The undate

So, by now, I'm sure some of you are wondering how the date went. As alluded to by the title, the date for coffee didn't happen. As I was getting ready to travel into the city, she called me to tell me that she couldn't make it. She told me that she would call me back. I guess I wasn't the only one with cold feet.

The reason I haven't gotten around to writing this update is because I've been laid low by a pretty serious sinus infection. I spent most of Friday and Saturday in bed gasping for breath and feeling sorry for myself. I'm pretty much on the road to recovery at this point. I will refrain from describing the details of how I know I'm recovering. For those who have had a sinus infection, it's no longer green.

Instead, I will tell you about what I did after learning that the tentative date was off. Rather than waste the night off from work, I went into the city and met up with some friends who were having dinner at a place called Eight Mile Creek. It's an austrailian themed restaurant that has a very cozy environment. (Read: Hole in the wall that has a nice atmosphere.) It's on Mulberry street, a few blocks south of Houston street. I made the mistake of thinking it was a short walk from Canal St. It was interesting walking up Little Italy with the feast going on.

For the meat eaters out there, I can say that the kangaroo meat was very tender, probably as good as a five star steak (which I have had the opportunity to sample). The portions are about the same too (about four ounces before cooking). I kept wanting to ask for seconds. It was also a bit pricy, but this is New York City, so the prices may have been in line with others in the area.

I also had the ginger pudding for dessert. It was also a bit on the small side. It tasted ok, but at that point, I had a few drinks, so my sense of taste may have been addled. Speaking of which, I had forgotten how much it costs to actually pay for drinks instead of going up to an open bar. I have been very spoiled. The tab for the meal came out to about $75 including my share of the drinks.

After dinner (around midnight), as we all went our separate ways, I realized I didn't know where the nearest subway station was. I wasn't going to stand on pride and asked one of my friends to point out where the 1,2, and 3 trains were. (I took the LIRR into the city.) This was a mistake to ask someone more inebriated than I was. He pointed me in the direction of Houston street.

I wandered uptown until I hit Bleeker street. Then I wandered along Lafayette street, crossed 4th street, realized I was on the wrong side of Broadway, so I turned left and walked by Washington Square park. There I wandered by some NYU students. Oddly enough, as I caught snippets of their conversation, I wanted to keep on listening, but like most natives of the city, their pace was far to quick for me to keep up with and not appear to be following them.

Did I mention I was addled? I walked right by the 6 train entrance and never noticed. I kept walking until I arrived at 7th avenue. I thought there was a subway entrance nearby (Christopher St.), but didn't see it. So, I turned north walking until I arrived at the 14th street subway entrance. I think I may have walked through the (in)famous West Village and past St. Vincent's Hospital on my way north. From the 14th street subway entrance, I made it safely home.

An interesting night spent with friends followed by a walk I would never have attempted if I had been sober. I had the opportunity to walk myself sober. I suppose this girl having cold feet that night gave me the opportunity to experience a part of New York I would not have gone out to see. As I ambled around on my way home, I felt like I was in a little bubble touring a different part of the world.

I have mixed feelings about this.

So. I called her. We have a date for coffee Thursday in Manhattan. We're meeting there because she lives in New Jersey. I took the night off at one of my jobs so that I can go in and meet up with her.

I've mixed feelings about this. I'm already getting cold feet. Lol. I am not sure that this is a good idea. Yet, I am eagerly anticipating this. If I weren't so darn busy, I'd spend a day and a half meditating on this so that I could get an idea of where I really stand on this matter. Instead, I'll be too busy to put a thought to how I feel and what I will say or do when we meet.

Is it too late to call this thing off? And still, I can hardly wait.

Not a word and a number already

Regretably, I continue to not be as prolific as I desire to be. Especially in light of the fact that a year has passed since I started writing my innermost thoughts for all the world to see. My intended emancipation from my introverted self and it passed quietly in the night.

These past two weeks hjave been a whirlwind of getting used to new professors, lamenting the unreasonably high costs of books, cursing the publishers who charge over a hundred dollars for an eighty page technical manual, catching up with friends I haven't seen since the summer began and in terms of relationships, picking up right where it left off before the summer began.

Yes, I have been very quiet about my relationship prospects. Much like the typical summer weather, they dried up and disappeared in the heat. Or so I thought. Once September started, women have been chasing me. I'm starting to feel a bit hunted. I will discuss one of these that happened in these past two weeks in this post.

