Saturday, May 30, 2009

Date # 9 - Music Girl

I just got home from a very long day outside. It was awesome.

The day started with me waking up sleepily after an awful night of sleep (or lack of) and then running to do an errand. By 1pm, I met up with a bunch of friends and hung out outside for the better half of the day. Once a year My City has a huge street sale and we were walking up and down checking out all the sales, bar patios and food vendors.

Around 4pm, I got a call from her who I'll now refer to as Music Girl (or MG for the times I'm lazy). Even though Music Girl lives on the other end of downtown, she had no problems with coming all the way to my side of town to hang out.

Around 5pm, we met up and decided to go relax at the local park. Since I lived close by, I convinced her to swing by my play so I could pick up my guitar which she was excited about.

We ended up just chilling in the shade talking for a while and taking turns playing guitar. She seems like a really interesting person. She's 6 years younger than I but has moved around and done more travelling than I have. She's been to Nicaragua, India and Thailand. It also turns out she recently met her biological father about 2 years ago and found out she's half Jamaican (she looks completely white, though) and now lives with her Father's brother in law. Strange but interesting...

She seemed super friendly and outgoing and laughed a lot at what I had to say (that's a good thing). She even took my guitar and played an original song and it was really nice and sweet to hear.

After the park, she grabbed something to eat and we headed to another park and chatted some more for a short while until she said she had to head out.

I really enjoyed my time with her. I'm not really sure what she's looking for out of this but even if we were to just hang out and stay friends, that would be fine with me.

She told me that she posted the ad on Craigslist out of a whim while on there looking for a job and was curious to see what would happen. Apparently, I'm the only guy she met in real life so far.

The only weird thing was at the end, she gave me a hug and said "maybe we'll hang out again soon" which could either mean she's not interested in hanging out again soon or it was just her way of saying "I had fun lets do this again soon".

Either way, I'm going to wait a couple of days and then call her up and see if she'd want to meet up again.

I'll keep y'all posted

Thursday, May 28, 2009

I'm watching you

She came to the show.

The day itself was ok. I woke up with a sore throat. I had to stay at work until 6:30pm, causing my dinner plans with my parents to turn from a sit down meal to shish taouk at a fast food restaurant due to time.

The club, however, was packed. The show went well, with only a few minor snags, but overall a lot of fun, to watch or be in.

After the show I walked off the stage, headed toward the bar, and did a quick scan of the room. I saw my mom talking to my brother, my dad walking around stretching his back, a few random people talking, the bartender cleaaning up, a fellow improvisor handing out passes, and then her. She was standing by herself and waving at me.

And she was cute looking.

I went up to her and she immediately gave me a hug. We chatted for a few minutes. She really enjoyed the show and said she was glad she came.

We didn't end up doing anything because she said she had to get up early for a new job she has. Instead, she anxiously asked for my number and said she'd call me tomorrow and we could do something.

RM2 says I need to come up with something exciting to do or else it'll just be "Hello? Oh hey! So... what do you want to do tonight?"

I'm an improvisor, I think I can wing it...

Monday, May 25, 2009

Because one fake name isn't enough...

I got another response from Craigslist.

This time the ad was someone in their young twenties looking for an ideal evening that would involve dinner, laughing, listening to music, midnight bike ride and then a candle-lit bath. At 3:30am in the morning wired on coffee and a bit of beer and being tired, it sounded awesome!

Even now it sounds awesome.

At first glance I thought it was spam or someone just on there to advertise. In her response, she stated that music is important in her life and apparently she's a musician. She even had a link to her myspace page.

Another thing I noticed was the name from the sent e-mail address, the name she signed her e-mail with and the name of the person the myspace page were all different!

I've learned that it is a gamble using your real name, so lately, even I have started signing e-mails to strangers as Elwood, from a fake e-mail address (I.e. one that doesn't trace back to my real life). But 3 fake names? Thats crazy!

In any case, I took a chance and wrote back. That's Crazy!

