A new year

So New Years Eve has come and gone. Anyone who knows me knows that NYE is basically my least favorite holiday of the whole year. I haven't had a good NYE since I was 16 and had my second kiss with high school girlfriend (HSGF). I haven't had a great NYE ever. So I approached this NYE with realistically low expectations. Sugarloaf, TheCaptain and I headed to a holiday party hosted by Tweak and FarFarAway. Tweak and FarFarAway aren't dating but they probably should be. I met Tweak years ago at University and met FarFarAway through Tweak. In a text inviting me to the party, FarFarAway told me she expected a NYE kiss from me and I jokingly agreed.

The party started out pretty lame. Lots of dudes, very few ladies, and a group of married or engaged couples. There were a couple of really pretty girls that stopped by but they didn't really stay long enough to chat with any of us. Throughout the night FarFarAway was hitting on me. I think FarFarAway is a very pretty girl but I am just not interested in her like that. She has made it obvious that she wants a relationship that will lead to marriage. While I think dating FarFarAway would be fun for a bit, I really don't see her as a potential wife. Plus, FarFarAway was dumped recently by a mutual friend. This rightfully put her into the "don't touch" category.

I talked to a couple of cute girls with zero dating potential (i.e., lived out of state, interested in another guy there, not attractive, engaged) then found Sugarloaf and TheCaptain hitting on this girl Cougarette who teaches dance at an elementary school. She was there with a date but Sugarloaf managed to get her number with a sly trick. I hope he takes her out. Cougarette has the potential to have bunches of really cute friends that she could set me up with.

When the clock struck midnight and the ball dropped, I decided to kiss FarFarAway. She was just standing there looking around and so I walked over and planted one on her. I don't think she was expecting it. I don't think it was a dishonest kiss. It was short and closed mouth. The party was pretty much over so we took off.

On Saturday, GetErDone set me up on a blind date with LittleDebbie. LittleDebbie reminds me so much of a girl that one of my friends married. I didn't like either of them very much. I wasn't really attracted to LittleDebbie and her personality kinda irked me. The night was mostly uneventful. However, while hanging out at LittleDebbie's apartment, her very cute (and very snobby roommate) came home. Harassing the roommate was the highlight of my evening.

Side notes: Saw SouthernBelle at church on Sunday but didn't say hi. She has graduated from hanging out with the super nerdy girls in the ward to hanging out with some of the pretty cool girls. My interest in her has waned. I am very open right now to being set up on blind dates. Please find me a cute girl that isn't too snobby.

A blind date

On Friday night, Sugarloaf (one of my really good friends) and I headed to this pool party. As is typical at most mormon parties, roughly 2 guys showed up for every girl. I know that girls complain sometime about not meeting guys, but I think it is totally their fault. After all, basically every party or group event that I attend is at least 2 guys for every girl. To talk to a girl, you have to interrupt the two guys that are already talking to her. The system is so diluted with guys that even some of the mormon aristocracy wander around aimlessly without girls. Sugarloaf and I tried talking to a few girls but with no luck. I played foosball for a few minutes with a girl I didn't find at all attractive and then we left.

Saturday, littlebrother and his friend GetErDone were hanging out at my house. GetErDone and littlebrother had dates for the night planned. GetErDone decided he wanted to set me up and he began calling girl after girl in search of a date for me. I think he must have called four or five girls before he got in touch with BananaRepublic (hereinafter "Banana"). Banana manages a store and is 29 and quite spunky. We ate dinner at CPK. It was quite fun. After dinner, we went to my house to play Nerts. Banana and I dominated the other teams.

Things I like about Banana: Very spunky, cute, intelligent (has a degree), gets excited about life, asks questions

Things I don't like about banana: Basically nothing. There were no red flags on the first date. Still, I just wasn't that excited about the date afterward. When my brother asked me if I was going to take her out again, I said "maybe." As my Realtor will attest, when I say maybe about something, it means no.

