phone calls and future plans in 2016

7:27pm

Well, today was a very productive day, even if I didn’t intend for it to be at all. I guess that makes it better, right? :-)

We got home last night around 1am. I was pretty desperate to be home and in my own bed. I don’t know what it was but I just couldn’t be on the road anymore. I was so over it! Maybe has something to do with the crazy amount of travelling I’ve done over the last few months, but yeah. I needed to be home and there was potential to delay another day and I couldn’t stand it. So glad Mom decided to just drive all the way. I don’t know if I would have made it another day with any amount of sanity left.

We got home and unpacked the car a bit, mostly perishables [we’d stopped at Winco in OR. Yay no sales tax!] and then we got ready for bed. Had a couple shots of cinnamon whiskey to celebrate being back in our own home and on our own schedule. =) Then I was asleep by 2am.

Of course a free day to sleep-in meant that I was awake by 8:30. =| Better than like 6am, I guess. I tried to go back to sleep for like 10 minutes but knew it wasn’t happening. I think I laid around for almost an hour before I got up though. It was quiet so I knew Mom was still asleep and I didn’t want to wake her. She didn’t even get up until like 10:30 or something, crazy lady! When did we reach a point where she sleeps in later than I do!? I don’t like this! haha.

Anyway, I sat around and caught up on e-mails while I waited. Once I heard her stirring I went to make coffee and eventually got up for the morning. Oh, but before that I decided it was my turn to shoot TF a text. I can’t make him do all the work. I mean, if this were anyone else I would be doing a lot more initiating and less waiting. That’s what friends do, right?

Since I hadn’t heard anything from him I waited until around 11am and then said, “What’s up TF! I finally made it back to good ol’ [home]!” I threw out that whole “what’s up” thing since that’s what he always says. =) I’ll admit to a slight panic when I didn’t immediately get a response, because I’m cool like that. But I settled down, told my brain to shut up, and learned some patience. If anything else, this guy is going to teach me some serious patience, for sure! ha.

Of course within like 15 minutes he responded, “Well hello beautiful. Glad you made it back safe and sound.” The whole “beautiful” thing is his totally cheesy way of being charming....but I’m into it. ;)

Everything was sorta pointing at this weekend for an actual get-together but I was trying really hard not to get my hopes up. I kept reminding myself that he might wait until like Christmas or something to try again. haha. I mentioned something to him about actually being tired of travelling and happy to be home for a while. He asked if I’d had fun around 12:30. I didn’t respond right away because I was taking a shower and getting ready. Also, I was contemplating how to respond, obviously! :) I was going to say something about Seattle being like my 2nd home and how glad I was to get back there. I got distracted helping to put away all the groceries from yesterday though and I was waiting until I sat down with my coffee.

About 30 minutes after the text I was standing in the kitchen and my phone started to ring. I thought it was my brother but then realized he’d be at work so I reached out and flipped it to see TF’s number. I was holding like three bags of soup and the counter was covered so I had to quickly come up with a place to drop them so I could grab the phone and walk away. hah.

I pick up to hear, “What’s up Rose?” =) and we went on to have a conversation for the next 30 minutes. Apparently he was on a mandatory rest break, which I think was self-imposed. hah. I think he’s got a pretty autonomous position at work? I don’t know. He said something about a gas line and inhaling the fumes. I should probably figure out what he does.

Honestly, I’d love to recount the entire conversation but these phone calls tend to come back to me as the memories of the words relate to other things. So I’ll probably retell it throughout various entries.

It started with asking me about my trip. I told him about all the rain I saw. He asked if we got smashed. ha. I said that I was with my family and he said he figured that’s when I drank the most. haha. I said my brother was the odd one out and didn’t drink much so we don’t tend to drink much either around him. He also asked if we’d had a drink as soon as we got home last night. I tried to play it off all cool. Saying that it was 1am and what not. He asked if Mom had a Long Island and I said she drinks brandy at home. He asked if I had a coors light [poor guy, that’s all he thinks I drink.] and I said no that I didn’t have anything like that. Which was a total lie. I mean, I did have those shots, which he’d totally guessed, but I didn’t want to admit it to him!

His phone was cutting out, like maybe he was getting other calls/texts or just his location. I kept hearing complete silence and missing words. He was saying something about visiting someone in Seattle. I thought he said his friend and his wife, but then later he said something about his brother. So maybe his brother lives out there? He mentioned he’d gone there one year for Thanksgiving and this whole debacle about trying to see the parade in the rain. Everyone else thought it was no big deal that there was rain but by the time they got there TF’s pants were soaked and he was “trying to stay positive.” [<—Interesting perspective.] He didn’t think there was any way there would be people or a parade, but yeah obviously they’re used to it out there and the whole thing continued like no big deal. They’d also taken him to a doughnut shop, which he couldn’t remember the name of. I guessed VooDoo doughnuts, which yeah. I am so smart! I’ve never even been there but everyone talks about them. He said our local shop was better. haha.

I said that I noticed that about the rain. That people like us see rain and take off running and these people are like out in shorts without an umbrella in sight. He said that it was because it was a special event for us out here and we like to stay in and snuggle [or maybe he said cuddle?]. I mostly ignored the comment. lol. He was saying he couldn’t do all that rain. I told him that I’d been out there a lot and that it doesn’t really rain that much. His phone started cutting out again and I caught something about - if you’re taking me, or going to invite me, then I’ll go with you and we can eat doughnuts. I said that he’d just mentioned the doughnuts in town were better and he goes, “we don’t have to eat the doughnuts, geez! I was just saying I’d go with you.” All in like a laughing manner, of course.
Um…this dude hasn’t even spent an hour alone with me and he’s already planning future trips together? Uh. Ok. =\

He ended up asking me when I was going to take him out on a date. I said, “never” and then because I didn’t want to be mean I said, “well, not never, but I’m pretty sure this is something you’re supposed to be doing first.” He said he’d forgotten and that he was all backwards. I said that was ok I was just waiting patiently and he called me a “patient girl.” I laughed and said that I really wasn’t patient at all.

