Updates

Hung out with BFF on Saturday. She thinks this blog has a negative undertone. My buddy Milosevic (hereinafter "Milo") came along. He thinks this blog is hilarious but that I need to stop writing in it. He is worried a girl will find it (wait, hasn't that already happened several times?) and take it the wrong way. Milo is convinced that my new dating strategy is to avoid the Four P's of dating (Planned, Paired off, Payed for, Put out) suggested by Mormon church leaders (of which Milo is not a member) and instead only hang out with girls. Are girls really that uncomfortable on dates? Do girls feel they have to make up their mind by the end of the night whether they want to have a relationship with me? Who knows.

Ariel (yeah, that Ariel) and I texted the other day. She is going on the same cruise as me next week. Belle is engaged. I saw her at church a week ago with a ring on. Good for her. I hung out with FarFarAway last night. I think she really likes me. I think she is cool but I do not want to date her, nor do I want to make out with her. My friends don't understand (probably cause they are mostly douchebags) but I am not into making out with a girl I am not into. Does this make me the anti-douche?

Going blind

Last night I had my third blind date in less than a week. This was a set up from an ex girlfriend of littlebrother. I have been talking on the phone with Moonshine for the last week and she seemed pretty cool so I decided to go for it. She is 30, never married, and currently finishing up her generals towards nursing school. About an hour or two before the date, the friend setting us up emailed me a picture of Moonshine. Confession time, just based on looks, Moonshine is not my type. She had a look very similar to K1 from last week. Hard to describe. A tall skinny blonde look. Probably the look most people decide to set me up with. I entered the date feeling a bit disheartened. I know, I should explore every option and not discount a person prior to the first date.

We went to dinner at this Indian restaurant I really like. As usual, the food there was incredible. One thing I really liked about Moonshine is that she was able to be playfully sarcastic. Conversation is very important and a little sarcasm makes it all the better. Overall though, the conversation was not as great as I had hoped. For one, Moonshine toed the line a little too much between being opinionated and attacking my views. Overall though, the conversation was just fine.

While I was finishing up my Lamb Curry, Moonshine finished her dinner and pulled out her Tube-o-glossy-junk. Now, I have been on a lot of dates and I know that a lot of girls put stuff on their lips. I look away, try not to breath too much (cause the smell bothers me) and just hope they don't decide to go to an extreme. Moonshine went to a bit of an extreme. After applying half the tube to her lips and smacking them a couple times, she was finished. And pretty much done in my book. Before you start to attack me, hear this. I am not simply ruling Moonshine out as a potential mate because she put stuff on her lips. I wasn't particularly attracted to her, the conversation wasn't what I had hoped, and Moonshine had some strange opinions on different topics. But, the nail in the coffin was the lip garbage.

Of course, I am probably being extreme. But picture for yourself eating dinner and having the person you are eating with do the most disgusting thing you can think of right in front of you while you are mid bite. Maybe they are defecating, maybe they are burping, maybe they are farting, all of those things have a smell that you don't like. Sure, you say, but those things smell bad. Well, I don't like the smell of lip gloss any more than I like those smells.

Ok, I understand this is irrational. I know that someday when I am married, I will have to put up with a little lip stuff applied while I am eating just like most girls expect that whilst laying in bed with their husband at night, he is going to occasionally pass gas. But, I just felt like this was a little extreme and I am tired of it. Do girls honestly believe this is attractive? Am I the only guy out there who finds this repulsive?

On a more positive note, I have been messaging a girl TheWriter on the online dating thing for about a week now. She is attractive, intelligent, and a bit quirky. I am taking it really slow, because the whole online dating thing still scares me but I see some real possibilities. I have been messaging three other girls fairly regularly online. I am thinking I will take one out within a week or so. I also called House earlier today and asked her to the football game on Saturday. Should be fun. House lived next door to me growing up (til we were 5). She is cute, but I am just not attracted to her right now. I know, that sounds funny. I think that I could be attracted to her, but right now I am not. At least not in the romantic sense. House is very intelligent, great at conversation, and fun to be around. We went on a few dates right around the time I started going out with Belle.


How can I possibly let a girl know that lip gloss on the date grosses me out?

Don't fear death, my Adrian

So the fourth date blew up in my face. Belle had lots of fun, we connected and talked and then, at the end, she told me she was falling for Gaston and she felt she was leading me on. I was devastated. I shouldn't have let on to her how much it hurt. I should have just let it slide off my back.

Such is life though. Maybe Belle will change her mind. Maybe I am Gaston and Gaston is really the beast. Who knows? I called both Ariel and Cinderella last night, neither answered. I think I left messages but I don't really expect responses. I am not depressed, just frustrated. My timing stinks, always has. I went to a party last night and there were basically no girls that I even wanted to talk to, let alone date. There are billions of girls on this planet, millions of single ones, and probably hundreds of thousands of single Mormon girls that I could date and yet I don't feel a connection with hardly any of them. And when I do find one whom I connect with, my pearl of great price, I sell everything I have to purchase it, only to find another buy who has already purchased it for less. He may very well discard it soon.

