Lots to report

Since I was on a cruise for the past week and didn't get a chance to blog prior to the cruise, I have lots to report on. First off, I finally texted Nomad about two weeks ago saying we shouldn't hang out anymore. I was surprised how well it went. She said that the chemistry wasn't quite there and wished me good luck. It was refreshing.

The next day SouthernBelle came over to visit. I met SouthernBelle a few weeks ago at church. At first, I must be honest, I wasn't that interested. She was really cool but shy and quiet which I generally shy away from. My brother invited SouthernBelle over but halfway through, he said he was tired and went to bed. While talking to her, I found that I thought she was pretty cool. When she was leaving, I told her how hard it was to get out of my neighborhood and gave her my number just in case. Of course, she texted me that night to say she made it out and that she had fun.

On Friday night, I had a first date with FormerLesbian. I met FormerLesbian online. When she first told me about her "history" I was a little skeptical but who am I to judge someone for their past. I told her I would pick her up in my truck and I think she thought that was super cool. FormerLesbian is training to become an airplane mechanic. Yeah, I know, I hardly ever date airplane mechanics. The date was pretty fun. It was obvious that FormerLesbian was very interested in me and I thought she was pretty cool. I definitely had fun on our date and wanted to hang out with her again. We ate dinner and saw a movie and called it quits early.

The next morning I had lunch with SouthernBelle. Lunch went fairly well. SouthernBelle has not been in this state long and its kinda obvious that she doesn't intend to end up here. That isn't to say there isn't a chance. Just that she grew up in much greener pastures and the cold of the snow plus the unfriendliness here plus the fruit not tasting as good plus the lack of beaches works out to make this state not a particularly desirable destination. The conversation lulled a few times with SouthernBelle but I didn't really care. I had fun.

While on vacation in San Diego, I went to the beach with some friends for a bonfire. I ended up meeting the Actress there. The Actress went to BYU studying directing and now does theater I guess. I think my buddy kinda likes her. I ended up playing with the Actress' feet while she was on the couch and I felt a bit of a connection. I already know what kind of hell TheCaptain is going to give me for this.

Dear the Captain:
I kinda liked the Actress. She added me as a friend on facebook. I accepted her request. I saw that she added my brother so I don't think she was facebook stalking me, although maybe she was. You are probably my closest friend even though we sometimes fight and you are sometimes mean to me. I promise I won't step on your toes.
Love Tripp Hazard

On Sunday, I flew home. FormerLesbian was texting me and she invited me over to her house to watch a movie. I accepted. We ended up making out. I can already hear the tsk tsk of criticism from my friend(s) in NYC that think(s) I should stop kissing girls I don't like. And it's probably right. I knew that I felt a bit lukewarm about FormerLesbian but I went over and made out with her anyway. Suprisingly, I wasn't as scared off as with some of the other girls. I still plan to go out with her again. But, I know exactly what it is like to hang out with a girl and come home with stars in my eyes and birds all around me and Sunday night was not one of those nights. I think part of me honestly worries that I will never experience that again. Or that if I do, I should avoid it cause those are the times I get hurt the most.

Little Shop of Horrors

On Saturday, I went on the date with Anniversary. I picked her up a little after 6. It's actually been 2 years since I last saw her. I will admit that I wasn't smitten by her looks. She is a cute girl and I think she is very pretty but I am more attracted to her personality than I am to her looks. Anniversary reminds me so much of a girl I went to high school. Super fun loving and extra talkative. I think perhaps the right word would be spunk. Anniversary has lots of spunk. We went to dinner and there wasn't a dull moment in the conversation. We had lots to talk about. Anniversary is a very religious girl but unlike lots of other super duper religious girls, Anniversary doesn't make me kinda feel like I want to be a bit rebellious. Instead, around her I want to be a better person. Probably the biggest reason I don't date super duper religious girls is because of this. So I was pleasantly surprised that I felt motivated to be better around Anniversary.

Little Shop of Horrors was pretty funny. It's a really dorky play to begin with. But I know that Anniversary had fun and I definitely had fun. Some of the music numbers in it are pretty good and some are pretty bad. After the play, Anniversary and I went back to the same restaurant where we had dinner to get dessert. Kinda random but I thought it would be fun. The dessert was excellent. Again, the conversation went really well. We didn't really bring up the fact that she had just turned in her mission papers. Then I took her home. The date ended early, probably around 10:30. There was a brief hug and I said goodnight and took off. She texted me about 30 minutes later to say "Dearest Tripp - thanks so much for driving down here. It was so good to see you. I had fun tonight." I responded with "Dearest Anniversary. Tonight was fun. Little shop of horrors was good. Let me know if you want to do it again (no pressure)"

The next day I received a text from Anniversary saying "hey i'm so sorry for not responding - my phone died last night. It would be fun to do something again - let me know next time you are in town."
The next time I am in town? Ok, she lives about 40 minutes away from me. But it isnt exactly the type of situation where I will buzz there on business or something. I drove down for our date and thats exactly what I would do if we went on another date. I had my reservations about this one and now, I am kinda wondering how much more effort to put into it. I mean, she is probably moving home in 4 weeks and probably leaving on her mission in a few months. So, if we are going to fall in love, it would have to be in the next four weeks. I will be gone all next week and she will have finals for one week. Logistically it just doesnt seem likely. Should i ask her out again for this week and see if anything comes from it? Or refocus my efforts elsewhere?