Not sure if it was before or after that that he brought up the thing about my asking him to get my number. I pretty much said, “Well yeah, dude. I didn’t know how long you were going to take. I thought maybe it would be months from now. Or next year. You’d bring it up again to my Mom and never say anything to me and this would go on forever.” He laughed and mentioned how my mom kept telling him to just ask me already. lol. He also played along about how this could take months and he would have waited too if I didn’t say anything. He thanked me for making him get it. =) And I made jokes about how it might still be going on six years from now. He played along with the whole thing for a little bit. Which I like. He gets the jokes.

Then he said that he didn’t have any hunters on Saturday, and didn’t have his kid on Friday, so maybe we could go out Friday night. I am so cool that I started joking about how I couldn’t believe he was actually going to ask me. I said that I didn’t know if this was a good idea. That it was going to ruin our whole thing. He started asking if I seriously thought that. And I said that it would mess with our plan to wait six years and all that stuff. haha.

Eventually I stopped messing around and asked if he had a plan or if we were just going with it. He said that he didn’t really know. This is all disjointed but it came out that he knew I liked to drink, so somewhere with drinking would help to…and he hesitated and I waited. He ended up saying that that would make me feel “more comfortable” and I laughed out loud and said that I was waiting to hear what words he’d use. He laughed and said that that wasn’t the first one that came to mind which is why he paused. I knew this! Because I for sure thought he was going to say it would make me more “loose”. haha. Good catch dude! He may be bold via text but he tries really hard to keep it under control on the phone, which I appreciate. There was something else later that he couldn’t find the right words for, but I don’t remember in this moment.

He did tell me that one thing he was sure of was that we should take one vehicle, either his or mine. He thinks it would be weird to meet up somewhere. Like if he wanted to go to [beach town] and we’d each drive a car and meet at some location, he thinks that would be crazy. Which I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to me, but that’s fine. If he wants to go together, we’ll go together. I asked who was driving, him or I, and he said he didn’t care. I said I wasn’t big on driving and he said that that was fine. He drives all the time anyway.
I told him that I just wasn’t sure about us being stuck in a car together and what if one of us liked bad music. He said he thought I probably liked “Indie” music and I asked why he thought that. He didn’t really have a good answer though. Just that I seemed like the type to like that kind of music. [Good guess!] And then he mentioned Maroon 5, which come on? That is so not Indie. Definitely more on the pop side. But whatever.

Everyone asks me what I listen to and I never know what to say. Just the other day JR was trying to figure out what I considered “indie” and I don’t know. Whatever. I listen to so much music and I can’t ever think of any indie bands in the moment. Mostly because I’m into country these days, but whatever.

TF said that he was pretty much fine with every type of music so it shouldn’t be a big deal. I said I’d put on some classical like at the office and he told me not to ruin his office experience. That we shouldn’t mix business and personal. ha. Too late dude!

So the plan stands that we’ll get together on Friday sometime after 2. He said he gets out at that time but that he’d have to go home and shower and get all pretty. Or I think he said he liked to “primp.” lol. There were a lot of jokes about mascara and I don’t know. I so hope he is not one of those guys that takes forever to get ready! I’m hoping it really was all a joke!

He said that he would get back to me, or send me a text, when he came up with a place to go and if I wasn’t into it I could slide it back to him for another suggestion. He asked if I was allergic to anything and I’m not sure if he heard the not a big fan of seafood thing. But either way. I’ll find something anywhere. I’m super flexible with this stuff.

[I like that he calls whenever he wants to ask [or stand me up lol] instead of doing it via text!]

I am sorta excited about this though. And I don’t want to get my hopes up, but it could be fun. I am trying very hard not to get nervous. Of course those feelings keep trying to creep up, but I’m surpressing them for now. It’s just going to be a good ol’ fashion hang out session.

sidenote: I can’t help but notice the similarites with ck. I know, I know! But we did end up having our last hang out like the day before Halloween, or on that same weekend, and it’s weird that this is happening now with TF.

We’ll just wait and see how it goes, right? I didn’t hear anything else from TF today. Hopefully he comes up with something without standing me up again.

We did joke about that today. I mentioned how I’d heard this “I get off at…” thing before and how I got stood up. He said it wasn’t his fault. That there was a spill that day and he had to take care of it. Also that he realized that he would have had to work the next day and maybe that wasn’t very responsible of him. He went on about all this taking care of other people and keeping them safe, and sending them home to their families thing. I said that I was pretty sure he was the one that had picked the day. Then he says that he has responsibilities to earn a paycheck and take care of his kid. I was like, “ok, if you’e going to play that card then I can’t say anything else.” He said that that was the hand that he was dealt. ha. Whatever. We’ll go with that.

At some point we were “arguing” about something, I don’t remember what, and I said, “Ok, whatever you say.” He goes, “Well there we go. That’s the sign of a good relationship.” And I go, “What, compromise?” And he says, “No. What you just said, “whatever you say.”” I laughed. He said that he didn’t think I was the type of girl to go with that and I agreed and said that I’d tried for like five seconds there but it wasn’t happening. ;) At least he gets it. I’m not giving off the wrong impression here.

Ok. This is super long already. Whoops. I’ll update as new information rolls in, I’m sure. And there are probably plenty of moments that I forgot so those will come up at some point as well. For now? Bed.

rose.
11:20pm