Thankful IV

The following weekend he flew in for the weekend. I had us chock full of fun activities, and yes I even had a spreadsheet.  The first order of business was to attend an outdoor concert. It was the first year for this concert, Outside Lands, and it was in Golden Gate Park, walking distance from my house. I got us all prepared with chairs and portable coolers and blankets and packed a picnic and boos. We trekked down there, set up camp, met up with our friends and started boozing it up.  This concert had multiple stages and the boys wanted to go see another performance. I was more than happy to stay at camp and chill. I was trying to be that cool nonclingy chick. 

BIG MISTAKE

Quite a bit of time went by and the main event, ?, came on. The boys had yet to return and it was getting dark. I was getting concerned. Cell phones were not working on account of the hordes of people being there.  I was getting freaked out.  The concert continued and I stood among the throngs alone. I was getting pissed.  People broke down the fences and rushed the stage, it was a mess. I was getting scared. After about two hours I decided for my own safety and sanity I needed to get out of there. I have no idea how I did this but on my person I packed two back packs-one in the front and one in the back. A chair slung on each side, a cooler pack on one arm, and a bag of blankets on another. I proceeded to push my way through the packed crowd and make it out of the park. It was pretty scary. I then walked uphill 30 blocks to home.  By the time I got home I was full blown pissed!!! I felt like I had been ditched. The boys had forgotten about me and put me in a unsafe place.  I was ready to pack his stuff and leave it on the curb. I get a little crazy when the anxiety starts.  Finally about an hour after I had gotten home and close to four hours since I had last seen him, I got a phone call from one of the boys.  The first boy on the phone, Dan, got my first verbal assault. All he could say was “You need to calm down”.  Note to men: when a chick is super upset that NEVER helps.  The next boy on the phone Matt, just starts defending himself, “There was nothing we could do, we tried, wasn’t our fault.”  Second note to men: when your behavior inadvertently or not puts a woman in peril, do not start with defending yourself.  Matt quickly handed the phone off to Ginger whose first words were “Are you okay?”  OMG it had such an effect on me. My anger started to quell and yep I started crying. Embarrassing.  That little act of simply starting with caring for my person, well it got me. It showed me something about his character that had been lacking with all the d-bags I had been dating for the past several years. He cared about me and my feelings. 

Between sniffles he asked if I even wanted him to still come over. I squeaked out yes and he said he would over in a bit.  Two hours later after him getting lost and not being able to get a cab he showed up.  We talked about how the concert turned into a stampede. Later we learned people had been trampled and hurt.  How he tried in vain to find me. Waiting until the end of the concert and searched. How he felt horrible, he was distraught. He could not stop apologizing and saying he should have never left me. That he made a huge mistake and he was incredibly upset with himself. Seriously, I had not seen someone take such responsibility for their behavior that hurt me in for like forever.  It just wiped all those feelings of anger away.  It was a mistake to leave me alone, but we all made it together not anticipating a stampede, no one was hurt, the concert sucked for sure, but it was okay. And he was super impressed that I managed to extricate myself and all my gear and make it home.

We proceeded to have an amazing weekend where you feel like you are floating on air. I showed him some of my favorite SF spots, did a lot of yada yada, chilled, and talked and talked.  We even went to the concert the next night, but he never left my side and we left before dark. We went to a club and when everyone else indulged in some illegal substances, before even knowing my response he refused. At the time I didn’t know they drug tested in the military.  But I was impressed. 

At the end of the weekend I took him to the airport and dropped him at the curb. It was a very hard moment saying good-bye and thinking that he was going to war.  I put a note in his backpack to read on the plane. It said something along the lines of I don’t exactly know what is happening between us but I know something is happening and I am excited, so very excited. 

As he walked into the terminal I lost it. Sat in my car and just started bawling my eyes out. Rivers of snot and tears covered the steering wheel.  I was overwhelmed. Next thing I knew he was knocking at my window asking if I was okay. EMBARASSING. He was waiting to see if I was okay and drove off safely. I assured him I was and managed to drive off. Once again he was showing concern for my well-being. I was touched. I guess the bar was pretty low after all the d-bags.

I went home and immediately started researching flights to Alaska ($1000!!) and rearranging my schedule (it was the start of the school year and things were bananas) in the hopes that he would invite me. A few days later he got to Alaska and told me he really wanted to see me before he deployed but understood it was probably impossible. I got to say how does my arrival in 10 days work? 

To be continued…but first some pics…..

Out clubbing

At the concert before it went to hell in a handbasket

So hot, I'm hooked

Thankful surprise

I am thankful that I have the ability to adjust to changing ground conditions. Thanksgiving dinner for 22 just got rerouted to my house due to an ill relative. HOLYFUCKBALLS I have lots to do. Bring it turkeys!!!!

Thanking festivities

Family is about to descend in a few hours. I have yet to clean the house or grocery shop. Oy. I will continue the story in a few days. Mucho mucho to be thankful for this year. It has been a beyond good year. Gobble Gobble to ya'll!

