Blame it on the A-A-A-Alcohol

I blame it on the alcohol. That and the movie Up in the Air .

Last night was my 2nd date with the Google guy. And as I sit here, the next day, I'm still smiling. Good date? Yes. I might even go so far as to say it was a great date. But, of course, that is not without reservation. So my original issues with the Google guy were a physical attraction concern and there was a concern about whether we had an actual connection through conversation.

We had been in contact ever since our first date, mostly through IM, and occasional texts. As the week progressed, I was more and more interested in seeing him again for our second date. I should thank the weather gods for a blizzard in Kansas that prevented him from going home for Christmas, and allowed us to have this second date. Otherwise, I would have had to wait until possibly after the break, by then too much time may have passed, things could have changed.

Originally, we were going to go see Avatar in IMAX 3D, but we both decided that 3 hours and a lot of special effects wasn't really necessary last night. So we went to see Up in the Air instead. I took the speedline into the city since we were going out in Olde City, and I didn't feel like driving, trying to find parking, etc. It was just easier to take the train. He picked me up from the speedline since it was raining, and walking around in the slushy streets of Philadelphia in the rain is not super appealing before a date. We had a hard time finding parking near the theater so we were circling the streets in Olde City. At one point, I realized that neither of us had said a word in a long time. Before I noticed, it wasn't uncomfortable, or awkward silence at all. Just silence. But as soon as I noticed, I started wondering if he thought it was awkward, or uncomfortable, or if I should think of something to talk about. I could have just embraced the silence, but for a second date, and a first car ride, it seemed a bit premature for comfortable silence. I was glad we were going to a movie, we wouldn't have to talk for 2 hours, and then we'd have something at least to talk about afterwards at dinner! But I didn't have to worry too much about that after all. The movie was good, it was a little intense with the message of "your life is incomplete without someone to share it with" and I think that definitely planted a seed in my head which leads me to the rest of the evening...

After the movie, we drove over to center city, we tried to eat at Monks, but it was PACKED. So we went to another bar/restaurant in the area, which in my opinion, was equally as enjoyable. It wasn't super crowded, we got a table without waiting, and they by far had the best grilled cheese I've had in a long time. We talked pretty smoothly during the meal, there were some moments of awkward silences, but I think that may just be this guy. I get the feeling that he's not a talker, which could be good or bad for me. As most of you know, I talk A LOT. I'm chatty by nature, and when there's silence I try to fill it with anything. This can be bad with someone who has lots of silent moments. But I learned, the more beer he drank, the chattier he became, so we drank. Not a whole lot, but he drank more than I did, and I drank enough to feel buzzed on my way to drunk. Not wasted, but definitely not sober either. We left the bar and moved onto another bar around the corner, for more drinks. At one point we checked the train schedule to see what time my train home would be, but failed to notice the special weekend train schedule. I'm used to train schedules being all out of sorts on the weekend due to my years in Brooklyn and the trains NEVER running right on the weekend, but the difference between NYC and Philly? NYC posts the train changes EVERYWHERE. On the train, at the stations it affects, online. Everywhere. Philly? Not so much. One document online, that if we hadn't been looking closely, would have easily been missed. Due to track work, the trains were not running between midnight and 6 am last night. What time did we find this out? 1:30 am. Awesome. So I was stuck in the city, or taking a cab back to the speedline station. I opted for staying in the city.

Google guy graciously invited me back to his apartment, and was very chivalrous, offering me a place to sleep that was not in his bed, or assuming that just because I missed my train anything was going to happen. At this point, we hadn't kissed or anything, so that thought was pretty incredulous to me. I accepted his offer to sleep on his sofa, and take the train home in the morning. At this point, we were having fun, and the date was progressing very nicely. If it had ended there, it would have been a good date, very fun, but it just got better.

I have a confession to make at this point: I have an apartment crush. I'm not one who cares about material wealth or things... but when you see what money can buy, well sometimes it clouds your mind a bit. This guy's apartment is by far probably one of the nicest city apartments I have EVER been in. And I have seen some really nice apartments in many a city. The location is ideal, right near the art musuem. It's in a historic building, with a very modern design in the place. It's split level, and has enormous windows that bring in the most spectacular views. And he has his own roof deck, overlooking the parkway/museum/center city. Swooooooon. Seriously, I'm enamoured with this guy's apartment. It's beautiful.

Once we are at his place, he takes me on the tour, which is the first time I've fallen in love with a building. We weren't tired despite it being 2 AM, so we watched Sixteen Candles and cuddled on the couch. This was the first romantic contact we had all night. It felt a little strange to cuddle with someone I hadn't even kissed yet, but it was very middle school PG at this point. After the movie, he kissed me. At first I thought I had another bad kisser situation on my hands! What is it with 30 something year old guys not knowing how to kiss properly?? But he was much more adaptable and picked up on my non-verbal cues much better than the Bad Kisser did. It turned out to be a false alarm. Needless to say, I did not sleep on his couch last night. There wasn't actually a whole lot of sleeping going on, but eventually we did fall asleep. I woke him early-ish this morning so I could get back to the train station. I was just going to walk to the speedline, but he insisted on driving me to the station. Getting in the car, I thought he meant to the 16th & Locust station, but he meant driving me to the speedline in NJ where my car was.

He really is a gentleman in every sense of the word. He didn't even want to take my offer of a quarter when we were parking on the street and the meter kiosk wasn't taking his dollar. I can tell that if I continue to date Google guy (which at this point - I can't imagine not continuing), he will be the guy who treats me better than I've ever been treated before in my life. I could probably get used to that.

Today is a busy busy day for dates. Being that I "walk of shamed" it home today in Google guy's car, my date technically didn't end until 9 am. My next date is at 1:30 today with a music teacher from PA for lunch. We have had a few good long phone conversations, and until last night, I was comfortable placing him as the front runner. At 9 pm tonight, I'm having drinks with the jdate guy who disappeared. Remember the original 8? There were 3 Jews, 2 of them have disappointed in their hopes of being anything long term (although there still is a 2nd date with the Phillies writer for Weds, but at this point I'm wondering why bother?). This is the one I was most excited about, tonight's 9 pm drinks date. He disappeared for a while, then resurfaced this past week. We've talked online and on the phone, and we're going out for drinks tonight. It seems like when it rains, it pours. A triple header could be dangerous, I'm praying it doesn't bring something worse than my double headers used to!