2005-05-07 - 3:43 p.m.
I met her at that Clinton speech last week. She was sitting near me in the up front rock star section for people with disabilities (she has rheumatoid arthritis and can�t really climb stairs). We talked before the speech and I thought she was so pretty and cool.
I asked her to coffee afterwards. The nearest place was actually that same Starbucks that I used to patronize a lot and where I had my last date. I got a caramel macchiato of course.
I took my scooter to get there. I wasn�t embarrassed (well, maybe a little). I didn�t think I ever could have done that, gone somewhere on it with someone I maybe thought was cute (admittedly, it was a little awkward matching her pace and, after I found out she had rheumatoid arthritis, I felt bad that I�d asked her to walk so far). But it was different with her somehow. I didn�t feel ashamed.
I don�t know if it was an actual �date�, as a mutual friend came by halfway through, and I�ve learned enough not to ask. But we had a really good time. I emailed her after to say I had fun and asked her to dinner. I noted that, since she had bought me my Starbucks drink, I owed her. She has a car (a relative rarity around here in college-world) and I proposed we go to a far off restaurant I thought would be impressively exotic.
We went last night. I was exhausted after staying up most of the night to finish my final paper for �American Masculinities� (although I did take a nap before she got here), but she�d apparently stayed up all night too. Of course when we got to the place I�d suggested, we found it had closed down and been replaced by a florist. Doh!
We went to a different place downtown (I won�t publicize it cause my friend who�s the executive chef at Lot 401 has some beef with the folks there). Once there she told me she kept kosher, but not strictly enough that she couldn�t eat out as long as it was vegetarian. Still, I felt like strike two.
But dinner with her was so nice. I felt like we could talk forever. And she�s so pretty. Maybe I just have a low self-opinion, but I felt very lucky to be with her. I think we seemed to have the right amount in common and the right amount different to make an interesting match.
She�s a 23-year old senior (I think an eight year age difference is about as far as I�m willing to push it), a classics major, and a pre-med. Brown has a Program in Liberal Medical Education, where enrollees who do well in their undergraduate work can be accepted to Brown Medical School without having to take the MCAT. But she said she wants to apply to med school the old-fashioned way and is going back to her home in New York after graduation to study.
It�s funny; in the minutes before she came to pick me up, I was sitting on my front steps and calling around on my cell in search of a benediction for my date. Then two girls passing by gave me some flowers they had just picked. That was exactly what I needed. I gave them to her when she came.
When she dropped me off after dinner (I would have taken her to coffee again or something, but she�d already had), we sat in the car and talked more for a while. I think we were both kind of nervous about our wrap up. At least I was. I�ve always been pretty awkward about converting the play, so to speak, closing the deal. Finally I just came out and asked if I could give her a good night kiss.
It was so nice. I hadn�t done that in such a long time, almost a year. And we�re not talking a chaste peck on the cheek here (no, we�re not talking tonsil-hockey either; get your mind out of the gutter). There was real passion. Oh, I could second-guess the mental replay endlessly. (I think she kept her eyes open. Well, some people do that. But did she not like it? She didn�t back me off.) But that�s just me being neurotic.
I was floating on air afterwards. Exhausted as I was, I could barely sleep. I can still feel it now. A beautiful, brilliant girl kissed me. Maybe I�m worth kissing. Wow. She�s going away for a few days to study for her last exam, but we made plans to go out again after it.
� 2005 Geoff Gladstone
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