I planned to meet up with Phil last night. He chose the location - a cool, new local wine bar I had never been to before. It was super convenient to my apartment, which was nice. We had emailed a few times back and forth and he seemed like someone I could dig so I was excited for the date.
I tried unsuccessfully to leave work early so I could "freshen up" (remove the eye crusties and brush my teeth). I left work later than I wanted to and when I walked into my place I found a weird smell. My dog had puked three times and pooped on the floor. Awesome. Super sexy start to the evening. After picking up the dog excrement I took my dog for a longer than usual walk to be sure she wouldn't poop while I was out. (Note: I felt incredibly guilty leaving her to go out with a dude.)
I scarfed down way too much (way too fast) for dinner because I was afraid of getting hammered and puking on Phil, there was enough puke in my night already. I left later than I had planned and headed for the bar at a sweat inducing pace. Then, in case I wasn't frazzled enough, I got lost. (I could get lost in a paper bag.) I ended up at the wine bar eight minutes late. But it was perfect because he was ten minutes late so I had two minutes to de-sweat.
I grabbed a table outside and waited. He showed up shortly thereafter and he was *cute*. A very attractive dude with excellent style and a perfect smile. I try not to be too shallow but I couldn't ignore how good-looking the man was.
The conversation was great. He was really funny and outgoing, interesting and engaging. We each had a glass of wine then each ordered a "Pirate Tea". It was getting cold and we thought the Pirate Tea would warm us up. Well, he ordered the Pirate Tea to warm him up, I ordered it because of the name. Aargh! Pirate Tea!
I asked him how he felt about a random girl asking him out over email when he knew nothing about her. He told me he had just told his friend, William Nelson, that he would consider going out with a random chick (me) and hadn't actually agreed to it when my email appeared in his inbox. Hello, Betti, the eager beaver. But he still went out with me - good guy.
In addition to being a good guy he was a perfect southern gentleman. He poured water for me before himself, had me order first, opened the door for me when we went inside and helped me off with my jacket when we were no longer freezing. I am not used to men I date being gentleman, it was pretty freaking cool.
As the conversation and Pirate Tea flowed I noticed a new trend. When Phil wanted to accentuate a point he would finish the sentence with "Boom!" Statement on x --> Boom! Statement on y --> Boom! Response to statement on z --> Boom! It was like the conversation was literally explosive. As the Pirate Tea consumption increased so did the frequency of the booms.
After two drinks and almost two and a half hours I hinted that I had to leave. (I wanted to get home and check on my dog plus it was past my bedtime.) When we got outside he shook my hand - no hug, thank goodness - and we walked our separate ways. I emailed Phil today to thank him for the drinks, tell him I had a good time and see if he wanted to go out again. He was fun and it was a good date, I'm not sure if there was any chemistry so I'm not sure if I'll hear from him again. If I do, you'll read about it.
For the record: He picked up the tab. True gentleman.