We've exchanged e-mails about two times each now and she got interested in the fact I do improv and wanted to come check out a show. I told her about a big show we have this week and she said she'd come.

The only weird thing is my parents are also coming to that show (it's a big fundraiser).

So in typical Elwood manner, a girl I've never met, is coming to check me out at one of my shows with my mother present.

This should be interesting.

I spend too much time on Craigslist

I got a response from one of the ads.

The ad was someone show's 24, in the entertainment business, doing part-time school, looking for someone to hang out with, go dancing, have some drinks, etc. and what really caught my eye - bike riding. She posted a picture as well with her face blocked by a giant square.

Turns out I already contacted this person before. He e-mail simply stated:
We spoke before when I made another add and it didn'tclick! I'm just letting you know so your email doesn't go unanswered.

Well.

Thanks for your honesty.

Craigslist for dummies

Saturday night i went out and got home at 3:00am. I wasn't really tired so I went onto Craigslist to see if there was any interesting personal ads posted.

I'm sure everyone knows what Craigslist is, but for those of you who aren't familiar with the personals section, here's a quick rundown:

Craigslist personals is like the poor mans version of plentyoffish.com (which is the poor man's version of Lavalife, I guess... since it's free). There are no profiles to fill out or questions to ask. It's basically you posting an ad of any length, saying whatever you want. You can even upload a very small picture if you want.

There are several categories: Strictly platonic, Women seek women, women seeking men, men seeking men, misc romance, casual encounters, missed connections and rants and raves.

Women seek women, women seeking men and men seeking men are quite obvious. Strictly platonic is usually people looking for friends only, activity parties or someone to buy weed from.

Misc romance, I think, is for people who are looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. I don't see many ads on there that are interesting to read but it'd mostly be stuff like people with foot fetishes or something like that.

Casual encounters seems to be filled with people looking to hook up. I'm sure most of it are scams, ads, bots, unstable people, etc. but I'm always curious as to how many are really just people who enjoy sleeping with strangers on a regular basis...

Missed connections is the most fun to check out. It's basically ads of people who may have seen someone cute on the bus or at the book store but didn't make a move. So, they write something here, hoping that that person will read it, contact them and then live happily ever after. I admit, I check tat section from time to time curiously wondering if the description of a person matches me. hey, you never know!

Finally, Rants and Raves are just people mad at the world who write all kinds of stuff they want to get off their chests. My friend Spider Dude met his first girlfriend. Of course, she ended up being crazy.

At first, I would only check the women seeking men section but nowadays I look at all the sections except men seeking men, women seeking women and rants and raves.

Back to Saturday night, I responded to 3 ads.

Lets see what happens...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Deleted!

To my surprise Take My Time Girl actually wrote back to me and suggested we meet on Sunday instead of Saturday.

I was going to write back but didn't get a chance until I got home tonight. However, I noticed her on MSN and said hello. Again, I painstakingly needed to wait forever for a reply. It's now super obvious she's not interested in talking to me but I was curious to see if she was still up for meeting.

I ask if she's available on Sunday. Answer: Yes
I ask if she wants to go for brunch. Answer: No
Reason: I need to sleep in, I don't get it during the week (ok... makes sense). I'm sorry, I need my weekends.

Well... if you need your weekends to yourself, why did you suggest we meet up on the weekend? If she wasn't interested to begin with she could have just not replied at all. I would have got the hint.

So being completely frustrated, I just told her I had to go to bed and even before I could say goodnight, she said it first.

My next move: I deleted her from my MSN.

Onto the next fish in the sea.

Let's Reschedule

After all that, she sent me a message on facebook to "reschedule".

I suggested we meet up Saturday night.

Will she accept? Let's find out...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Slow and steady doesn't always win the race

I'm no expert but shouldn't the arrangement of a date take something like 5 minutes max?

"Hey it was nice talking to you. Do you want to meet for coffee this week?"
"Yes, what day?"
"How about Thursday?"
"Sure. What time? 6pm?"
"Works for me!"

Done! Simple as that right?