On Sunday, I went to church and saw SouthernBelle. I didn't really talk to her but she smiled at me. I think I am pretty much done with that pipe dream. I saw her again at ward prayer that night. We talked for a second and she gave me a look like maybe she expected me to talk to her more. I guess when she canceled our date and said to our mutual friend that I was too old, it sorta made me decide to back off. I am still very interested in going out with her again but I doubt I will ask her out again. There was one cute girl at ward prayer named Surfer. I talked with her for a few minutes but was only borderline interested in asking her out. Lorelei and I went to a dessert party on Sunday night. None of the mormon aristocracy showed up. I probably should have been in my element but I actually felt more uncomfortable at this party. There were two girls at the whole party that I was mildly attracted to. I didn't talk to either.

Side notes: I still haven't talked to Swift. I kinda really want to take her out right now. TheWriter and I are nowhere near a relationship but I do think it would hurt her feelings. I feel like even inviting Swift over to hang out with me and my friends would be a violation of some sort of trust. At church on Sunday, this kid who wants to go to law school and be a patent attorney told me he had two girls he wanted to set me up with that I met at ward prayer that he knows. I just can't remember his name.

Is it for me?

So one of my friends Foot was doing her visiting teaching. Good mormon girl type activity. Now, I am not sure how it came up but she starts telling the girl she is visiting teaching about my date with SouthernBelle. Sometime along the way, the girl she is visiting teaching stops her and says "I went on that date! I am SouthernBelle." Yeah, pretty embarrassing. She didn't see the blog but I am sure that my level of dorkiness in her book went way up. I mean, what guy blogs about his dates? I had serious thoughts of ending A Date with Tripp Hazard because of this incident. Foot also informed me that SouthernBelle thinks I am kinda old. Now that really hurt my feelings. Anyone who has met me knows that I have a young spirit. I neither look nor act my age. I called SouthernBelle on it and she said that she hates gossip and that it wasn't what she said. Who knows?

On Sunday at ward prayer, I hardly said a word to SouthernBelle. The whole activity was literally crawling with 19 year old girls. I talked to two different girls for most of the time. Both were 19. Then I met MathCheerCoach. MathCheerCoach is a math teacher at a local high school. She also is the cheer coach. We talked a little but she didn't seem that interested in talking with me. Plus, she doesn't want to stay here. She wants to move someplace warm. That's great, except my house, my career, my family and my life are here. So it's two strikes against her already.

SouthernBelle and I agreed to go out this Saturday but she texted me last night and had to cancel. I am sort of up a river without a paddle right now. My first thought was to call TheWriter. She and I met online but haven't met yet. Thing is, I have seen lots of pictures of her (there are almost 1000 on facebook) and I am only attracted to her in about 10% of those. I know, what a weird number. TheWriter is goofy and fun and outgoing, but if I am not attracted to her, I certainly won't start dating her. My next thought was Aussie. I messaged her on facebook but she said her parents were in town and she had to spend time with them. I am still considering other girls, including MathCheerCoach, Virginia, and TheFlake. Virginia is a girl I have never met that added me as a friend on facebook. We have several mutual friends. Looking at her pictures, I am very attracted to her. TheFlake is a girl I have had a crush on in the past. She works at a dry cleaning place and is quite flaky. But gorgeous and spunky and fun and cute and just so attractive.

Last night I went and hung out with FormerLesbian. I found it a bit disturbing. First, I met her mother. Overweight but nice. Second, I found out FormerLesbian has lost 80 pounds. She used to weigh 225. Now, that's great that she lost all of that weight but I still see that as a negative. Finally, FormerLesbian acts like she is in love with me already. I may be handsome and charming, but I am not THAT handsome or THAT charming. So it makes me awfully suspicious when a girl starts having feelings for me that early on that are that strong. Plus, when I feel lukewarm and they come on strong, it's definitely a turnoff.

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.