These past few weekends have been abundantly filled with weddings. I've attended six of them since that last one I sort of invited myself to. Being one of the rare few asian road techs in the area, I often find myself out of place at the typical American wedding. Asians don't seem to hire my company out much to entertain during their weddings, so I don't get to go to many asian weddings.

Imagine my surprise when I stood by the DJ one night at a wedding and caught sight of this asian female staring right at me while dancing with her non-asian date. I couldn't hide my amused smile. I kept the smile on my face and made clear that I was just surveying the entire room. Yet, in the corner of my eye, I could see her and I could see that her attention was fully upon me as she danced with her date. This guy even glanced a few times in my direction but always saw that I was looking elsewhere.

After a few songs like this, his face clouded up and he went to sit down, apparently refusing to dance anymore. She sat down for a song or two, then got up to dance with some other females on the dance floor. At this point, I admit that she had my attention, as I was curious to see what she would do. When the song ended, she walked up to the DJ booth and ostensibly requested Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake.

I could feel her eyes on me even as I looked in the other direction. Then as the song came on, she stood three feet in front of the booth and started dancing for all she was worth. I couldn't ignore her at this point. The videographer was standing directly opposite of me and taping her as she danced. I was assuredly going to end up on the wedding video.

Now, I'm not a homewrecker. I wasn't even trying to play hard to get. I really don't like stealing girlfriends. But, I was very tempted to borrow this one. I knew that dance was just for me, and she was not unattractive. I could still see her date seated at the table, arms crossed and a glare on his face. I chose not to roll the dice that evening, as sorely tempted as I was. Call me what you will, but I tried to do the right thing.

As I type this, I am staring at a slip of paper with her number on it. She gave it to the DJ before leaving for the night. He passed it on to me with that knowing smile on his face before we started to pack up the equipment. He even made a few off color suggestions.

I've never been given any girl's phone number before. I'm much more used to being the one giving out my number, hoping one will call me back. I'm not even sure I want to go through with this. If she's willing to leave one guy without even speaking to the next, what will she do in the future?

I may be overanalyzing this, but remember, I haven't spoken a single word to this girl, and I have her phone number already. I'm going to have to decide soon, as I doubt she'll wait very long for my call.

To Crash a Wedding...

As tropical depression Ernesto rolled into town, I crashed a wedding reception. That's right. I am now a wedding crasher. And no, I've never seen the movie. Though someone mentioned that I looked like Vince Vaughn while I was at the wedding.

I showed up at a wedding that I knew about through conversation I had with the groom's father. In fact, he even invited me to the cocktail hour so that we could play a (cruel?) trick on his son. I was going to introduce myself as his long lost, older half brother. I even had an idea of what the wedding party was going to wear, so I picked up a similar vest and euro tie.

Think what you may, I never got around to formally introducing myself to the groom, so the joke wasn't played upon the unsuspecting groom. Let's just say that he darted a few glances my way throughout the evening as he was dancing with his newly wedded bride. And when I walked up to take a picture of the groom dancing with his mother, he paused long enough to let me snap the picture.

Instead, I made sure that I was on the video tape they made of the reception and that the wedding photographer caught a few pictures of me in the background having a grand old time. I danced with the guests. I danced with the groom's mother. And, I also danced with the bride's mother. I congratulated the groom's grandmother and I drank some shots with a few of the ushers.

However, I made sure that many of the guests knew the true story and made sure they all knew I was crashing the wedding. They probably had a better laugh out of the evening knowing that the groom and bride will have to puzzle out whose side of the family I was on when they return from their honeymoon. Best of all, most of the bridal party knew the truth about my attendance as well. So many of them found it quite amusing that I was "crashing" the party.

Everyone I talked to eagerly looked forward to my "formal" introduction to the newly wedded couple. Alas, he, the groom, spent most of his night dancing with his bride, so I never had the opportunity to introduce myself. I left it to the groom's father to carry on the joke upon their return.

So, on my only night off for the rest of the month, I crashed a wedding and partied the night away. Now, it's time to dash off to another wedding, which I won't be an uninvited guest, rather a hired hand working to make sure every one of their guests has a good time. I hope everyone had as good a laugh as I had over this story.