100 dates

Since we'd both enjoyed the first movie, I asked Littlestar out to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with me. We were there a touch early and sat and chatted in the theater, then watched a bunch of previews that I had to ask her to help me remember afterward. :) It was fun watching her reaction to each one, though.

He's forgotten pretty much all the previews. :) It was pretty funny. I remembered a few based on cute guys and then I was able to fill in the rest. Honestly, the previews for upcoming movies didn't really have me jazzed about them. Tsk.

I'd wanted nachos or something sweet, but everything was so expensive! I oogled them from afar instead. :P

We were both a little nonplussed by the movie itself. It just wasn't nearly as good as the first. We left the theater talking about why this one didn't tickle us as much as the first one, and movies in general. We headed over to downtown Mountain View for an after-movie dinner together. Originally, I'd suggested Tied House, but I changed my mind (is that a bad thing on a date?) and suggested Cafe Yulong instead.

I was really bummed out by the movie. :P I felt robbed, except it hadn't been my money. I liked some of the sets and colors, and it turns out the Rick Heinrichs was the production designer... He worked on a lot of projects with Tim Burton, so it made sense that I liked that stuff.

I was secretly relieved that the restaurant choice had changed. I hadn't really liked the food at Tied House the few times I'd gone.

I think that was a good choice -- littlestar took her revenge on the movie by ordering seafood everything. Crab rangoon, mu shu shrimp, shrimp in lobster sauce. Some odd timing on the dishes gave us a three-course meal, which I didn't mind at all. It was nice sitting and talking while we waited for food to come.

We kept up the movie talk that we'd started at the theater. I asked littlestar she'd want to be involved if a movie were someday made from a book or other thing she created. She said yes, but only to have veto power over bad decisions. When she turned the question back around at me, I said that I'd want to be really involved -- it just seems so exciting to be able to contribute to a movie, even though the final film is never any one person's vision.

Eventually, full of warm food and warm tea in a warm restaurant, we opted to head out for the cooler sidewalk. I asked Littlestar if she'd help me pick out a birthday card for my sister, which she was happy to do. She also showed off her method of bookstore browsing -- bargain books first. I'm not sure why it wasn't an orderly progression through those bargain books (me: "Oh, there's more?" her: "Of course."), but it was fun to tag along with the expert. We both ended up buying a card (mine for my sister, hers for a friend) after wandering around together for a while.

It was a nice, casual day (even if I am still a little too nervous during dates...I have to reign myself in from the desire to constantly check to make sure everything's going okay -- not at all cool, that).

I noticed that he seemed a little nervous and asked him if I made him nervous. In retrospect, that might not have been helpful. :P

I'll have to rabbit check him later. :)

Posted by parakkum at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This is a belated posting for a slightly delayed date.

After having to reschedule a planned date Thursday before last, I had to plan another, different date for two days later. I really like city parks, and wanted to share that with littlestar, so I invited her to go with me to Golden Gate Park to see the Conservatory of Flowers and its butterfly exhibit.

I'd only been to Golden Gate Park twice before. A short visit with my family years ago and the DeYoung Museum without much chance to see anything else.

I picked her up at the early hour of eleven in the morning on Saturday, then drove up to San Francisco. We found parking near Golden Gate park, then walked around until we found the Conservatory. By then we were both hungry, so we wandered North of the park and learned that there's just not much food in that area. Eventually, we hit a nice little deli and picked up some sandwiches, went back to the park and had an impromptu picnic on the front lawn of the Conservatory. It was a great day, us sitting in the shade, kids wandering around, people playing music, folks drumming -- a true city park day.

I was a little confused as to why he wanted to go so early. I've been having a hard time waking up lately, so I was a little worried I would keep him waiting. As it was... I tried on all these different clothes because I wasn't sure what would be warm enough yet cool enough for SF. It was forecasted to be around 75 F in SF -- uncharacteristically warm. And he'd mentioned dinner.... It made me wonder if he was planning on keeping me for the whole day. For two meals? Is that typical for a date? I have no idea....

He has no sense of direction at all. :) It was quite funny. He would pick the opposite direction of where we should be going quite frequently. :P :)

After our little picnic, we went into the Conservatory. It was really fun, walking through different environments in a building that's over a century old. We saw bromeliads, orchids, giant lily pads and carnivorous plants. They had hot rooms and cool rooms, representing tropical highlands and lowlands. We were even misted -- twice. After all the plants, we went into their temporary Butterfly Zone, which had all sorts of butterflies and exhibits on pollinators. We chased butterflies around for a while. Theyr'e like flying flowers.

The flowers were so pretty. I'd brought my sketchbook, just in case. I did want to draw, but there were just enough people that I thought it would be difficult. And besides, it seemed like bad form to ignore your date and draw instead... so I refrained. I figure I'll go back again someday.

There was a window facing outside, towards the lawn with the outside garden of flowers. There were soo many butterflies clustered on and around the windows. You could tell that they yearned to fly outside. Perhaps somewhere where it wasn't so warm, so safe. New flowers to pollinate, new places to be...

After the Conservatory, we headed back out into the Park. We wandered over to see the carousel, passing by the lawn bowling green on the way. I'm afraid I'm not much for orienteering, so I had to rely on littlestar to keep me going in the right direction. The carousel itself wasn't all that exciting and we were tired, so I bought littlestar a chocolate drumstick and we went back to the lawn bowling green -- which we were amused to discover had a sign absolutely prohibiting the playing of bocce.

I wonder where the game originates from. It seems so proper, with everyone dressed in white clothes and the neatly manicured lawns. Even their shoes were white!

It was a nice rest, and I put my arm around littlestar for a little while as we both sort of drifted in the warm afternoon.

First contact! Actually, I'd accidentally held his hand earlier without thinking. We decided that that didn't count. :P :)

Regardless, it felt nice and comfortable. Tingly. :)

After our lawn bowling rest, we returned to the car. I told littlestar about the bison paddock at the park -- she found the idea incredible, so we drove (rather than walk around two miles) down to the far end of the park. There is, indeed, a bison paddock in the park. The bison seem bored, but late afternoon is probably bison naptime.

It was so weird! There's this small herd (7-8 bison) just casually sitting and lying around in the middle of quite a sizable paddock. When parakkum first told me about it, I thought he was pulling my leg. It was cute. Some of them were lying completely on their side... which reminded me of my bunnies. Large 1 ton bunnies.

After that, we drove to the coast -- littlestar didn't know the park went to the ocean -- then all the way back home.

I fell asleep in the car. It was such a nice drowsy day. :)

It was a really nice way to spend a Saturday.

Posted by parakkum at 09:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've also been asked if we're open to suggestions.

Definitely.

Please feel free to comment with date (or part-of-date -- for example, restaurant) suggestions. littlestar will not be reading the comments on this post, to avoid any potential spoiling of future fun. All suggestions are welcome, with the reward of warm fuzzies if I actually do use one of your ideas.

Posted by parakkum at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Probably the most common "in person" question so far has been "Does this count as a date?"

We have a very few rules for what makes something qualify as a date. They are:

1) It's planned*

2) I ask her out

Beyond that, it's pretty open. There could, for example, be a date as part of a group activity. It could suck -- I'm trying to avoid this, but a valiant yet failed effort could still qualify (c.f. the Staten Island date from Hitch). It simply must be intended to be a date in advance -- so no gaming the system and trying to retroactively assign dates.

*planned by me, that is.

Posted by parakkum at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)