So why is it when I tried to arrange a date with the girl I talked to on thee phone recently, it took nearly an eternity!?

Over the weekend she was out of town but I saw her on MSN one morning and initiated conversation. It went something like this:

Elwood: "Hi, how're you?"
Girl: "I'm fine, you?"
Elwood: "Not bad, just woke up. Are you still out of town?"

(3 min later)

Girl: "Yeah. I'm watching Days of our lives"
Elwood: "Hey, I'm going to see a comedy show this week at the theatre I do improv at and was wondering if you'd like to go with me?"

(5 min later)

Girl: "Theoretically... I'd feel kind of awkward being around all your comedian friends"
Elwood: "Oh yeah... I can understand that, but I'm not going with my friends. There's a chance I may recognize a few people, but as of now i"m going alone and thought you might like to come"

(5 min later)

Girl: "Ok. Sounds like fun. As long as you don't mind explaining to people who I am when you don't know me, ha ha."
Elwood: "Ha. Won't be a problem. If you want we can meet up earlier so and grab a bite or something"

(3 min later)

Girl: "What time is the show? It will help me know if I have time or not to meet up earlier"
Elwood: "8pm"

(5 min later)

Girl: "Where is it?"
Elwood: "It's (describes directions to place)"

Now's the part when she should have told me if the time is good for her or not, so I waited.

And waited...

And waited...

Until:


Elwood: "So whats the consensus?"

(2 min later)

Girl: "Um... we haven't come up with one yet"

It was definitely reaching close to the 20 minute mark. Don't worry, I was keeping myself occupied with watching web videos (on this site: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com) and I didn't really have anything better to do at the time but I really wanted to get out of my PJ's and take a shower...

Finally she answered:

Girl: "Yeah I can meet you at 6pm"
Elwood: "Great"
Girl:"We can figure out more details later in the week"

Thank god since I didn't' want to spend another 30 minutes doing so.

Elwood: "I'll call you later this week"
Girl: "Cool"
Elwood: "I'm off to go shower"
Girl: "Bye"

A friend of mine told me that either she really doesn't want to go on a date with me and doesn't know how to say no, or she's retarded.

After this schlamazzle, I don't' really want to meet her anymore either, but let's see what happens...

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Awesome

This morning I added that cute girl I met at the party on facebook.

Turns out she's 36!

I'm not saying there is nothing wrong being interested in an older woman, especially one that doesn't look older, but I bet she didn't realize I was almost 10 years her junior either.

This seems to be a recurring theme on my blog.

Elwood and the older ladies, oh yeah!

Made my night

I was a party tonight. The host was a friend of a friend and I hardly knew the people there. I started chatting up a couple of girls and I end up telling this really cute one that I do comedy. We discovered that it turned out that she actually came to see one of my shows and then she said she thought I had looked familiar.

It begins...!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Typical Elwood

So as I mentioned before, I got a call from a girl last night. And, in typical Elwood fashion, I think I buggered it up already...

The back story:
I found on plentyoffish.com the profile a girl that sounded interesting. She recently moved to My City and was looking to meet to someone who could show her around and have a good time with. So I messaged her and she got back to me the next day.

We sent about 3 me sages each back and forth, learning a little bit about each other.

Her profile consists of only 1 picture that is hard to tell if she's cute or not. I don't like basing anything on pictures, especially if there is only one. So I took a chance and asked if she wanted to meet for coffee or a beer and suggested we swap numbers.

I never know how to do it "properly", but I want to show I can be a gentleman and would rather ask her for her number and make the first call then just immediately hand out my number, which is why I suggested swapping.

To my surprise, instead of giving me her number, she asked for mine. At this point, I saw it useless to not give her mine to insist I call her first, so I gave her my number. She told me she'd be busy over the weekend but would give me a call by next week.

The weekend came and went and yesterday, she called! She has a cute sounding voice.

We talked for a while. It's not that often that I"m talking to a complete stranger on the phone, trying to learn about them, so it's tough to know what to talk about.

