Heyyy guys.
Ok so in April I went to a Ball with some friends and noticed this girl who, as it turned out, was running the thing. I really only went up to her at the end and thanked her for the great night.
The next day my friends were adding her on Facebook so I did too. A few days later she messaged me asking about some event that was happening in my town (She lives in Melbourne, I live in a town 100km away).

Anyway we found out we both really like film and TV, and talked a heap. I met her in person at some youth conference and the next week we caught up for coffee. That lasted about 4 hours, which was nice. By that point I really wanted to ask her out but freaked out at the last second.

So we talked on FB for a few more weeks and two weeks ago I invited her to go see a movie at a film festival. So we went, and afterwards I asked her out and she said yes almost instantly, which genuinely surprised me because she was so hard to read and seemed really platonic about it all.

Now, she's a really busy chick (a job, uni, 2-3 internships, organizing a Barn Dance, a stage production) so she said that we could do it after the barn dance, which is on this Saturday.

She started talking to me on Facebook the next day and we've been keeping that up ever since.

I have really bad confidence problems, and since I asked her out I've had it in my head that it's more likely that she said yes because she was put on the spot and didn't want to seem mean than because she actually likes me. But every now and again she'll send me a message about something random without prompt, which always makes me happy.
I'll send her random messages too and get a response (sometimes 4-5 hours after she's seen them), and sometimes she'll reply for a while. But other times if I don't end my reply with a prompt the conversation just dies instantly; very different to talking to her in person. So I'll send another message about something else. I just don't know if I'm bothering her by sending her messages but she's too nice to ignore them. I read into things way too much but I can't help it.

Last week she invited me to work backstage on a stage production she was acting in, so I went. This was the first time I'd seen her since I asked her out, about a week and a half later.
The signals felt so mixed. On one hand, she seemed so platonic about it all. She doesn't seem to be the flirty type, which I like a lot about her but it also makes things difficult.
She seemed to talk to me exactly the same way as other guys, except unlike me all the other guys were more physical and whatever. I'm probably too cautious of other peoples personal space.
And she introduced me to her Dad and Mum and sister, who she'd mentioned me t and it didn't seem like she'd mentioned me before but not in a "date" context.
But then, while I was working curtains on one side of the stage and she was about to go on on the other side, she was messaging me just making fun of the play.
And during the play once her character had finished on stage she ran across to my side where there was nobody else and waited for me with a can of cider and we just sat on the couch and watched the play.


I just want to give as much information as possible for a proper context because to me it all seems like a weird situation.


Few other things to point out:
-I've never had a girlfriend before, nor have I kissed a girl. It's something I've been borderline depressed (I won't say depressed because I never saw anyone about it to be diagnosed) about for a long time now because it's something I really want for my life, but I've never wanted to force it to happen so this is huge for me.
-She's just turning 23, I've just turned 21. I didn't know this until after I'd asked her out.
-We're both practicing Catholic. Don't know if that's particularly relevant aside from the topic of sex (or lack thereof in this case) but it's important to both of us so thought I'd throw it in.
-She's very extroverted and confident, always doing something and has a hell of a lot of friends. I'm a lot better with her than I am with other people, but I'm always kind of awkward when I try to be extroverted.
-We live about 2 hours away from each other.



Ok so, my first question is: What sort of first date should I go for? I found a really cool little restaurant under a library which I'm pretty much set on, but after that I'm not too sure.
Because we love film so much I was thinking of taking her to the new Woody Allen movie. I know movies on a first date aren't a good idea, but I don't know if the first two times we caught up count as dates or not when it wasn't said that it was.

Second: She's very work-oriented, which I love because she's so ambitious and motivated and talented. But I get the feeling she might be hesitant to get into a relationship because of that. Do I address that, and just say I'm happy to go at any pace she's comfortable with?

The other problem is that I recently found out it's her birthday the same week as the week we're going on our date.
I definitely want to get her a gift, but I don't know what to do. I hate the idea of chocolates and/or flowers because it's just so overdone to the point that it's thoughtless.
My style is to give presents that are specific to something about that person. I had this one idea of getting her a vinyl copy of Grace Kelly by Mika because her name sounds very much like Grace Kelly, and she ALWAYS jokes about how much she loves it. And she also loves music a lot. So it'd kind of be a semi-joke sort of gift. But is that too personal? I wouldn't do it if I'd just met her, but we've been talking for a while now so I don't know.


Anyway, this got really big. Kudos to anyone who actually reads it all!