The Big Date with the Big Fixup
Sorry to keep my reader waiting!
I guess I will describe the events of the date and then I will maybe list some good and bad 'bullet points'.
The actual logistics of the date were entirely left to me. I can be kind of indecisive sometimes (I'm sure that doesn't help me with the ladies any), so this was a point of some stress for me as I tried to decide where we should go. The parameters were that 'hanging out' somewhere followed by dinner would be the preferred course of action. This was all I had to work with! In the end, I settled upon a trip to the Nasher Sculpture Center followed by dinner. I like art museums and I hadn't been to the Nasher before. I chose Celebration as the dinner destination despite my dislike of the name due to the fact that I have been there before and they have pretty non-offensive food for just about any taste. I have to say that it felt good to be so decisive, so I might have to do that more often. I thought it would be good to ride together to the museum, so we met at the restaurant at 2:30. My date, who shall henceforth be known as Mabel, arrived just seconds before I did. After the introductory handshake (which was OK seeing as how we haven't been conversing for very long), we were off to the museum.
I was pretty nervous before my date, but Mabel put me at ease quickly because she is very easy to talk to. We had a good conversation on the way to the museum. I paid the way for both of us to get into the museum. I guess some people feel like a first date should be split by the parties money-wise, I feel like the guy should pay, but sometimes you have to just wing it. To me, if the woman insists on paying for half of everything, it makes me feel like she's not that interested, and that's her way of assuaging her guilt about potentially leading on this guy she doesn't like. Of course, to some people it may just seem polite. By the same token, I wouldn't want a woman to feel like I'm expecting some kind of payback for my generosity (because I don't). So, sometimes you have to just go with the flow. The museum itself was very nice, but it isn't very big. It only took us about an hour and 10 minutes to check out the whole thing. They have an indoor gallery and an outdoor garden as well. We started inside and then made our way to the outside portion. It was pretty damn hot outside! I would like to visit again sometime when the weather turns nicer. The highlight of the garden is a large outdoor sculpture that you actually get inside. There is a high walled room inside with an opening that looks out onto the open sky with benches that you sit on that angle your view up towards the opening when you lean back. Mabel liked this room quite a bit, as did I. If it hadn't been so hot outside we might have stayed here for awhile. After seeing a few more things inside, the last stop was the gift shop. Mabel surprised me by buying me a post card with a picture of a sculpture that I had commented on earlier. Aww. I was so flabbergasted that I did not execute a reciprocal purchase. So we ended up leaving the museum about 4 PM. I knew that they closed at 5, so I had identified the gap between leaving the museum and a reasonable dinner hour to be a potential issue.
So, it looked like we had about an hour to kill. I decided that it might be nice to go get a beer somewhere, so after driving around for a little bit I struck on the idea of going to the Tipperary Inn. This turned out to be a good choice. Mabel ordered an Ace Pear Cider and I got a Newcastle Ale. I had not been in the Tipperary before. I had tried to go one time a couple of years ago, but it was closed for renovation at the time. I had read about it, though. It is set up to be like a traditional Irish pub, complete with Irish bartender. It's pretty cool, and it wasn't very crowded at 4:20 in the afternoon. Now, apparently Mabel is pretty much a lightweight when it comes to alcohol and she hadn't eaten anything all day, so I think she was feeling pretty good by the end of the pear cider. Mabel insisted on paying for the drinks. I protested a couple of times, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. We finished our drinks and then headed to the restaurant.
We got to the restaurant at about 5:35, so it wasn't too crowded. We decided to eat inside since it was still a bit hot outside. We had our meal, and then paid the check at about 6:40 according to the receipt. I insisted on paying for the meal. I had one more beer with dinner, but Mabel just had a diet Coke. She says that she sobered up about halfway through the meal. The conversation seemed pretty good. We then became the kind of customers that restaurants (and other diners) must hate - we sat there talking for 3 more hours without ordering any more drinks or anything. It was kind of funny to see the table next to us cycle through about 3 times. If we kept anyone waiting for a table - Sorry!
As we said our goodbyes, it didn't seem like this was going to be a kiss-type situation. Maybe I'm just a wuss. But I am somewhat introverted, as is Mabel, so I had to settle for a hug which I initiated. Unfortunately it was somewhat of the 'ass out' variety. Mabel did mention without my prompting that we should get together again (hopefully not just empty words). So, to me it seemed like a success, but I am a notoriously bad judge of these things. From my standpoint I have to say that I really like her, and I hope we can go out again. We seem to be very similar in a lot of our viewpoints on life and our personalities.
The Good:
* Mabel seemed happy with my choices of date activities
* The postcard at the museum
* Mabel said that the blind dates she has been on have been disasters, and she told me that this one was not a disaster (could mean it's not great either, though!)
* The date lasted 7 hours
The Bad:
* Mabel said that it might not be a good thing for people who are too similar to date (i.e. if you're both indecisive, how will you ever decide what to do?). She also mentioned this to me on the phone on Wednesday toward the end of our conversation.
* The 'ass-out' hug
I guess I will describe the events of the date and then I will maybe list some good and bad 'bullet points'.