Thankful Part III

So the next night I had a some random date planned. But I nixed it because I was quite tired from the previous night’s hi-jinks  Around 9pm my phone rings and the number is a 917 area code(turns out it was Alaska). I do the rational thing and not answer, that is not an area code I know. I listen to the voicemail and it is the ginger  telling me he “left” his dog tags at my place and really needs to get them.  Come on!!! Puleaze. I am quite amused by his lack of game. I return his call and we arrange for him to swing by and pick them up. A bit later, after I spruced myself up but not in an overt way, I hear the front door ring. Instead of buzzing him in, I decide I have got to make this guy sweat some. I go down the four floors to the front door and open it and purposely do not invite him in. I watch as he shuffles to and fro stammering. I ask him where his buddy is, “ Isn't he waiting on the curb?”  No. “Did you borrow his car?” No. “How are you planning on getting home?” Cab. “Oh cabs are really hard to get in this neighborhood, especially this time of night.”  All the while I am twirling his dog tags around my finger and loving every second of his increasing discomfort  I knew full well I was going in for seconds, but I just had to make him work for it a bit. I asked him if he would like to come up and figure it out, he practically belts out yes.

We go up to my apartment that is still sans alcohol and the chemistry is crackling. We waste no time, yada yada. It is the summer Olympics and between our personal gymnastic events we watch the Games and for lack of a less cheesy word bond.  At some point in the middle of the night, , something inexplicable happens. I am laying there, and it was good but ya know we are still getting to know each other, and this feeling comes over me. It was like a full body buzz. I was not entirely sure if I was about to diarrhea the bed or get a migraine, but my entire body from head to toe was tingling. He asks for something to drink and very unlike me I just told him to go help himself. I literally couldn’t move, I was overcome.  We eventually went to sleep, not before he invited me to accompany him to a wedding in Arizona that weekend (I had to decline-private practice clients). This time I had to take him home butt crack early to catch an early flight. I continued to buzz.

All weekend long we texted and sexted and I buzzed. I talked about it with my friends and came to the conclusion that I simply needed to see him again and figure out what the hell this feeling was.  When he got back to Southern California I made sure he would return that following weekend. And he did, and it was officially on.

To be continued…..

Thankful Part II

A year previous I had joined an adult kickball team.  I had begun to experience attrition in my friendships. Being in my mid-30’s so many of my long standing friends were marrying, breeding and moving out of the city. I kinda felt like I was in an old folks home, everyone was dying and I was the last one standing. I realized I needed to go out and make some new friends, possibly with younger folk that would stick around longer.

So I answered a craigslist ad for a kickball team, signed up to a random team, walked on and miraculously made some amazing friends that to this day are some of my closest. A year into my kickball career it was the night before my first day of the school year. My summer of stringless fun was coming to an end.  As I stood on the kickball diamond I spied off to the side a new face, a ginger scrawling. I have always had a thing for redheads.  Call it a firecroctch fetish. Normally I would go over and introduce myself and hope to make this person feel welcome. But he had a vibe of don’t mess with me so I kept my distance. And it was time to kick some balls and drink crappy beer from a can.

After the game was over I desperately had to pee which I announced and a few of us walked over to the bar to play flip cup. Ginger and his buddy,my teammate Matt,  headed over with me. I had a pink beanie in my back pocket and ginger made some wisecrack about me being “street”.  A few beers in I busted out  some rap. Once we got to the bar other kickball teams were there and a dude who I had been flirting with for some weeks bought me a drink and we started talking in a corner. Throughout our convo I kept seeing ginger staring at me, kinda creepily. I was highly amused.  After a bit I figured I needed to stop the staring, it was creeping me out, and I figured the flirtation from the other team member had had several weeks to bust a move and had not, maybe I should go chat up ginger. So that is what I did and flirtation followed us around the bar. It all felt very high schoolish, but given my beer intake I was highly amused.  As the evening winded down, ginger and I were getting along quite well. I had learned a bit about him, he was shipping off to Iraq in a month, was in town for a few days, then heading back to Southern California to see his family and then Alaska to deploy. This was the perfect finale f*&K  for my summer. So I took ginger home. Always keeping it classy.

When we got to my amazing rent controlled apartment he was a bit disappointed that I had no alcohol. So sorry. I decided I shouldn’t give it up that easily and I made him watch Project Runway with me before indulging in some adult activities.  To this day, it is “our show”. 

The next morning I had to get us up butt crack early and head to work to start my school year.  I dropped him off at his buddy’s, wished him safety on his journey, and figured that was the last time I would see him.

To be continued………

Thankful

I really am enjoying the other bloggers and their daily thankfuls. But let’s be honest, showering everyday is not happening. So I am not going to attempt to be episodic in my blogging appreciation output. Probably one of the biggest things that I am thankful for is meeting my husband. So perhaps my long wished for telling of the story of us should be begun. I think it is a brilliant story.

So some back story first. I was 36 when I met him. I had spent a decade dating, pretty unsuccessfully.  In that 10 year span I had two broken engagements, some tepid short term relationships, douchebagpalooza, lots of flings, and a felon.  I would not say I was becoming completely jaded, but I was loosing my gusto. I was pretty much pursuing Mr. Right Now because Mr. Right was so elusive, I just got to the point where I wanted to have fun.  About 9 months before I met hubs I had gone on a self-imposed hiatus after a particularly horrid but hilarious romance that involved meeting in the Caribbean and visiting each other’s coasts only to arrive on his with a home sans clean dishes, food, toilet paper or emotional stability. I decided to take a break even from the fun and do other things. Like work out and loose 20 pounds. Summer rolled around and I decided I would have some stringless summer fun. And boy did I! Scuba trip, ex, felon (it was fun until the cops took the bad boy away), and then I encountered this ginger soldier and that is how our story begins…….

Stay tuned : )