That's what she said.

I'm home from the 4th date, it's barely past 1 am, and while I know that's fairly late for a date... I had higher hopes for it lasting longer. As far as time spent on this date, this was by far the shortest date I've had with this guy - 3 hours to be exact. I'm not trying to focus on what didn't happen, because overall it was a really good, fun date. I was just hoping at this point to maybe kick it up a notch.

After our fantastic 3rd date, we had talked about hanging out over the weekend. By Friday, when we still didn't have plans (despite texting back and forth on Thursday), I was wondering what our plans would actually be, but I didn't want to press. Eventually, I did text him, to see what he was thinking regarding plans, and he texted me back almost immediately with Saturday night when he got done work, and then he came up with bowling. Originally, we were going to go to the bowling alley that was really close to my school, and I was worried about running into students there. But I let him make the plans, it would seem silly if I asked him to change them just because I didn't want to run into people I knew. So we agreed that we'd meet there at 9:30ish. It was the first time that he didn't offer to come pick me up at my house first, and that was noted, as much as I wish it weren't, any change in behavior is something I'm usually quick to pick up on. He sends me a text mid day today (Saturday), telling me that his best friend works security at the bowling alley, and if I want to, I could meet him. Hmm... that was weird, would I really say no to meeting his friend? It just made me really nervous, I almost wish he hadn't let me know ahead of time.

I got to the bowling alley before he did, and waited outside for him. He showed up just a few minutes after me, and we headed in. It was packed due to some parties, and it was going to be almost an hour wait for a lane. Instead of waiting, he introduced me to his friend, and then we decided that we'd go elsewhere to bowl for the night. I chose a bowling alley that's a little bit further away, and definitely way trendier when it comes to bowling alleys. We decided to take one car, and instead of leaving my car in the seedy bowling alley parking lot, we drove over to his work, and left my car in the parking lot there. From there, we drove over to the bowling alley in his car, which made me feel better about the whole one car versus two from earlier. Silly, I know.

We get to the bowling alley, get our lanes, and no sooner do we sit down and start putting on our shoes, do I notice some people in the lanes next to us who look familiar to me. It's not until I see my aunt that I realize that it's my uncle's 50th birthday party going on, right next to me. Well, if I was nervous about meeting this guy's best friend, at least he didn't throw me in the midst of a family member's birthday party. Of course, I go over and give my aunt a hug and say hello, and wish my uncle a happy birthday. It was slightly awkward. Ok, if I were my date, I'd probably be WAY uncomfortable, but he handled it like a champ. We bowled 3 games, and my only problem with bowling as a date with just 2 people, is it's hard to have any kind of consistent conversation. We managed fairly well, I think. There was good banter, some playful teasing, and lots of "that's what she said" moments. I think bowling just calls for it. There's too much that can be taken out of context in a bowling alley that is borderline questionable. It was fun, he beat me 2 out of 3 games, despite his claims that he's a terrible bowler. It's possible that I'm just a horrific bowler, but I broke 100 on 2 of those games (came damn close with a 99 the other game). It was a lot of fun, and he even branched out and tried some new food again, this time it was hummus. And he liked it. Wooohoo for food adventurousness.

He drove me back to my car after the bowling alley, we chatted about music mostly. When we got back to my car, it was a fairly awkward goodbye still. There was no mention of hanging out again, but then he kissed me when I was leaving. And we kissed for a few minutes in his car, then...I left. No "let's do this again soon" comments. So this leaves me to wonder if I misread any of the signals, if he's not interested in seeing me again, or if I'm just totally overreacting here. My guess is I'm overreacting, because besides him actually saying he wants to see me again - all signs point to yes, we'll probably do this again. I would like though the next time we hang out to be a bit more intimate, maybe I'll invite him over to my place to watch a movie or something. Something where it does not have to be a car/awkward goodbye, and maybe we can amp up the physical connection before the moment I'm leaving for the night. Everything else about this seems to be going exactly as it should. I'm not sure why it has to be so hard. (That's what she said.)