Amazing Date

This was a horrible date idea. The absolute worst possible.

Hang gliding. Sounds kind of cool, right? Factor in a three hour round trip with a stranger. Three hours of conversation. Dinner dates, you can shovel food into your mouth. You don't have to talk the entire time, and it's over and done in relatively short order. How do you keep things from being awkward in a car for three goddamn hours?

I picked this girl up at 10am. We drove out to the airfield and had to wait the longest time to go up. Luckily I'm a clever monkey and I brought along a blanket and some food. So we had an impromptu picnic while airplanes, gliders and skydivers circled overhead on an absolutely gorgeous day.

We went up and that was a lot of fun, but not even the highlight of date. The conditions couldn't have been better for a newcomer like her. Alone I'd have asked for some stronger winds, better thermals, more bouncing and craziness. This was fairly calm with the occasional bite, so she got to ease into the experience. We flew by a skydiver (with deployed chute) close enough to wave and shout back and forth. That was incredible. At one point, and tell me this wasn't romantic, we found a lone cornstalk fluttering in a geyser of wind two thousand feet up. We circled it, allowing those same winds to lift us higher and higher. On the way home we stopped at a restaurant. Had a great meal together.

It's 6:30. Just walked in the door. This date lasted over eight hours. The entire time we were laughing and talking in the most natural way possible. We discussed first dates and how miserable they are. We half-joking, half-seriously shared our cute flaws right up front so there was nothing to hide. We told each other our worst stories (within reason). We laughed and laughed and laughed. I wanted the return trip to last forever, I was having so much fun with this girl. That, believe it or not, was the best moment. Just driving home, the two of us sharing increasingly more embarrassing stories, gasping desperately for breath between peals of laughter.

This is my third and final first date in the last three weeks, and while the other two went well, particularly the last, this is definitely the girl I'm asking out for a second. I wish I could be like this with everyone. Just let it all loose. Admit that first dates are nerve-wracking and miserable and not at all a good indicator of who a person really is, and so mutually agree to be natural. That's why it worked out.

Oh man. I have to work tonight. I need to get a few hours sleep. How the hell can I possibly get any like this? My heart will not stop pounding. I'm gushing like a girl after her first kiss.

We just clicked. We were on the same wavelength. She got my humor. I didn't need to alter it for her. I got to toss out ridiculous statements to my heart's content and instead of looking at me funny she just got it. And I got her. Oh man. How the hell can the second date possibly live up to this one?

You would make a great date, gribble. She's a lucky girl.

What a lovely thing to read. Good luck. You sound like an attentive thoughtful kind of guy. She should realise how lucky she is. Way to go.

We're going out again Friday. I called her just 24 hours after dropping her off. Broke the oldest rule in the book.

But you know what? I'm a man, dammit. Real men don't abide by the rules. Real men are so goddamn confident they don't worry about how long they're supposed to wait before calling or any of that crap. When a man wants to call, he goddamn calls. Dammit.

Those "rules" apply to kids, not grown men. Good for you, gribble. I hope you like this one well enough to let her stick around for a while. I love reading your posts like this.

Give it another three weeks or so and you'll be reading my trademark"got bored, broke up" post.

Go for it. She could be the love of your life. So why not?
Good luck my man.