Grease Lightening and grilled cheeses

Last night was my date with the Welschman. To quote one of my best friends, I was just "not in the mood." I would have been perfectly content sitting on my couch, eating a grilled cheese sandwich and watching Pushing Daisies on ABC, however I had agreed to this date and so I had to step up to the plate (ha! that rhymed). In order to pump myself up, I drank a glass of red wine and forced Andi* to listen to my "Yo Mama" playlist which includes classy hits such as "Fiesta" by R-Kelly.

"Get excited, you will have fun," she said. "Besides its free drinks nonetheless. I told John* (her long distance boyfriend) I was going to have to start going on blind dates for free food and drinks. Sistas gotta eat."

"I totally respect that. Hopefully I'll get some free wine tonight," I said grabbing my keys and cell phone. "Wish me luck!"

"Good luck!" she yelled as the door shut behind me.

We were to meet on the corner of 3rd Street and Avenue B, at 8:30, or so I thought. As the clock struck 8:40 and I continued to stand in the frigid f-ing 20 degree cold, I had flashbacks to when the Lawyer stood me up back in September. So I texted my co-worker, "He is MIA??!!" Only 3 minutes later, a cute guy popped out of the bar across the street and walked over to me. "You must be Hannah. Sorry, I meant for us to meet in the bar. I'm James*," he said in a sexy Welsch accent. Why helloooo.

We headed into the bar and he kindly ordered me a glass of red wine. Having already downed two glasses at home, I was already feeling a little chatty. "So, I hear you live on 2nd Street?" I started in, "I used to live on 2nd Street. A few blocks up. Across from the cemetery - kind of creepy. Do you take the Bleeker Street stop to work? I used to, now I walk to Astor Place. Oh, did you heard they might be doing away with the W and C trains? Not that that really affects me, but... Yeah, I like this neighborhood, I live above a burger shop so sometimes my apartment smells like burgers but other than that its wonderful!" Wow, word vommitt.

"Hmm, thats all kind of quirky, not weird, just quirky," he said.

"Ok, well tell me something 'quirky' about yourself then," I said.

"Lets see...I really, really like the musical/movie Grease. I can even tell you my favorite bit - its the Prom scene," he admitted. Hmm...uhhh...so this was no home schooling comment, but I was not expecting Go-go Grease Lightening.


"Well, I love Dirty Dancing! Nobody puts baby in the corner!" I said energetically, trying to even the playing field.

"Oh yeah, thats a good one, too," he said.

So you are probably thinking this date doesn't sound much better than sipping pomegranate martinis over 3 pieces of shashimi. But luckily, after we trudged through the awkward beginning territory and traversed the "hopes and dreams" section, we got into a really good conversation. He explained his family holiday traditions in Wales - which pretty much entails spending the entire day at the pub. I then told him about my two favorite parts of the holiday season: "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey, and fried turkey. The conversation went a little deeper, but luckily he never asked me to tell him something dark about myself.

Three glasses of wine later, I was drunk and he was looking even cuter... but I was also ready to go home and eat a grilled cheese sandwich. He walked me the three blocks
to my apartment . A group of loud hipsters were outside of the burger shop smoking, making our goodbye at my front door less than intimate. "So, I had a great time. I've got your email. We should do this again. I'll be in touch."

"Great! It was fun," I said. He leaned in, gave me a genuine hug and then walked away as I unlocked my door and stepped inside.

Once upstairs, I started making my grilled cheese sandwich and rehashing the date in my head. 7.5 out of 10? Really nice, but was there a spark? Also, what the hell is up with guys and saying, I'll email you, or I'll facebook you, as opposed to just getting my GD phone number. Stupid technology. Or it is it the new way of saying they're just not that into me??

I woke up this morning with a terrible headache and a desperate need for a bacon, egg and cheese bagel. Once at work, with bagel and coffee in hand, I told my co-worker all about the date. "So it went well! That's great!" she said. "I have to tell you something though, just as a heads up. Apparently he had a date Tuesday night and has another on Friday night. One girl he met on match.com and the other he met at a bar. But I'm sure you were way cooler than them."

Great. Competition for someone I'm not even sure I'm that into. Also, no email so far. I guess he is holding out the Friday date, just to see which girl's phone number is worthy to be added in his blackberry.