Forgiveness

Lots to report. My third date with Belle last week went really well. I was so nervous the day of and really just didn't want to go. But, I sucked it up, went, and had lots of fun. It's hard to be negative around Belle, she just brightens everything. I held her hand while walking back to the car and I gave her a kiss goodnight at her doorstep. It wasn't perfect but I still felt giddy.

I saw her at church on Sunday sitting next to Gaston. Gaston is the other man, the guy that has been pursuing her for awhile. He is also in my ward. He is also my hometeacher. Anyway, Gaston sat next to Belle the entire meeting and during the combined priesthood/relief society meeting about dating. I was so frustrated. But I still managed to go say hi to Belle afterward and I shook Gaston's hand. I suppose in another life, I would have no animosity towards him. But in the current situation, he is enemy number 1.

Gaston came over to home teach later that night. I was cordial but he just works me up. He wants to be a sports broadcaster which made me feel a little better. It kinda let me know that he would have a majorly hard time taking care of Belle the way she deserves to be taken care of. Of course, if Belle falls in love with Gaston, it doesn't really matter. I just hope she doesn't fall in love with him. What a crappy way to end this fairy tale. I called her later that night and we talked a bit about it. I am now convinced that I should not bring Gaston up with Belle. We talked again on Monday and I didn't mention Gaston and it went much better. We just talked and talked about fun stuff. I felt like I really clicked with her. Our fourth date is this Friday. Just something really casual.

Meanwhile, I had lunch today with Cinderella. I met Cinderella several months ago, tried to ask her out, had no success, and then ran into her at a party last week. We talked and seemed to connect and she gave me her number. We have talked on the phone since. She called me this morning and asked if I would like to go lunch. It was really fun. The conversation was very light, she is pretty easy going and happy go lucky. We grabbed some Thai food.

Cinderella is quite different from Belle. Cinderella definitely grew up in humbler circumstances (maybe I got the two characters backwards, ha ha ha) than Belle. I haven't developed feelings for Cinderella yet but she has some definite potential.

I hung out with Ariel for about an hour on Friday at the Big Ass Show. Ariel is pretty cool but right now, I dont see a lot of relationship potential. Probably because she is basically impossible to take out on a date. Girls should not be THAT busy.

Haligh

My date with Belle went very well. Just about as well as I could have hoped. So why am I so nervous? Well, I saw Belle at church on Sunday, she isn't in my ward but she came to see a friend and was surprised to see me. I was so nervous to see her. Why? I am not sure I can explain. So I talked to her but I still had butterflies in my stomach two hours later. We agreed to hang out on Wednesday. And then I am taking her to the Taylor Swift concert one week from today. So boom, just like that, dates 2 and 3.

I have been doing all I can to keep my actions in check. For one, I didn't kiss her on Friday night. I think I might have had an opening and I ignored it. For another, I wanted to send her flowers today at work. But I avoided it. I also was going to send her a text just after seeing her at church but I waited until later that night. Furthermore, I thought about buying her a Taylor Swift CD last night at Walmart in preparation for the concert. It's pretty obvious that I have a tendency to overdo things early on. When she told me her dream car on our date, I almost blurted out that if we ended up together, I would buy her that car.

Anyway, I managed to avoid smothering her. My motto for all of this is "Why not me? Why not now?"

Slumdog

So I rushed to get out of band practice last night to pick up Ariel. I had originally told her I would pick her up at 9 but I texted her to see if 9:30 would work and she said ok. We needed the extra band time, I did not practice the songs enough. Anyway, so while driving over to Ariel's place, she called me to ask if it would be ok if she canceled. What am I supposed to say? "No, that would not be ok. You are going to come hang out with me whether you like it or not!" So I said sure.

I don't think I was a pushover though. She had a decent excuse. She had a root canal earlier that day, her teeth hurt, she was tired, and she had to get up early the next morning. Ha ha, how many times have I heard that exact excuse? Honestly, it's ok though. Because tomorrow is my date with Belle. I can't even explain how excited I am about this one. When I got off the phone with her on Sunday, I was freaking giddy.

I am way nervous about the date though. I have been out on well over 200 first dates and I still get nervous; I think that means I like her.

Current Dating Situation

Tonight I have a date. Lets call her Ariel. I met Ariel at a party about 6 months ago. We talked and got along quite well but I didnt seal the deal. Come to find out a few days later, she had a boyfriend! But, all is well in the world, they broke up. This will be our second date and our third hang-out. I am not sure if I can even call tonight a date. She is coming over to watch Slumdog Millionaire.

Now, most people would interpret her coming over to watch a movie as an invitation to make out. I really don't intend to kiss her tonight. First off, Ariel and I click but I am not sure yet if there is magic there. Second, I have an upcoming date on Friday. Lets call her Belle.

The thing about Belle is that when we talk on the phone, I feel so comfortable around her. And yeah, she is very pretty. She says the word 'cute' a lot, and when she says it about me, well, I like it. I have only met Belle on two different occasions. Both times, she was at work. But I just feel closer to Belle than I do to Ariel.

But, back to Ariel. If I kiss Ariel tonight, then the rules of Karma say that Belle will lose interest in me on Friday. Am I just counting my chickens before they have hatched?