The Very Best First Last Date Ever...

A few weeks ago a guy messaged me on OKCupid. He was cute, funny, but young(ish) so I didn't really put any serious interest into his communication.

We ended up chatting on Yahoo messenger and against my better judgment, when he asked me out on Friday I said yes.

Remind me to not listen to my better judgment more often. It is completely clueless.

Well after a bunch of spastic texts trying to figure out what we were going to do (me being the spaz) we decided to go to the park, hang out for a while then go to dinner.

Municipal park here in Mobile is really nice. It surrounds a small body of water that I suppose you'd call a lake, or large pond, so the plan was to just sit out near the water and get to know each other.

Here's a pic of the park from the City of Mobile website.

The original plan was that PT, I guess I need to give him a name, and he drives a PT Cruiser so I suppose that will work, anyway, PT was supposed to pick me up at 5pm, we'd hang at the park or a couple hours then go to dinner at 7pm.

Well by 3:15, I'm ready, apparently he's ready and we're both just waiting for 5 o'clock to roll around. He texts me and asks what I'm doing, I say nothing, just waiting, what is he doing, he replies the same. So I say that if he'd like he can go ahead and come get me and we'll just go out early.

I want to say here that this was the first date I'd been on in over 8 years. I was in a relationship from 2000-2003 and I just really hadn't felt mentally or emotionally ready to meet someone between then and now.

So as I'm standing outside waiting for him to get there I text him "I feel like I'm going to throw up. Tell me again why I have no reason to be nervous".

I know.. nice huh? It's a wonder he didn't turn the car around right then and go back home. But he didn't. He's pretty terrific that way. :-)

He pulls up, and I don't even give the poor guy a chance to show me the gentleman he is, I just run walk quickly to the car and get in. On the way to the park conversation was light and comfortable.

We get to the park and decide to sit on a platform that's right at the edge of the water. While we're walking to the platform we hear music. Turns out there was a band playing in the pavilion that day.

We didn't go up close enough to really see, but from the sound of the singer it was an old black man and a younger lady, and they were singing old gospel and blues songs. And since both PT and I have a very strong love of God there really couldn't have been a more perfect backdrop.

The weather couldn't have behaved any better either. Sunny, but cool, with a really nice breeze that would come and go.

So we're sitting on the platform, looking out over the water, watching ducks wander around the park, listening to old gospel and blues in the background, talking about this and that and it starts to sprinkle. Just a very light mist, not enough to get you wet but enough to feel cool when the sun started getting warm.

I like to think what happened next was pure serendipity. I've never been kissed in the rain. Sad I know. Well as I'm sitting there thinking, he's really cute, and we really seem to click, and we have so much in common, and I've never been kissed in the rain, and this would so be the perfect moment if he just leaned over, he says, "You know something I've never done?".

"What's that?" I ask.

He looks at me and says, "I've never kissed in the rain."

I'm grinning like an idiot right now typing this lol - some times life really really is good.

So I say, "Really?, Neither have I."

I'm thinking to myself. Ok this is the moment.. he's going to lean over and kiss me and it will be perfect!

Nope.

So we're sitting there.. just sitting.. silence.. sitting.. FINALLY!!

And it was the sweetest moment ever. Then he says.. "oops.. it stopped raining"

We laugh and kiss again.

We ended up sitting there chatting for almost 4 hours, and not once was there an awkward or stilted or uncomfortable moment the entire time.

Shortly before 7pm we left the park to go to dinner at a little sushi place. I've never had sushi and really wasn't sure I'd like it, but I'll try almost anything once so I decided what the heck.

I have to be honest, it was pretty darn good. We had smoked salmon, and California rolls and some little dumpling looking things. Oh yea and the whole using ginger to cleanse your palate with thing? Genius! Warning - if you've never eaten raw ginger, it's got a hella bite to it. But once you're done chewing the taste is gone and it really does leave your taste buds clean for the next bite.

The restaurant was short staffed that night so between chatting and waiting and eating, dinner lasted close to two hours, but again, just complete comfort. Like meeting an old friend for the first time, if that makes any sense.

After dinner we decided to go back to the park. We stopped by my apartment to pick up a blanket and when we got to the park we laid it out on the grass and, are you ready for this, it's so sweet I almost can't type it... we spent the next hour talking and lying under the stars. OK so we only talked some.. and made out a little more than some, but it was really the absolute perfect ending to an absolutely perfect date.

After we were uh kindly instructed by the local PD that the park closes after dark, well there wasn't a sign!!, he drove me home. When he pulled up at my apartment he turned off the car, which I thought was odd, so I asked if he was going to come in.

A gentleman to the end.. He said no, but that he was going to walk me to the door. I know how sweet.

So as perfect as this all was, you may be wondering why I titled this the Very Best First Last Date Ever...

I think I'll save that for the next post, so make sure to stick around to find out :)