Okay. Day 4 is a work in progress. But before I tell you about day 4, I must tell another tale.
About 2 months ago, I was standing in line at a cafe for some lunch. 5 people in front of me, was a girl that had the “Holy SHIT” factor, which hereafter shall called “HS appeal”. She’s that girl of whom you instinctively say to yourself, “Holy shit… Who IS SHE?” She got her food and left. I am friends with the guy who runs the cafe, and I when it was my turn to order, the first thing out of my mouth was, of course, “Holy shit, who WAS that girl?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out for you”, was Chris’s reply.
“Awesome!” was my reply, and by that I meant:
“HA! Yeah right. You are SO not going to remember. And even if you did, what would you say? Once you get to know her, what next? “Hey, I have this awesome friend that thinks you are hot. You should meet him”. No no no no. That is
a) SO 3rd grade, and
b) Futile. Every attractive girl has millions of guys who are trying to sell themselves to her, every hour of the day.
This is NOT going to go anywhere. BUT, I appreciate Chris’s thoughtful offer.”
On Monday, (4 days ago), I get an email from Chris:
“So my friend, it has taken me a while to break the ice with Jessica ( the gorgeous girl at my cafe). Well at last I have. I told her about my friend Paul and asked if she might want to meet up with you and she was thrilled! Her schedule is a little tight right now so it would have to be a lunchtime event. If you are still interested let me know a day that would work for you and you two could meet up and grab a bite to eat somewhere. She does not want to meet up in my building cause she doesnt want co-workers in her business so if you could suggest a place close by that would be awsome. Hope all is well my friend and I hope you dig this girl”.
I proposed that we meet for lunch on Thursday (today). He calls yesterday to confirm, and says “Yes, she’ll be there at noon. I told her that you are in a band and look like a rocker dude. She was really impressed that you are a musician”.
Squeezing in a lunch at my job can be tricky. I never know what part of town I’ll be working in from day to day, and I don’t know what my work load will be until about 9am each day. All I could do is trust that things would work out okay. There are some routes at the office that are rated at X hours, but actually take 1 – 2 hours less than that if you hustle. These are the kinds of breaks I needed today to afford me the time to drive back down town and have a reasonable amount of time for lunch with her. As it turned out, I was given such a route to do. There was one more obstacle to deal with: Late Express Mail.
I have to give props to my co worker Eric at this point… the express mail plane came in late. When Express mail arrives late, I am almost ALWAYS one of 3 people that get assigned delivery of all the express mail, which has a special way of fucking up one’s day. It must be delivered by noon – it’s the Postal Service’s next day parcel service. Just as I was about to leave, I saw them wheeling in the late express mail. “SHIT. I am screwed.” A few minutes later, my co – worker Eric told me that he had volunteered to take the extra express pieces so I wouldn’t have to. Eric knew nothing about my plans. Furthermore, this kind of thing is virtually unheard of from Eric or anyone else in his position. I thanked Eric, thanked my lucky stars, and got to work.
11:45 rolls around, and I start driving back down town to meet my semi-blind lunch date. She knew nothing about who I am, or what I look like. I had not seen her in 2 months, so my memory of her was somewhat unclear. She arrived at noon. This girl is SO my type… she’s the hot nerd type… one of those girls that can play herself down and take on an understated librarianesque quality, yet it’s obvious that she can turn up the sex appeal when she wants to. Yes. I love this. I was definitely attracted to her.
20 seconds after we introduced ourselves, some guy whom I’ve never met approached me:
“Paul! Hey, great show last week! I saw you play with The Toros at Burt’s. You guys rocked!”
I was very suprised, but thanked him and invited him to our show next week, and then returned my attention to my lunch date. I am not going to lie. Given the subtext of Chris’s comments to her about me being in a band, I felt like THE FUCKING COOLEST GUY in town at that moment. Such a thing could not have been orchestrated any more perfectly.
Lunch was great. As it turns out, we are both in love with the new Foo Fighter’s record. We have a lot of common musical interests, so that made for easy, fun conversation. I can geek out about my favorite music all day long. She and her family moved here as refugees from Venezuela 10 years ago. Funny thing is… I had another dinner date this week with a friend whose family moved her as refugees from El Salvador. What are the chances? 2 dates in 1 week with 2 different refugees? Anyway, we had a great time chatting, and it was obvious that we’d want to hang out again. As I was getting her number, she told me, “I just want to be up front with you… all I am looking for is to make friends and to get to know this place. I’m not looking for anything serious.” I assured her that I’m not “looking for anything” either.
She’s kind of young, too. Let’s just say that difference between her age and mine is the largest I’ve ever had in a date. That being said, she really was fun to chat with… a testament to my stunted emotional maturity. Cheers to being immature!
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This is the part where I’ll post some follow up on my “Day 4” mission progress.
