Friday January 20th: Date #2

Friday I stayed home since the bosses were both in Seattle and I worked an insane amount of hours on Thursday. My plan was to sleep in, do a little bit of work from home, chill out, write maybe a few chores and then go to my massage at 4:00. I made an appointment with Davina, who is someone I went to college with and is now dating my roommate. I hadn't gone before because I love Jessica S. and I'd have her babies and plus she comes to my house with her table which has a heating pad. But it's more expensive and I was feeling spur of the moment.

Of course things didn't work out quite as planned. ::sigh::

First, around mid-morning, I felt a tell-tale tickle in my throat that made me want to swear like a sailor and brake a lot of dishes. Could there be a worse time to get sick? I don't think so. And if my symptoms were still light enough that I could've stayed in denial, that meant I was probably contagious and couldn't really afford the luxury of denial.

Carrie was home and we spent some time hanging out and she was cracking me up with her reactions to stories from work. Finally I had her feel my glands to see if they felt swollen. She took one quick feel and ran straight upstairs. She came down with a box of Chinese herbs and said to take five or six every couple of hours. She also said I should, "drink some of this Chinese tea..." as she hid a box of Theraflu behind her back.

I was willing to try anything at that point. I drank 'tea' and popped pills and took some Echinacea and vitamin C for good measure. I decided I would wait till the afternoon and if I still felt like a germ, I'd call Jess and give her the chance to back out of our date. I figured she deals with enough germs at work and I really didn't want her getting sick and possibly missing work, because of me. But I was pissed.

Other shit hit the fan as work crisis' developed and designers and programmers went AWOL. I finally got things settled down just barely in time to take a shower and get to my massage. Fortunately Kara was on her way back from Seattle and I made sure she knew that I was unavailable after 3:30.

Once I left the house, things improved. On the way to Davina's I called Jessica.

"I have a confession to make," I said.

"Uh oh."

"It's nothing terrible but I'm not completely well. I feel a cold coming on and I'm probably contagious. I just wanted to let you know in case you want to back out." And I hope you're disappointed, not relieved...

"Oh. Well that's OK. I mean, I probably won't get very close to you--but are you sure you still want to go?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. I'd just feel bad if I got you sick."

"You're cute."

"OK, see you at 6:00."

My massage was so, so, very good. Just exactly what I needed. It took a while to settle down and stop thinking about work and dates and how Davina's methods differed from Jessica's but eventually I hit the zone. I hit it so hard in fact, that I was nanoseconds from falling totally asleep before I snapped out of it and got up at the end. Out in the lobby there was a cup of water sitting on the counter for me. I set my oil, which I'd brought with me, down next to it while I chatted with Davina and Carrie. I picked up the oil.

"Are you about to drink your massage oil?" Davina asked.

I looked down. "Oh. Yeah. Thanks for catching that." I picked up the water instead and drank it. Yeah, I was relaxed alright.

When I left unfortunately I couldn't go straight home and enjoy the after effects because I had to run to the store to get some more firewood and then over to the most crowded gas station (but also the cheapest) to fill up.

I got home about 10 till 6:00, just in time. Luckily Jess was running late so I had time for a fashion crisis. Brown cords, stretchy long-sleeved orange scoop neck shirt from Title IV.

When she arrived there were hugs hello and I gave her the tour and she met Willow. She has a cat of her own, so she was totally enchanted by my little princess.

I altered our plans a little and suggested we go to Zaytoon's on Alberta, so as to stay in the neighborhood. It was happy hour and not crowded at all. Neither of us were super hungry so we split an appetizer platter with hummus, babaganoush and some herb dip that I can't remember the name of, but was really good.

When we got to the pub, it was packed of course, but we squeezed up into my spot from the week before, just behind the merchandise table. We had a good view and the band was having a good night. We were able to talk a little despite the loud music. I filled her in on who was who and told her a little my history with Lara. Anyone I'm going to date has to be OK with my back up girlfriend. :)

I felt like a big walking germ so I was working really hard not to touch Jess but she solved my problem by moving right next to me and putting her arm around me.

During the announcements portion of the show, they revealed the winners of the raffle to be on the first Stolen Sweets CD. They need people to come in and say things like "Yeah man," and "Yowza!" I bought five tickets in December for a dollar each, figuring that even if I didn't win, perhaps Lara would rig it for me. Mine was the last name to be announced. I resisted the urge to whoop and holler, since no one else had.

When the show was over, I took Jess over and introduced her to Lara briefly. "Did you hear your name called?" she asked me.

"Yup. But I was trying to be cool."

"And you are."

"Mmmmm...yeah..thanks for lying." I said. I gave her a hug and Jess and I headed back to my place.

Davina and Carrie were home and hanging out in front of the woodstove, so introductions were made, as well as small talk, and then I pulled Jess away and dragged her upstairs.

She had said she needed the night to end early so I didn't know how long she would stay...but I took it as a good sign that she didn't leave till almost 11:00 and I practically had to kick her out for her own good. In the meantime, there was much talking and cuddling on the couch in my room and *not* kissing, which was frustrating in a pleasantly torturous way. She found a way around it by kissing my neck as we hugged goodbye, which left me pleasantly lightheaded.

I tried to put it in perspective by telling myself that it was just the Universes way of making sure I kept my promise to go slower this time. But at that moment I was really resenting the assist. I really needed to get well! I popped some more herbs and vitamin C and went to bed.