I told her a few funny stories about stuff related to what we were talking about. Mentioned how I do improv and play guitar. She told me about how she moved around a lot as a kid and actually went to high school in My City.

We have a bit in common: We both are Jewish; we both like rock music; we both studied something at University but are working in something completely different; I'm a comedian and she dated a comedian. She's also a vegetarian, which is fine by me.

At one point, i was talking to her while grocery shopping, I took he phone away from my ear for a minute to pay the cashier. When I put the phone back to my ear, all I heard was "uh.... sorry! Bye!".

I was really confused. I thought perhaps she got nervous that I wasn't saying anything and decided to hang up. I called her back and she picked up and sounded all confused saying "Oh, I'm on the phone with my mom, I thought I told you I had her on cal waiting, and would call you back...?". I apologized and we said goodbye.

Regardless of the awkwardness, she called me back a couple of hours later and we chatted again for close to an hour.

Here's where I may have fucked things up:
I asked if she wanted to meet in person this week to which she said yes. Then, for reasons I can't understand why, I had realized I had a lot on my plate this week and told her I made a mistake and I'm busy until the weekend. This is true but I did have some time to squeeze her into my busy schedule.

She replied that she was going to be away this weekend. So I told her we'd do something next week.

We both said we have fun chatting and called it a night.

Today, I was thinking about it, and reazlied I could totally meet her for dinner tomorrow night. So, I messaged her on facebook (we added each otheron facebook and MSN and it turns out we have two mutual "friends"). I simply said I had fun on the phone and realized I could meet some food before my show .

I never got a message from her but saw her on MSN tonight. I was going to ask her about it but I got distracted in the kitchen and when I came back she was offline.

She never responded to the message on facebook or told me if she could/wants meet me or not.

I have a feeling that might be a bad thing, but she did leave the message "talk to you later" before she went offline.

Only time will tell I guess.

You've got mail!

It came to my attention that I didn't have an e-mail address to be reached at. So, without further ado, if any of you want to e-mail me with any questions, comments, marriage proposals, death threats or spam, feel free to do it at latedatebloomer@gmail.com.

It was about time that I set one up. I didn't really want another e-mail account to have to log in and manage but I figured out a way to forward the account to my regular account. Besides, I was taking a big chance using my real e-mail with my real name to reply to ads on craiglist and plentyoffish.com.

Speaking of which, I have a short story to write in my next post, related to that.

Ring Ring

A girl called me tonight!

Details to come soon...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Here's a free pass to my show!

When I got back from Chicago, things at work were pretty calm. I had a couple of things I needed to work on but I had a month to do them. For reasons I still can't figure out, I haven't been able to sleep through the night without waking up at least once. Sometimes I just toss and turn. This has been happening since I came back. Needless to say I was tired at work and was slower than usual.

Well, now the month is almost over and with last minute stuff added on to the deadline, I've had to work like a dog all week to ensure I finish everything in time. I'm not complaining (looking at you Dolce, haha), I've just been so busy. I broke my record for staying late. Monday, I left at 10:30, but got a shit load done and it felt good.

This week I've also been busy with Improv. Tuesday I had a show but it was cancelled due to lack of audience. However, a girl I met last Friday at my friends' improv show (she's taking classes taught by one of my friends) came. I had given her a free pass and she actually showed up.

I think she is super cute. She's a grad student and has this very girl next door look to her. She comes across pretty shy and I get the feeling either she is in a very deep relationship with someone or she doesn't have much dating experience. Even though the show was cancelled, we had a mandatory workshop, so unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to hang out with her. She said she'll come back another night, so I guess time will tell.

Meanwhile, the cute waitress who I gave passes for the Wednesday night show, didn't show up.

I didn't expect her to but we did do a show so that was fun none the less.

I'm liking this free pass thing. It may be cheesy but I feel less afraid to approach someone if I know I have something to offer them. I guess I know that most girls like to date funy guys and this way I get to show them.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Le Follow Up Part Deux

Friday night I was hanging out with my friend when I realized I had never followed up on the French girl I had met on the bus a couple of weeks ago.

