RAD: Paul in These Foolish Things

I need to update you on LOTS of stuff, but first…ima put this RAD right here.

Name: Paul (from the song Gigantic by the Pixies - look up the lyrics)

Age: Well, this is kind of a funny story. I’d recently made a comment in a closed
group on FB regarding age limits in dating. I wrote that I prefer to date guys anywhere from between 10 years younger than me to 5 years older - and the main reason for that is because I want a guy who has all of the working parts and is VIBRANT (to borrow someone else’s word…but it FITS), if you know what I mean. And I can’t really remember how the subject of age and THIS came up, but somehow he knew I was 50 (I’m sure I volunteered this information along the way), so he told me he was “within the range” - which left me scratching my head because from how the guy looks, he looks like he’s anywhere from 30 to …mayyyybe 50?? I can’t even tell!!! And if we’re going to go there, which if this thing plays out like I hope it will, we will be going there…I’ll just drop it right here. I’m pretty sure I can’t tell his age because “black don’t crack”. I’m not trying to disrespectful or even funny. It’s the damn truth and something that I’m envious of. Honestly. He has a couple of gray hairs in his beard, and that’s all. No wrinkles; no nothing that would give away his age. So, for now he’s having a heyday thinking I don’t know how old he is. What he doesn’t know is that I’ve already dug deep into the web and just about figured out that he’s somewhere between 50 and 52, so all is good. Whew. Was that a long-winded bullet point or what?! :)

And in case you’re wondering, he tells me that all of his parts are in excellent working condition. Wink.

Status: Never married. Single and out of a two year relationship for about 6 months.

Job: Sales for a specific industry. I’m not 100% sure what company, but again, my sleuthing has me feeling pretty close. And you know I don’t like typical sales guys - I HATE the pushiness and the smarm. This guy is nothing like the icky stereotype, so I’m letting it slide. I feel a much higher level of class and sophistication from him.

Lives: Lovely neighborhood 10 minutes from me. Owns the house next door to his childhood home (aka. next door to his mom!). Moved back to help take care of some family matters after living in a few different large metro areas both in the Northern United States and the Southeastern US. Also owns a few rental properties in the same neighborhood.

Length of Date: 4 hours in the afternoon…and then there was more later in the evening, though that part was not a date.

We Did: He picked me up at my place and we both wanted to sit on a patio and have Mexican food and cocktails, so we went around the corner from my place to a lovely place with a sunny courtyard. We talked, laughed (same sense of humor), he looked down my shirt to see my bra (long-ish story) and I looked down his shirt to see how hairy his chest is (not very…but I love the grays anyway). Super flirty the whole time. Lots of touching. Lots of innuendo. A few cocktails. A couple of nice seafood salads. Lovely sunshine. Lovelier company. And the best thing in the world that I love is that he didn’t want the afternoon to end, so after our lunch and drinks he said he had an idea. He wanted to have one more glass of wine at the museum. He’s a member…a patron of The Arts! Of course he is. We got a glass of wine and went to sit out on the patio to finish our talk and to soak in the rest of the lovely afternoon.

He Looked: Dashing. Dark blue linen shirt, jeans, pristine white Chuck Taylors. Beautiful timepiece that was different than the day before (watch collector?). Shaved head. Beard stubble with the grays. You know…all the hot stuff.

I Looked: Clearly better than I did the day before. My hair was washed; my clothes were clean. Ha. I laugh, but sadly, it’s true. I was a hot mess the day before, so it was a blast to see his face light up when he saw me walk out the door of my apartment building and down the steps and into his car, looking and smelling fresh and squeaky clean!

First Impression: Well, my first impressions were actually the day before when I sat down next to him at the patio bar, but my second impressions were even better because we’d both put some thought into it and I could tell that there was some anticipation on his part - there certainly was from my part!

Convo: Everything. Everything. EVERYTHING! In fact, we even talked about the NYT article about the 36 Questions that Lead to Love and I asked him if he wanted to try. He seemed NERVOUS to start tackling the questions, but we agreed that we’d ask each other the first five questions on our next date! It was kind of thrilling to hear that he was willing to do this with me. I can’t wait to hear what he says. Where might this lead? ;)

High Point: Literally just sitting there in the sunshine not even believing that this connection was actually happening! Everything seemed like a high!

Low Point: I can’t even think of anything that could be considered remotely close to a low point.

How It Ended: We left the museum and I invited him to meet me out later if he wanted as Maria and I were going to be hanging out at our spot listening to our favorite crooner sing to us. He said maybe and that he didn’t want to horn in on Girls Night Out, but I told him it wasn’t going to be like that and we have had others join us in the past, so no biggie. He drove me the few short blocks back to my apartment and we shared some innocent pecks on the lips (and shared some jokes about the lipgloss I was wearing…it was called Sexy Mother Pucker) and bid each other adieu until later…

Chances Are: Excellent. After seeing him on Saturday night (Maria LOVED him, by the way), he and I made a tentative plan to see each other on Sunday evening, which didn’t work out because (a) he was exhausted from not getting any sleep the night before last, and (b) it was Easter and I’d been with my family at the lake all day and was exhausted and spent from all of the excitement anyway. So we talked briefly on the phone on Sunday and for a longer period of time last night and we are getting together again TONIGHT!!!! A Tuesday night date!

Date Rating: A+++++ all the way!

EEEEEEeeeee! I’m beyond excited about this one - especially since we have Date #2 (which will actually be our 4th meeting TONIGHT!!!)!

xox,
GS