date ten: oh oh oh!

i'd been trolling the internet for dates and feeling really bad about myself because i couldn't find anyone who was enthusiastic about the endeavor. in philadelphia the sense of adventure and willingness to participate was totally encouraging. on tuesday night i came across will. we spoke briefly but he was out of town due to the holiday. i was [secretly totally bummed but (hopefully) outwardly] sort of disappointed.


as i was driving to enterprise dictating messages for sam to transcribe she mentions that this guy suddenly became free and figured the ticket was gone. immediately i had her send my phone number and begin sending out notes of thanks and appreciation but also of declination.

without knowing if he'd be sure for sure, i threw out all the other options. it made me feel a little bit like one of those whirl-wind-musical-montage-scenes from a girl-y movie. add that to the fact that we were dancing and listening to le tigre like two jerks and yes, this was totally amazing. (i was just reminded that specifically i said i wanted music that was almost too much. i don't remember using those words but i'm so glad i did.)

will called and we confirmed plans. i hung up and was thrilled.

two and half hours later we were pulling into a parking spot. AWESOME!! note: it took me as long to get to this date as it did to get to some dates in philly due to traffic. that's disappointing.

i walked in with my re-gift-gifts for the gift swap and waited for will. he messaged that he'd be there shortly and the excitement just mounted. i wasn't nervous or anxious or anything. i saw him come in. he walked over. immediately i felt comfortable with him.

the show was totally worth the $5 admission. our hosts kevin and jane were so entertaining (kevin was in philly last month for the first person festival and i developed a little crush on him at that time.) ira glass graced us with his rendition of the pogues' "fairytale of new york" with a multi-accordion back up. the most titillating (can i say that? you should have seen her outfit...) part of the night was the performance of sarah nowak. this girl was adorable. she told the story of her "disengagment" and subsequent trip to europe. she talked about her ring and the good times it ultimately brought her. she danced and smiled and encapsulated the energy and emotions i've grown to know and love. this girl went through and lived through the stupid rotten loss a few years before me and came out glowing.
i can only hope i'll be able to present myself in the way that she does.
things just got serious up in here.


and then there's the fact that i'm still on this date. get back to business.

will was amazing. he was even more handsome than i'd expected. he was charming and polite. he won both the original "miami vice" soundtrack and "the fine young cannibals" on vinyl in the gift swap. some guy mentioned being jealous without realizing my guy was the new owner of the coveted objects. will was quick to trade for a bathrobe that reminded me of the inside of a conversion van or a waterbed. that's a really gross combination, actually.
he cut a hole in the lapel and inserted a flower. he looked bizarrely dapper considering he was wearing a bathrobe.

after the show (i'd not been selected to switch gifts during) it became a gift-exchange-free-for-all. not one to merely participate, i took it upon myself to climb behind the table and start working as if it were the redemption counter at chuck e. cheese or something. presents had fallen behind the table and i didn't want them to go ungiven. we organized gift packs: the glen beck/ann coulter book set, the cocktail napkins with a one-liner comparing chocolate to martinis belonged with the flip-flop tip-topped toothpicks.

i left with a picture frame and dress.


following the show we went to meet up with some friends. it was awesome. i have to write more later.
i'm late for date twelve.



i can't believe i've made it this far.

i can't believe a lot of things.




i still need to tell you about bluegrass and jon, who could easily make me a fool. he's quiet and clever. and he plays the piano.
i melt.





and then we have tonight. tonight i'm going on my final date with a very good friend. lots to be said about this. it's funny because i already know i love this guy. he's amazing.






details to follow. i really need to go and i'm already late.




oh, and that nightmarish rest stop? here you go:










i'm thinking about doing a new "roommate project." i need to tell you/ask you about this later.

this should have been edited and completed already.

