A date?!?

I finally caught up with Chad today, he came into Brews Bros while I was working, and we actually had a little down time to talk. It was nice! And, we set up a date for tonight!

You may ask why I'm home at 10:00 the night of a date. Well, we were going to catch a movie, so we headed down to the theater, only to see a sign on the door saying that they're "temporarily closed for remodeling". This was the first that either of us had heard about a temporary closure, and since Chad knows one of the night managers there, he called him to see what the story was. Apparently, the air conditioning went out earlier in the day, and with the ridiculous heat we've been having, they just decided to close the place for the night. He didn't mention why they didn't just say that on the door instead of the remodeling. Whatever.

After that, we walked down to the ice cream shop and each got two scoops in a waffle cone, then headed out for a walk. It had started to cool down by then, and the ice cream made it even cooler, so it turned into a lovely night for a stroll. We made it all the way down to the park, and sat on a bench, just watching the river calmly flowing past, and talked. I don't know if I've ever talked so much with a guy, but he's such a good talker, time just flies past! We talked about music, some sports (I like to think I know a little bit about some sports, like baseball, so I can hold my own in a conversation) and life in Sheffield. We decided to start walking back when the sun started hiding behind some trees. On the way, he held my hand! (I get so girly about stuff like that, sorry) My place was on the way back to his car, so we stopped there, and talked some more on the doorstep. After a few minutes, he said he needed to go, he had work in the morning, but before he could go, I leaned up and gave him a quick kiss, just like that! A little out of the ordinary for me, but what the hell, you only live once, right? Anyways, I think it really surprised him, he was speechless for a few seconds before he said goodnight and walked in the direction of his car.

This was a wonderful night, one of the better dates I've been on in a while. Granted, it's one of the only dates I've been on in a while, but still. Now I think our schedules are opposing for the next few days, so who knows when I'll see or talk to him next. I just hope he knows that I had a great time!

Guess who's got a date...

I finally, finally got up the nerve to call Heather. Of course, I was really busy last week (my parents came to town to harass me for a couple of days, which was nice because I ate really well during that time) and didn't get around to calling her until Friday afternoon. And of course her phone went straight to voicemail. So when I got off work I went over to Brews Brothers, and there she was.

She said something like, "Hey stranger!" when I walked in and waved at me as she went off to help a customer, and I grabbed the newspaper and went and sat at my usual spot after I got a smoothie. Then after awhile things settled down a little and she came and sat with me, and we talked for awhile and it was really nice. We talked about our parents and how they're awesome but really irritating a lot of the time. I told her I was sorry for not calling her when she got back into town, but I didn't know how the two-day rule applied when she'd been out of town for a week. She said it was okay, that she felt bad for not calling me when she got back into town, and that for future reference the two-day rule was not necessary.

And, we made plans for a mid-week date! Her work schedule is crazy busy right now since Wyatt and Wendell are pretty short on help over the summer, and she didn't really have a night open until tonight. We're going to see a movie and then get some ice cream -- we decided "dinner and a movie" was too cliche. It is officially a date!

Such a life to lead

Dana and I were supposed to go out to the lake yesterday, but an unexpected thunderstorm put an end to those plans. And I really mean unexpected. Everywhere I looked said that we had a 10% chance of rain. I always figured that the 10% is just a way for the forecasters to cover their asses when they think there's no way it's going to rain, but they don't have the balls to put the precipitation chances at 0%.

So anyways yesterday was spent doing some much-needed cleaning around my room, and the preliminary stages of packing. Dana and I are moving to an apartment in August. It's a little further away from downtown, but much cheaper, so it's worth the sacrifice.

I was really looking forward to going to the lake, I need to unwind a little bit. Ever since I've gotten back from our Father's Day vacation, I've been working almost non-stop, and during the times that I'm not working I'm struggling to stay awake. I'm that lame. Plus, it would've been nice to see Chad, I haven't seen or heard from him since that last time I was out there. I probably should've called him to let him know I was back in town, but I figured I would've run into him at Brews Brothers. He hasn't been in lately, though, so I don't know what's up. I hope everything's ok. I bet I missed a good party or two out there, he probably hooked up with some girl. He doesn't seem like the type that would do that randomly, but then again, maybe that's his ploy.

Now I get to go in for the 4-midnight shift, always a fun time on a Friday night. It's not like I wanted to hang out with friends or anything. Afterwards, I'll be too exhausted to do anything, so I'll probably be heading to bed. It builds character, right? I mean, not doing anything, sleeping all the time, and working. At least I have Sunday off, I'm thinking of heading to a show downtown, one of my voice major buddies sings for a band, and I've never heard them perform. She's invited me so many times, I may as well check it out. Who knows, I may like them!

The eternal struggle

Girls have it so easy.

