And another update...

So, I'm at church today and S. corners me again (the guy who may be MR...I'm not sure yet). So I'm enduring the excruciatingly painful conversation and dodging the spit that I am SO fearful will land on me. We are in the chapel at this point and waiting for a meeting to begin. He comes and sits in front of me, but then completely turns around in his seat to speak with me. It's the normal conversation..."Why haven't you called me back?" He actually hasn't called me recently, so I ask him when he'd called (it's been like 3 weeks). Awhile back I had (surprisingly) come up with a really good comeback, which was..."I don't call anybody." His response, "Oh...so, it isn't just me? You don't call anybody back?" "No, S. I don't." But, he must have been forgetting this prior conversation, because he wants to know why I haven't called. "I've just been really busy." "Well, why don't you give me a call and we can do something sometime." "Yeah, yeah. I'll try to give you a call this week."

At another point during the speaker he turns around completely again to like take a breather and talk to me, and he like extends his hand wanting to shake it? or hold it? I don't know. He says, "Hi, Meredith." "Hey, S." I pointed to the front and helped him realize that the speaker was that way and everybody else is looking forward. He has a tendency to just stare at girls. Oh, I forgot! When he turned around he was like looking at my necklace, or garments hanging out, or something. It's possible he was trying to tell me something, but him looking at my chest was making me extremely uncomfortable. So, I'm doing my best just to cross my arms around me completely.

Now, here's the great thing about this update... S. drops the "f." word FOUR times in the course of it!!!! We are in the chapel! He was struggling to say a word, and so was getting upset and therefore, cursing. I felt bad for him! But, I was hearing the "f" word in church! In the chapel! I'm sure he just hears it around him and so, echos it. He also said "What the hell?" at one point, and I responded with "S. you aren't allowed to say that in the chapel." His response, "Why? It's just like any other place." And so, I kind of laughed and was like "Oh, I'm just kidding."

So, there's the update. I can't give him a call this week though. I just can't.

Flashback

Me, Natalie, and Niki

I so loved getting together with these girls. Natalie is living in Vegas now, and Niki was in town visiting her family and was stopping in Vegas midway moving from Washington to NYC.

I think the reason I love being with these girls so much, is because they really know me well.

I think I saw Natalie once in 2003, but before that I hadn't seen her since 2001.

Let's just get down the conversation highlights of the evening:

1. Discussing our "hell" of a sophmore year, living in the Granary, and how every day one of us was crying...sobbing, doors being slammed. Remember, Ty, this is right around the time when you were in the picture (pre-mission). Sierra, wasn't all that happy with you around this time. Apparently, Natalie found a audiotape that we made for our guy friends who were on missions our Sophmore year, but when Natalie listened to it a couple years ago, she says all you can hear is us talking and laughing amongst ourselves, and not talking to them at all. We are SO DAMN funny it's unbelievable. I'm really glad that the audiotape apparently never got sent. Nat says you can hear Adrienne in the background like calming us down...of course. We are so ridiculous it's embarrassing.

2. Budge boys. This conversation entailed the retelling of a so-called event in the history of our freshman year (1998) when the police showed up at Budge for some reason. And Whit Wright (of course) decided to make his appearance to the cops in a leopard speedo (or thong). Oh, and the kissing pole that apparently 3rd floor kept.

3. Me being 28 and ready to go (in all senses, but particularly one).

4. Lesbians, tree huggers in San Fran.

5. Niki being told by Adrienne's grandmother that her grandson has never put ice cream to his lips, and that Caleb shouldn't yet either.

6. Adrienne's parents hating Nat, Sierra, and I, because we decided we didn't care they didn't want us to go to the strip on New Year's Eve 2000. So, we went without Adrienne.

7. Me being off Facebook..."I don't want to know you." You're exposed to people you otherwise wouldn't be exposed to through Facebook, and it annoys me.

8. Crazy in-laws smoking pot.

9. Seeing Natalie's home they are building. We are getting so old and mature. I can't even believe it.

10. Being covered in vomit in the psych unit...Natalie's a nurse.

11. Garments. Wear them around the house? Or not?

12. Blogging. Greg's blog is ONLY Greg's blog and not Greg AND Natalie's blog. Whatever. It's the same thing.

13. Our reunion. NYC? Puerto Rico? Cabo? The real question? Why didn't we do it in San Fran ever?

I love you guys so much!

And it begins...

So, my friends, I am blogger ready.

I've just returned from my friend Stacy's wedding reception where the bride and groom could not have been any cuter (and of course, being the non-picture taker that I am, I don't even think to take any pictures). It's almost depressing how cute they were.

I stopped at Cafe Rio after I left and was talking to my friend, Savannah. We start discussing a certain event in my life that she has already been privy to, and then the feeling came to me -- I had had a perfect day -- rollarblading in the morning, laying out at the pool all day, got a pedicure, went to the wedding reception, picked up Cafe Rio and I was going to finish it off blogging about this certain event that Savannah assures me is blog worthy. It really is a great story. I don't know why I didn't think to blog about it.

So...after all that...we begin.

I'm not leaving out a single detail. I think this story warrants a play-by-play.

The story begins with a simple passing (or giving, if you will) of my phone number. No big deal.