i had no date. it was five in the afternoon and all I could do was make my eyes get all big and bug out repeatedly. I was ready to stand outside and solicit any person walking towards the street alone or with an odd number of people.
then the sea parted. within a matter of mere minutes i was quoting the salt-girl. I had gone from having no real contenders to too many. just as i was getting off the phone with my friend justin's friend's friend chris who stepped up to accompany me I got a follow-up from a previous message from quinton who came across a post on craigslist whilst looking for a schol bus to purchase (intrigue!!) all the while my friend Andy was working his magic on a friend of his: Ben. i hadn't heard from Ben yet and was, at this point, scouring the Internet and my phone book (contact list--you know what I mean) and asking everyone I knew. I'd exhausted both facebook and craigslist as well as okcupid which, for the record, has been the best resource when it comes to dating sites.
within sixty seconds it all came to a head: Quinton responded with a definite and Ben had emailed with his info while I was in a frantic initial phone call with chris. crazybones!!
   
sam and i pulled in to get the rental car and we were dying of uncontrollable laughter. parking next to a red # 40 vw new beetle i go, "that"ll be us." and boy was it.
the dashboard space in this spacevehicle is unreal. you could stores year's worth of boxed cereal in the windshield.

the condition of the bathroom in the dr. joyce brothers née kilmer rest stop set us off further. diapers--dirty ones-were just laying openfaced as would an unsavory sandwich on the tan tiled floor. we spent about twenty dollars on two orders of fries in holsters and got out of there. i almost feel like the health dept should see it. or like, life after humans on the discovery channel?  

date #10 is on!!!! yes!!!!!! totally excited!?

how is this even possible?

i've got less than six hours to find a date. i've been trying for a few days. i'm feeling pretty damn pathetic, all things considered.



SOMEONE COME OUT OF THE WOOD WORK, PLEASE!!

i just had an asthma attack.

unreasonable.

oh, and i thought i'd hit a roadbump before.



following my evening of trivia with chris (#9) i wasn't at all tired and decided to go hang out with my friend milkshake. at this point it's maybe 12:45 am and i'm driving north on route one. out of nowhere there is this car just SITTING in the middle of the road PERPENDICULAR TO THE MEDIAN. this guy, as far as i could tell, was parked across two lanes of traffic, nose to the metal divider. it was extremely disorienting and the visual can be described only as surreal. i began to slow down as soon as it registered that i was in fact seeing this parked-looking vehicle.
i slammed on my brakes as soon as i realized what was happening but there was no place to aim that wouldn't have resulted in some sort of mess. the impact ultimately was the front end of my car and the driver's side front of his car. thankfully no one was hurt.
my airbags deployed and i sat in shock.
it was twenty degrees outside. the roads appeared dry but the shoulder where i stood waiting was slush.
for the first time in quite a while i felt like i was a nuisance to the men with which i was dealing. usually i can hold my own but at one in the morning on a road not so close to my house i felt helpless and stupid and helpless some more. i gave the other driver all of my insurance information and he walked away saying he'd give me his. he came back and handed me a folded up piece of paper. it wasn't until later that i realize it was my information he'd given back to me instead of his own. it was do dumb and trusting of me not to check that paper. i'm not saying he did it intentionally, it was cold, we were all shocked. but jeez, talk about inconvenient.
i called my (amazing) friend who promptly got himself over there to help a girl.

the experience was very unpleasant.
my car is terribly totaled.
my body is very sore.
i feel lost.
no car.

i know my car is often a joke among my friends but no one can deny that it has taken us all over the place.
because it's old i worry that i won't get very much for it. it's one of those cases where it's worth SO MUCH MORE to me than will ever be determined by some insurance adjuster.
there's also concern that because i don't think anyone is at fault, the other driver's company won't cover the costs as it seems they should.


all of this and i really really was planning to go to new york for the talent show tomorrow. i'm thrilled with the responses from my most loved and admired people, "how are you going to get there?" they've been asking.
not "are you still going?" like i'd entertained for a split second.
and i'm going to get there.
bus. train. rental car. who cares.

i've got to go on a date and i've got to see the love of my life: ira glass.

number nine. number nine. number nine.

last night a very nice time was had with chris (#9.)  we met at kildare's in west chester and i am totally humiliated to say i did an absolutely tragic job in the way of trivia. he was much better suited to answer questions, but even still we got maybe half of the answers correct. we sat at one of those small/tall tables near the bar and were strangely fortunate that the drunks nearby were quick to shout out there surprisingly not-wrong answers. i felt so ashamed. when presented with a map, i think the only country i could positively identify was bolivia because i used to sponsor a little girl there.

