the delightfully festive landscape, we decided to get something to eat. Instead of making a right and finding a place in Kennett, we decided to just take route one toward the city. This is a major road. Every restaurant in the history of the world is on this road.

There was a diner, and I'd been there before. But I couldn't go again because one time I watched a woman eat her napkin. While telling Four this, I started to sort of gag- which lead to a little panic because now I won't rule out anything. This woman was sitting in the booth next to us, and I watched over my friend's shoulder as she faced me and devoured the entire napkin. She took slow intentional bites, as if it were a large apple. This horrible horror vision has haunted me for years. And now that I've said it out loud and typed it here, it feels so real again.

Now you know how to get to me. Please don't.

Of course we skipped the diner.

And somehow we ended up skipping pretty much every other place. I'm a horrible decision maker, and suddenly we were in west Philly, and we still hadn't picked a place to go, so we just pulled over and went to one place, then another, then a third. On a Monday night you can't just get food like no big deal just because you want it. After 10:PM it's sort of involved.

Four said and did a bunch of things that I thought were funny or a good move, but my favorite would have to be this: we were walking out of yet another place no longer serving food, heading back to my car. He said after reading what I'd shared, he decided to come prepared. (NOTE: He didn't make it a poem like I accidentally did.) He opened his hand to reveal all the quarters. I laughed so hard. Good move! This could have been my third consecutive date with meter trouble. Avoided it!

And eventually we found dinner and no one ate a napkin and I was so glad.