Inspired in part by a recent conversation about best and worst first dates and a random tweet about waterfalls, I thought it might be interesting to blog about some of the first dates I have experienced. So begins this series of blog postings entitled “The eX-Files.” I will be calling everyone either by A) the nickname I gave them when we dated, or B) the nickname they earned after we stopped dating.
First up is Mr. T. He will be called “Mr. T” for the purposes of this blog because, well…when he dressed up as Mr. T for Halloween one year, he could have hired himself out as an impersonator it was such a fantastic imitation. Mr. T and I met at a party of a mutual friend. He is probably the cutest hunk of manly I have ever seen, and is ridiculously cocky to boot – cockiness being one of my favorite character traits in a man (no, really, I’m not being sarcastic). I went to the party with a friend who was was making it very hard for him to talk to me – mostly because at Smyff we assume all men are sketchy until evidence to the contrary is provided, and we tend to be very protective of our friends during the initial “are you or aren’t you one sketchy-ass motherfucker” period of inquisition.
I ended up leaving the party early, but gave him my number before I left – something I hardly ever do – and I never thought he would call me. Not only did he call me, but he did so later on that same night! He complained that he hadn’t had enough chance to talk to me because I was there with “the best cockblocking wingman on the face of the planet,” and still today remembers fondly the hard time she gave him when we first met.
T and I ended up talking on the phone until the wee hours of the night, something that became somewhat of a habit with us. We ended up going on our first date after a lengthy period of phone flirtation – which, as far as I know, is much better than chatting online. We liked each other enough that we decided to try for “best first date ever” and combined one of my favorite activities with one of his favorite activities – which is how we ended up going swimming/jumping in the freezing cold waterfall in Northampton, MA in October…followed by finger-licking Southern-style BBQ. I really didn’t think the waterfall would have cooled off so much since I had been in August, but it had and was so cold when i jumped in I thought I was going to die.
It turned out we were both cocky show-offs and each was trying to impress the other, so we ended up braving that freezing water for a nipply hour before finally calling mutual uncle and going for THE BEST Southern BBQ I had eaten since leaving FL – and the best HE had eaten since leaving Georgia. It’s very rare that folks in New England actually know how to properly cook greens – I’ve experienced limp/nasty greens even at really hoity-toity over-priced restaurants in West Hartford.
He and I are still very close – even though he’s back in Georgia, I visited him a few months ago for his birthday (hosted in a microbrewery), and we’re planning a two-week vacation to München, Germany/Belgium/etc. for the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest in 2010. One of the things we always have agreed on is the importance of good beer – you know, all relationships need a strong foundation…and we both desperately want to go to the Trappist Abbeys.