It is the eternal struggle of a man – the delicate balance of not seeming desperate (when we always are) while also trying to act interested (which we also always are). It’s exhausting.

Heather came over about a week and a half ago, on Friday evening, for steaks and beers and boating. To me, that’s a date. If I have a girl over, to my house, and cook her a meal (in this case, steaks and potatoes on the grill), that’s a date. However, the whole “casually hanging out” thing, or whatever it is that we’re doing, leaves a lot of grey area. Did Heather think it was a date? It’s impossible to tell. I wanted her to think it was a date, and tried really hard to create a date-like atmosphere. Take, for example, the patio table; I picked fresh daisies (yes, I know that they were daisies…yes, I had to e-mail my mom a picture that I had taken for her to identify them) from the ditch across the road and put them in a vase on the table. And, okay, so what if we didn’t have a vase? A 40-ounce Bud Light bottle from Devon and Derek’s last round of Edward 40-Hands doesn’t count? Really, if flowers in a beer bottle on the table don’t say “date,” I don’t know what does.

But it’s not like the evening was awkward, because it wasn’t. When we’re together the conversation just flows and it’s perfect. Heather’s really funny. And really smart. Time just flies when she and I are spending time together and I find myself not ever wanting her to leave.

After we ate we went on a slow boat cruise around the lake. It was just around sunset and it was beautiful. Our trip was cut short when I realized that the gas gauge was hovering around E – Devon, naturally, forgot to fill up before he left for the weekend, and in lieu of going all the way to the other end of the lake to the gas station, Heather suggested we just go back to the house and hang out. So we sat on the end of the dock, dangling our toes in the water and talking and laughing and looking at the stars for hours that flew by in a matter of seconds. And next thing you know Heather’s telling me that it’s late and she has to go.

So I walked her out to her car and we hugged, and she said that she would see me when she got back from the vacation she was taking with her family – an entire week. And I really wanted to kiss her, but I didn’t know if that would be crossing some sort of line, or if it would be rushing things too much. So, I kissed her on the cheek. That’s a sweet thing to do, right? And that throws out the “I really like you but I don’t want to cross a line and freak you out” vibe, doesn’t it? God, I hope so.

I’ve gone into Brews Brothers the past couple mornings before work, but haven’t seen Heather at all. How does the two-day rule for calling a girl after a date apply when she went on vacation for a week the day after your date? Do I wait two days from the day she got back from vacation? That would be today, and I’m dying to call her, and I wish there were some handbook for men that just spelled all this out for me and played out every scenario that I could possibly encounter.

Or – and here’s a thought – Heather could just say, “Hey! I like you, too!”

Wouldn’t life just be so much easier if girls would say what they’re feeling?

Back for the attack!

For Father's Day, my family and I decided that we'd take a little vacation with Dad, anywhere that he'd like to go. Of course he said that he didn't care as long as we were all together, but eventually he came up with seeing as many minor-league baseball parks and games as we could in a few days. We checked schedules, drew up maps, and hit the road for almost a full week, making it to five different games! I had a good time, I think my dad really loved it, but my mom and sister seemed like they were just along for the ride. They did a good job of humoring us, though, and didn't bring down the mood at all. It was too bad our brother couldn't make it, but since he has a "real job" and everything, he wasn't able to get the time off, plus he would've had to spent a few hours on the plane ride back here, then 6 days in a car, and then turn around and fly back East. He would've enjoyed the games, but I don't know if he could've handled the trips, especially with my sister and me. He loves us, but together, we team up on him and have the ability to make him really, really angry.

Last weekend, before the trip, Chad had me over for a little boating, some steaks, and hanging out. I had said I was going to bring beers, but when the time came to leave, I was running around trying to get ready, and just totally forgot. I was running late, so I was a little flustered. He had a couple there, so it was alright. Plus, that way I didn't get too drunk to drive home again, like the last time I was out there. We had a good time, our "boating" experience was cut short due to a lack of gas, but that was fine with me. Chad got all bent out of shape about it, saying how Devon was supposed to take care of that before he left or something. But Chad seemed kind of nervous and flustered most of the night for some reason, but that didn't stop him from grilling up a delicious steak for me, just the way I like it, barely past rare. He also threw some potatoes on the grill, one of my favorite sides.

After dinner, we just sat out on the dock watching boats go by, and then the stars as they came out. It was a beautiful night, perfect for star gazing and conversation. Before I knew it, one a.m. rolled around, and I needed to get home. I had work at 10 the next morning, and needed all the hours I could get since I had taken the whole next week off. (The W's were not happy about that one, but when I told them what we were doing, they agreed to let me have a job when I came back.) I could tell Chad was a little disappointed that I had to leave, and that I would be gone for an entire week, but he was so sweet and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before I left.