I get the call Tuesday night and agree to a date for Saturday night. It's a good first date.

I met his family Sunday (He invited me. I KNOW -- this seems totally weird, but it was Easter weekend and I was bored and kind of felt like being around little kids for an easter egg hunt, so I went). He lives with a family member and another family member lives nearby, so they were all over. It was a last minute thing.

Next weekend we go out again. Here's where it gets good, or maybe horribly, horribly awkward. We go to the Springs Preserve and then to dinner. We're driving by a movie theater and so I say something like, "I don't even know what's out right now." I wasn't asking to go to a movie. I'm just making conversation. He asks if I'd want to go to a movie or rent a movie. I respond affirmitavely for either -- I don't care what we do. So, it was kind of late to make it to the 9:30 shows (I guess), so we go to rent a movie at Red Box. We are back in the car and I realize we are driving to my house, which was completely unexpected, because he didn't even ask me. Whatever. I just hoped I wouldn't bug Loree if she was watching something and we show up with "August Rush" to watch, and kick her out. We get home. Loree's in her room reading, so it works out just fine. Does that not seem odd though? I guess he doesn't bring people to where he lives, because he lives with his sister's family, but still, you've got to clear things with people. He didn't ask me, so I just assumed he had something worked out. If there's one thing that bugs me (of the many, many things) it's a failure to communicate.

So, we are watching "August Rush" -- awful, awful movie by the way. I can't handle cheesy movies. And here we go peeps...you ready?

He holds my hand! My hand was NOWHERE in the vicinity of asking to be held. Whatever, though, so we hold hands, but really, he's holding my hand, but I'm not holding his if that makes sense. This is how I feel about it...hand holding is a very intimate exchange. Definitely more intimate than kissing. Yes, yes, it's true. I can and will make out with just about anybody. However, I certainly don't. So, back to the hand holding. I just can't do it. I feel way too awkward about it. PERHAPS a hand-hold can come before I first kiss, but I just feel weird about it. I just 100% have always felt more comfortable kissing some guy than holding hands with them. Honestly, my hand holding experiences have been very few, because my relationship experiences have been so incredibly few.

So, I'll continue to admit the awkwardness that is me and of this situation...At one point I even pull away and comment on my horribly sweaty hands. I told you I wasn't going to leave out one detail! So, yes, I was sweaty, because I was horribly nervous and awkward! I didn't want to be holding his hand! So, it has been mentioned that I could've just gotten up at some point, come back, and crossed my arms for the remainder of the movie. And yes, this could have been the tactic, but I'm too damn nice!

I'm even second guessing myself as I'm tying this and wondering if I should really be so verbal and exposing so much.

So, the night ends with nothing noteworthy.

And then the next day after church (where I didn't really see him at), I get a voice mail, basically along these lines...

"Hey, Meredith, I didn't really get to talk to you at church today, and I just wanted to say hi. I wanted to let you know that I really had fun on our date last night. I hope I wasn't too forward for you. I guess I just really like you...and that's what I was doing..." (and his voice trails off right there). He closes the voicemail.

So, I CANNOT even believe this voicemail. I call Hunter immediately needing advice. Hunter tells me that the guy has poured his heart out here and so I have to give him some sort of response. So, I do, eventually. I text him, because Hunter points out that a text is a way to say I'm contacting you, but I don't really want to talk to you. This is something I clearly know, but in times of uncertainty as to the correct form of behavior it is good to be reminded of why we do the things we do. I basically resort to not texting OR calling people back ever, just because I avoid any form of contact, but in this situation I couldn't do this.

I regress...so, I text this..."Maybe it was a bit forward, but don't worry about it. Maybe I just need a little space. Hope you have a good Sunday too."

He responds (maybe the next morning? I can't remember) "What does 'need a little space' mean?" He proceeds to list a serious of options that I guess I'm supposed to choose from, like, "I'm interested, but don't know how interested" "Get lost, I never want to see you again" and etc, etc. For the last option he's like "Fill in the blank..." He also includes in the text something about him being a "big boy" and being able to take it. He additionally, suggests that I "ask Becca Marsh" about him who is a friend of his (acquaintance of mine) and apparently she can shed some light for me on how cool she thinks his is and that I should totally date him. BLAH....
So, I text back appalled!, "No, I am not going to ask Becca about you!" (I don't even talk to the girl) and I continue "I don't know if I'm interested and that's why I need a little space."

And, so you think this is done. Hell, I thought it was done after the first, "Maybe I just need a little space" but apparently he needed further clarification. Let me just mention that Hunter is shocked at the gall of this guy since I am telling Hunter at every step of the way what is being texted back and forth.

But, it's still kind of not done. He texts back something like..."Hah! Okay, we can just be friends. I think you are a fantastic girl." Whatever. So, what is crazy about all of this is that I never said I just wanted to be friends!

And then, I've really just interacted with him once since all of this (and this was a long time ago). He seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. I totally was wanting to talk to him when I saw him on this once occasion at church! And he was SO cold to me. He shook my hand and continued to walk past me!

So, now apparently, I don't have a chance in hell of dating him even if I wanted to! And what if I do! Who knows!

So, it is confirmed yet again...dating sucks. It's okay though, it prooved to be a really entertaining story to tell.