He encouraged me to call her, so I did. Then a guy picked up the phone. I was super confused because the number I dialed was programmed in my phone so the number had to be right. The guy had a thick french accent as well. He then told me that i had the right number but that he shares the phone with the girl. I felt really nervous and right away thought he must be her boyfriend from back home and he came to My City with her.

I wanted to get off the phone but he told me he'd "go find her for me. I told him I was her friend and he said to hold on. Then he came back and said he found her. She got on but it was so noisy I couldn't hear a thing. There was loud music blaring. She said something which I think was "I'll call you back" and then hung up.

I never heard from her again.

Today I was with the same friend as on Friday and he asked me whatever happened. I told him she never called back so he convinced me to text her. I was reluctant to do it but figured what the heck, I had nothing to lose.

I basically told her it was me and that I tried calling her the other day and asked if she wanted to go for coffee.

No response.

I know I shouldn't but I felt almost stalkerish because it was like i was trying all ways possible to contact her and I never got any signals she wanted me to contact her, you know?

Well onto the next girl!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

I think I'm getting better at this...

Tonight I went to see my friends perform in an improv show. Before hand I met up with some people at a nearby cafe/restaurant. We hung out for a bit and then headed to the show.

While we were there I noticed a cute waitress.

The show venue was really close by so we headed there and watched my friends perform. The show was very funny and everyone decided they wanted to go for some coffee/food. So, we ended up back at the same cafe/restaurant.

I unintentionally got to chat with the cute waitress a bit. First she took my order which was a slice of cake and a milkshake. Then I found her after she took our orders to swap the cake for fries and give me my milkshake after I had eaten the food. Then I was so full I decided to cancel the milkshake all together.

Each time I made a change, I had left the table to find her and we spoke a bit more each time.

I had ordered a mint milkshake with chocolate sauce which was something I made up on the spot and was not on the menu. When I asked her to cancel it, she was kind of happy not to have to go and make it so late at night (it was probably 1am) but she was telling me how she thought that was an awesome idea. So I kept flirting with her and told her she could say she had come up with the idea if it tastes great and take all the credit if it became a huge hit at the restaurant.

After our small chat I went back to my friends and a little voice in my head was saying "You have to do something!". I hate when I hear that voice because then it makes me nervous because it's like I'm aware I want to do something and I better not fuck it up, whereas had I just not thought about it and just decided on the spot to ask someone for their number or something, then it feel less stressful.

In any case, I happen to have had a box full of freshly printed business cards for my improv group that also act as free admission passes. I just need to put on a date and initial it to make them valid. So I wrote 2 up before I went to the cash to pay.

When I got there my mind was racing about how I could give them to her in a smooth manner, but before I knew it, she had asked me if we were all in improv together. I don't know why but I was so shocked (and relieved) by that, that it took me a god 5 minutes to just say "yes" because I was debating in my mind if it was worth telling her that yes, we are but we're all from different groups and some are just students and blah blah blah. In the end I just said yes and pulled out the 2 tickets I put in my pocket and told her "as a matter of fact here are 2 free passes to a show for my group".

She liked that.

Only, we perform Tuesday and Wednesdays and I had wrote the pass for Tuesday but she works on Tuesdays. So I switched it for the Wednesday. She said "great, see you then" and gave me a finger point.

I'm never good at telling if someone is talking to me because they find me interesting or cute or it's just because they are nice or it's part of their job (i.e. being a waitress), but I felt I had nothing to lose. The only crappy thing is that I normally don't perform on Wednesday because I play floor hockey once a week and I've been missing so many games recently as it is. I know it's not such a big deal to miss another game but it's taking a huge chance because a) she may not even come and b) our show could be cancelled for lack of audience.

Don't worry I know you're probably all screaming at your computer screens right now saying "Skip your stupid hockey!".

I get you have to make sacrifices if you want to get to know cute waitresses, haha.