The actual logistics of the date were entirely left to me. I can be kind of indecisive sometimes (I'm sure that doesn't help me with the ladies any), so this was a point of some stress for me as I tried to decide where we should go. The parameters were that 'hanging out' somewhere followed by dinner would be the preferred course of action. This was all I had to work with! In the end, I settled upon a trip to the Nasher Sculpture Center followed by dinner. I like art museums and I hadn't been to the Nasher before. I chose Celebration as the dinner destination despite my dislike of the name due to the fact that I have been there before and they have pretty non-offensive food for just about any taste. I have to say that it felt good to be so decisive, so I might have to do that more often. I thought it would be good to ride together to the museum, so we met at the restaurant at 2:30. My date, who shall henceforth be known as Mabel, arrived just seconds before I did. After the introductory handshake (which was OK seeing as how we haven't been conversing for very long), we were off to the museum.
I was pretty nervous before my date, but Mabel put me at ease quickly because she is very easy to talk to. We had a good conversation on the way to the museum. I paid the way for both of us to get into the museum. I guess some people feel like a first date should be split by the parties money-wise, I feel like the guy should pay, but sometimes you have to just wing it. To me, if the woman insists on paying for half of everything, it makes me feel like she's not that interested, and that's her way of assuaging her guilt about potentially leading on this guy she doesn't like. Of course, to some people it may just seem polite. By the same token, I wouldn't want a woman to feel like I'm expecting some kind of payback for my generosity (because I don't). So, sometimes you have to just go with the flow. The museum itself was very nice, but it isn't very big. It only took us about an hour and 10 minutes to check out the whole thing. They have an indoor gallery and an outdoor garden as well. We started inside and then made our way to the outside portion. It was pretty damn hot outside! I would like to visit again sometime when the weather turns nicer. The highlight of the garden is a large outdoor sculpture that you actually get inside. There is a high walled room inside with an opening that looks out onto the open sky with benches that you sit on that angle your view up towards the opening when you lean back. Mabel liked this room quite a bit, as did I. If it hadn't been so hot outside we might have stayed here for awhile. After seeing a few more things inside, the last stop was the gift shop. Mabel surprised me by buying me a post card with a picture of a sculpture that I had commented on earlier. Aww. I was so flabbergasted that I did not execute a reciprocal purchase. So we ended up leaving the museum about 4 PM. I knew that they closed at 5, so I had identified the gap between leaving the museum and a reasonable dinner hour to be a potential issue.
So, it looked like we had about an hour to kill. I decided that it might be nice to go get a beer somewhere, so after driving around for a little bit I struck on the idea of going to the Tipperary Inn. This turned out to be a good choice. Mabel ordered an Ace Pear Cider and I got a Newcastle Ale. I had not been in the Tipperary before. I had tried to go one time a couple of years ago, but it was closed for renovation at the time. I had read about it, though. It is set up to be like a traditional Irish pub, complete with Irish bartender. It's pretty cool, and it wasn't very crowded at 4:20 in the afternoon. Now, apparently Mabel is pretty much a lightweight when it comes to alcohol and she hadn't eaten anything all day, so I think she was feeling pretty good by the end of the pear cider. Mabel insisted on paying for the drinks. I protested a couple of times, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. We finished our drinks and then headed to the restaurant.
We got to the restaurant at about 5:35, so it wasn't too crowded. We decided to eat inside since it was still a bit hot outside. We had our meal, and then paid the check at about 6:40 according to the receipt. I insisted on paying for the meal. I had one more beer with dinner, but Mabel just had a diet Coke. She says that she sobered up about halfway through the meal. The conversation seemed pretty good. We then became the kind of customers that restaurants (and other diners) must hate - we sat there talking for 3 more hours without ordering any more drinks or anything. It was kind of funny to see the table next to us cycle through about 3 times. If we kept anyone waiting for a table - Sorry!
As we said our goodbyes, it didn't seem like this was going to be a kiss-type situation. Maybe I'm just a wuss. But I am somewhat introverted, as is Mabel, so I had to settle for a hug which I initiated. Unfortunately it was somewhat of the 'ass out' variety. Mabel did mention without my prompting that we should get together again (hopefully not just empty words). So, to me it seemed like a success, but I am a notoriously bad judge of these things. From my standpoint I have to say that I really like her, and I hope we can go out again. We seem to be very similar in a lot of our viewpoints on life and our personalities.
The Good:
* Mabel seemed happy with my choices of date activities
* The postcard at the museum
* Mabel said that the blind dates she has been on have been disasters, and she told me that this one was not a disaster (could mean it's not great either, though!)
* The date lasted 7 hours
The Bad:
* Mabel said that it might not be a good thing for people who are too similar to date (i.e. if you're both indecisive, how will you ever decide what to do?). She also mentioned this to me on the phone on Wednesday toward the end of our conversation.
* The 'ass-out' hug
posted by JC at 6:20 PM
3 Comments:
Okay - even the bad sounds like good to me.. because she was pointing out silly similarities. It all sounds good to me. And even on my best of dates - I do the wuss out hug.
BTW - you are in McKinney.. where the heck are all these places? Did you make up names? I mean, I do know places in the DFW area.. I'm.. lost yet again.
I'm glad you had fun - yay! Living vicariously.. my kinda life!
Thanks for the encouragement, I hope you're right!
The only made up name in the post was 'Mabel'. I hadn't heard of Celebration until about a year and a half ago. It's on Lovers Lane west of Inwood. Apparently it's been around since 1971. It started out in a house and I think they gradually expanded to take over three houses. Their menu could best be described as home cooking. Tipperary Inn is in Lakewood at the corner of Live Oak and Skillman. I definitely want to go back there sometime and maybe try some of their food.
I swiped the idea of the 'ass-out' hug from the movie Wedding Crashers. You know that hug you do when you're trying not to get too close to someone and your ass is kind of sticking out?
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