Side notes: Nomad has been texting me like crazy. I think after two dates, a text rejection makes plenty of sense. That way I can be direct without having to see her again. I feel really bad about it. I definitely dont want to hurt her feelings. She just isn't right for me and I know it. It's a lot better than dragging it out for a few more weeks right?

Gypsy Women

I had my second date with Nomad on Tuesday night. We went to dinner at a local steakhouse. I mentioned before how I felt lukewarm about her before. Well, on this second date, it went from lukewarm to cold. I mean, she is a cool girl, but I am just not attracted to her enough. And, she isn't quite as much fun to be around. Basically, I just don't have feelings for her. We went back to my house and watched the Proposal. Awful movie. Absolutely no chemistry between the stars. Well, we were cuddling on the couch and the movie was lame so I ended up making out with her. I know, I set myself up. It's those freaking lukewarm situations that always get me into trouble. You see, now, I think Nomad kinda likes me. She texted me last night and said she was starving and wanted to know if I wanted to go to dinner with her, her treat. I had kinda hoped I might have a few more days to figure out what I was going to do (not that I was going to figure anything out, but it just feels good sometimes to procrastinate it). I thought fast and texted a couple of my friends. One texted back (DougFunny) saying he was going hottubbing and I should come. Then, I texted Nomad and said that I was just on my way out to meet some friends (which was true!). This is why you don't kiss girls that you don't like. Now, I have to figure out a way out of this without her hating men (cause I can't let my whole half of the species be guilty based on my fault) or hating me.

On Tuesday night, I was online and I saw that Anniversary was online. I haven't talked to Anniversary in a long time. I met her while in school two years ago. For some reason, I was totally driven to ask Anniversary out on a date. So, I jumped on her facebook page and right there was an interesting fact. People were commenting on her decision to serve an LDS mission on her wall. Ughh, why am I so attracted to drama? I had two years to ask this girl out on a date and I get an inclination to ask her out right before she is going on a mission? Well, I messaged her anyway and we talked for a minute and I found out she was going to turn her papers in THAT night. I told her I wanted to take her out on a date, but only if she would promise that if we fell madly in love, she would not go on the mission. She agreed and we are going out on Saturday. How can this end in anything other than pain? I mean, there is basically no way that I am going to convince her to not go on a mission. She isn't going to fall madly in love with me on our first date. Nevertheless, I follow my gut. I bought tickets to see Little Shop of Horrors. I am looking forward to the date but, if what I want is a serious relationship, perhaps I am going about it wrong.

Ex Post Facto

I had my first online dating experience on Friday night. It was actually pretty fun. We met at this little french bakery downtown. I immediately recognized her from the photos online. Her face was maybe a little chubbier than I would have liked but she looked pretty good. We had dessert there and then went back to my house to meet up with my friends Sugarloaf and Foot. They seemed awfully excited to double with me on that night. Looking back, I think they just wanted to be there for the online dating experience. We went to a haunted house. Remember the glory days when you were little and haunted houses were SO scary? Well, I do. I hated them. But now, they aren't really scary at all and I kinda wish they were. There were a couple scary moments and Nomad and I had a lot of fun. She definitely got scared and had to hold on to me.

After the haunted house, we went back to my house and just hung out. Nomad and I ended up on the couch in my front room. We may or may not have kissed. I know I know, criticize me for it. I suppose I deserve it. If you know me well enough, though, you will know that I really only kiss the girls on a first date that I feel lukewarm about. If its hot or cold, I abstain. But, the thing is, I wonder if maybe kissing some of the girls that I liked early on might have helped my situation. Like with HelloNurse the previous weekend. I probably could have kissed her. I know she liked me. I know she had fun. I am guessing that what happened is she got home feeling very confused and then talked to this other guy she was dating and decided to back off with me. Maybe kissing me would have messed with her mind a little and caused her to want to go out with me. Maybe not, but at least I would have gotten to kiss her. I have been thinking about HelloNurse today. I even looked her up on the facebook. She is very pretty. One of my friends (TheCaptain) was very mean to me when I told him the story about HelloNurse. He was like "read your blog, it's full of stories of you liking any girl you meet that is cute" and maybe that is true. I sure don't feel like it is true. I mean, I go out with lots of girls. I meet lots of girls. I know lots of girls. I like a relative few of them. Still, I kinda wish something had gone somewhere with HelloNurse. Nomad and I are going to hang out/go out tomorrow night. Is it a waste of time if I only feel lukewarm about her right now? My feeling is that it isn't because if I really didn't want to see her, I wouldn't schedule time to see her.

I have been texting the online girl TheWriter today. Personality wise, I just click with her so well. And in some of her pictures, she is very very pretty. But in some of them, she just isn't. I mean, nobody takes a good picture every time. But hers are about half and half. I would say more than half the pictures taken of me look like I look on a regular basis. So, it makes me a bit nervous.