at around midnight when the drink specials were up and there was room to approach, he closed out his tab and walked to me to my car. i ended up dropping him off at his house. i was a little uneasy about the conditions of the back streets in west chester. it was nice to finally have a date with someone who didn't require travel across great stretches of road and gallons upon gallons of gasoline. he was very local and also had off for the week. because we both grew up in the area we had more talking points which was helpful because i (and i may be entirely wrong here, but i'll say it anyway) didn't see him as the kind of guy who would approach me under normal circumstances. but i guess in this case, circumstances were pretty normal and maybe i just need to grow up and realize that there is the potential for people to have more varied interests than for which i might initially give them credit. maybe my quirky personality isn't as off-the-wall as i had initially thought.

i don't want to call chris normal because one might confuse that term with ordinary and in no way do i mean that. he's pretty awesome: he runs marathons, plays a whole bunch of instruments and knew more answers than i did during quizzo. he seems to have his act together and is a decent guy, to say the least.

why am i always having to second guess people?
and somehow on this night i was left second guessing myself.

double digits!! DATE TEN!!!

the story of how i met this guy is pretty great, but it'll have to wait. i need to iron my dress and my hair.
he's for tuesday though.

yes!!

date nine: in which i must know things

tonight i'm on my way (last minute, but on my way) to do some trivia with date #9. chris seems like a really nice guy and lives locally. we'll be meeting in west chester and i'm looking forward to it.

we started messaging back and forth a little bit a few months ago. we met via a "dating site." so far into this project, and yet i still feel strange admitting that. i shouldn't. so many people meet this way. i need to get over it. isn't that part of the point of this project? i'm not evening looking anyone in the face, but still...i blush. who cares? who even cares? drop it self. just drop it.

so why the delay from initial conversation til present? i'd been so busy with some stuff that we didn't end up making plans until this very last minute. because of the snow, i need to leave my house in maybe 25 minutes. that being said, i've got to start getting ready because based on my appearance at present: ohhh geeez.

also, i'm super excited for the rest of the week.
all in all: december is amazing. the last week of december is super AMAZING.

i wonder what they're thinking

obviously at some point during our date the mister and i discuss his initial response to the project.


date 1: thought it seemed fun, pure and simple
date 2: didn't care for it. he was worried i'd be exploiting people
date 3: along the lines of date one
date 4: also ok with it. but he'd already known me and knew this was the kind of thing you might expect
date 5a: seemed ok with it but at the last minute wasn't. this is no big deal except that he and his friends carried on for the night with text/email insults instead of just enjoying a really good show
date 5b: an awesome sport with ideas and enthusiasm
date 6: another gung-ho guy who also writes and knows where i'm coming from
date 7: said he'd be fine with whatever was said and was excited about the idea
date 8: also said i could say whatever, even said he'd go along with it (i love the enthusiasm!)

but that's just what i'm told while sitting across the table from a person. i'd really like to hear what they thought (i cringe. really, self, really you want to know?)

but then, what do i want to know? what does that do for me? what does that do for the project? i've already put myself out there enough to secure a few hours of their time. at that point am i hoping for something as simple as a pat on the back and a "you made a decent enough date," or what? i'm sure at least one of them has negative things to say. and i shouldn't be the one to ask that they make them known. that could make the rest of the week pretty hard.


speaking of the rest of the week:



it's now december 27. i have to go on four more dates in the next few days.
TROUBLE.


december 28: #9 to a storyslam at l'etage
december 29: #10 to the talent show in brooklyn
december 30: #11 there was mention of bluegrass in west philly?
december 31: #12 new years eve?!?!?


all this and i'm still trying to prep for my GREs so i can eventually be an art therapist for crying out loud!!

waking up to a cool thing

"the talent show is now following you on twitter."



good morning self!!




i'm so excited for wednesday. i can only hope i actually find a date in time. otherwise i'm an embarrassed shame.