Well, I'm off to work now. I heard from Dana that there were a couple of new people, so I guess today I'll see how they are. I'm always so nervous about the new employees, it takes a special breed to work at the Brews Bros, not everyone makes the cut!

Weekend plans

Heather just came into work to cash a check and actually waited until I can help her even though there were tellers who were open. We chatted for a little while about Brews Brothers and then I asked what she was up to this weekend. She said she didn't have any definite plans, so I asked her if she wanted to come out to the house tonight to grill some steaks and go boating. She said that would be great and that she'd be over about seven with beer.

Seriously, how excited is this kid?

Devon and Derek are both out of town this weekend too, which means it will be quiet and there will be no one to fight for the boat. The house, the boat, the lake -- all mine, and Heather's. The lake I guess we have to share, but the house and the boat are definitely ours.

Maybe I shouldn't be so pumped about this, but damn, I am.

Getting flustered

There’s a new girl at Brews Brothers. Her name is Alex – I only know this because she was wearing a “Hello, My Name Is” nametag on our first encounter. Where she got that nametag I will never know. Maybe it’s some new thing that Wyatt came up with while he was on a coke binge or something. I had never once seen anyone wearing a nametag of any sort in Brews Brothers.

Anyway, Alex is cute, I guess. She’s kind of short and has short curly dirty blonde hair and green eyes. I think her eyes are fake. Not fake – I mean, her eyes are real, I just think she wears colored contacts, because they’re too green. Distractingly green, and not really in a good way.

The first time I met Alex was yesterday morning when I ran into Brews Brothers before work. They have new smoothies and I really like the mango papaya ones. Brett made fun of me when I told him I was digging the mango papaya smoothie, but it tastes good and is a good way to help your hangover subside before you have to go dish out cash all day. You’d think that touching all that money would be fun – I once got to give out $8,000 in cash – but really, after awhile it just gets depressing. It’s like pet-sitting a cute dog; you get to play with it, but you don’t get to keep it.

It was pretty empty yesterday morning and there was no one at the counter when I went up to order. Then Alex came out with her big “Hello, My Name Is” sticker and emerald green eyes. So I started to order my mango papaya smoothie and peanut butter cookie, but she interrupted me to ask for my Brews Crew number. (Brews Crew is this great little rewards program that Wendell came up with, where for every dollar you spend you get a certain number of points and once you hit a certain number of points you’re eligible for free drinks, etc.) I was all flustered because she interrupted me, and I accidentally gave her the pin number for my ATM rather than my Brews Crew number, and when she put that in the computer she said “Candace?” and kind of smirked.

Just then Heather walked by and said “His number is 3492,” and smiled at me. “I must be getting my numbers confused today!” I said nervously, feeling like a douche.

“What can I get for you?” Alex asked.

I was still all flustered from being interrupted and giving the wrong number, and because Heather was standing right there, putting coffee mugs back on the rack and looking absolutely adorable. “I’ll have a mapaya…mangapaya…” I stuttered. “M a n g o p a p a y a smoothie. And a peanut butter cookie.”

Heather was kind of chuckling to herself as she went off to help another customer, and I hope she didn’t think that I was nervous, because I wasn’t nervous, per se, and I definitely hope she didn’t think that I was nervous because I like Alex, which I definitely don’t.

Because I definitely like Heather.

A little confusion

So far, the summer has been awesome. We threw another big bash at our house over Memorial Day weekend, except this time it was more of a three-day drunkfest. People actually had tents set up in our yard. There were beer bongs and keg stands and, thankfully, no cops. We’ve been pretty adamant so far about underage people not drinking at our parties. I don’t know if it’s working or not, but so far law enforcement hasn’t been involved, so it must be.

Unfortunately all the drinking, wakeboarding, and work have been interfering with spending time at Brews Brothers. I invited Heather out for Memorial Day and was hoping she’d come and need a place to sleep over again, but she was going out of town with some of her girlfriends. I did get her phone number, though, and she told me to call her the next time something was going on. I really want to call her just to call her, just to say hey and talk about stuff and maybe, if I can get up the nerve, ask her out, but I didn’t want to overstep my bounds.

Wyatt and Wendell have also been acting weird lately. The week after our housewarming party, I was at Brews Brothers one morning before work and Wyatt came over and said, “Hey, stud” and kind of smiled. This is something I’d expect from Wendell, but coming from Wyatt it was just…weird. I was in there later and the week and Wendell said something like “Hear you had a great party” and winked. It makes me think that maybe Heather said something to them about sleeping over, or if not Heather then Dana. And if it was Heather, I wonder what she said. I’ve kind of wanted to ask Wyatt or Wendell about it, but I also don’t want to make a complete ass out of myself. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how things play out…