Down On Ferry Farm

I was just doing some general nonsense around the house, listening to some music on iTunes and I noticed a weird pattern in the songs that were playing. I think my music was trying to tell me something. I skipped back through the most recently played songs and tried to understand what the music was saying. I understand that you can hear what you want but I’ll try and explain what I heard: Richie Havens, “Here Comes The Sun”: One of the cable channels started re-running “The Wonder Years” a while back (they have since stopped, not sure why). During one of the scenes this Beatles cover played. I remember hearing this song when I was younger, when I was in school (like the TV characters were) and I recall the hope of the song. “ Here comes the sun and, I say, it’s all right …” Sarah McLachlan, “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy”: “ All the fear has left me now/ I’m not frightened anymore/ It’s my heart that pounds beneath my flesh/ It’s my mouth that pushes out this breath ”. I see this as a hopef

Okay, as my final rant for this year, I’m going to set some things straight. There are some oxymoronic statements out there that I feel need to be corrected – heavy on the “moronic”. New and Improved: Okay, this one I’ve never understood. Let’s break this down… if something is ‘new’ it has never existed before. If it is ‘improved’ then is now different than it was before and, presumably, better. Something cannot be both ‘new’ and ‘improved’ at the same time. It was new last month and THEN we improved it… that’s fine. Please don’t say it’s new AND improved. Quick tangent on ‘new’: How old can something be and still be considered new? I hear that on the radio sometimes and feel that it’s incorrect to call a 6-month old song ‘new’. I just don’t know what the cutoff is. Moving along… Over and Out: It’s so silly hearing this when it occurs in a military movie. You see two guys talking on radios and one gives a command and the other guy responds “Over and out”. You’re going to find it sil

It’s interesting what you find when you clean up. This time out I found a mini tape recorder – you know, the kind that takes those tiny little tapes. Anyhow, the batteries had gotten that build up of gunk on them so I had to replace them. When I did, I listened to the tape. It was an old answering machine tape. I heard my outgoing message and then all the incoming ones that people had left for me. There were a couple from my family, a couple from Superman, one from an old girlfriend, and one from sister’s ex-husband. It was kind of weird. I’m not sure why he was calling me even after hearing his message. It was funny hearing their voices. Not much else to report, I’m sorry to say. I’ll let you know if I hear more or make other discoveries.

I’m feeling a bit melancholy tonight. You’ve been warned. I glued the phone handset to the base – it hasn’t been used in quite a while so I thought that would be best. I’m not feeling well and when that happens, everyone calls and wants to do something. Only on a Friday. I had no less than three invitations, all of which were declined due to my feeling less than 100 percent. Tomorrow I will remove my brain. It seems that’s the only way to find what I want. Someone is going to read this and be overly critical. I will blame the medicine I’m taking. Do you know in Britain there are no Pharmacists? Over there they call them “Chemists”. Isn’t that wonderful? There is a large amount of vernacular the Brits use that we don’t and vice versa. It’s almost Christmas. This time of year always gets me down and I think I know the reason why: no fresh air. I’ve been cooped up in this house for a few weeks now with the same stale air and dust mites. I have traveled out a bit but not enough to rejuvena

Wow, I looked at how long it’s been since I’ve written I thought I’d catch you up on what’s going on. Still not working: I would say this year has not been my best in terms of what’s happened. I am only blaming Karma because I don’t know how else to explain it. I’d love analyze this year frame-by-frame to see where I went wrong but that just isn’t going to happen. Christmas party: I went to my former company’s Christmas party – the one before this most-recent one. It was about the same as all the years I remember being there. The higher-ups get drunk, people eat, people drink, people dance, the president makes a sappy speech “this is the best year ever because of you”, and then all the employees go home with a bonus check. G-Lady: I know I haven’t talked about her in a while but she’s been bugging me to come over and set up her new computer (that is now 6 months old). I get over there and she tells me she just got digital cable but it doesn’t work with any of her TV’s, so she’s boug

I woke up this morning with the best of intentions. In an effort to clean out my house, I found some material that I wanted to recycle. I looked online for some places that would accept the items and felt like I did my homework. I started with the places that were closest to me. Some places only accept aluminum, some only cardboard – so I looked for places that accepted all of what I had. There appeared to be 4 of them and they were all within city limits. Great. So off I went to the first location. Well, what they didn’t tell you is that they charge by the pound… and me without my checkbook. I headed off to the next location (the high school from which I graduated) but stopped off at another location I THOUGHT had some recycling containers. Apparently that location no longer had the receptacles because I looked all around so I headed to the school. Upon reaching the high school I did not see any recycling center. It mentioned online that this was a “manned” location that was open 24-h

Over the past few weeks I’ve gotten some terrible news about myself. People around me are somehow misunderstanding me. I don’t know how that happened. First, Renee breaks up with me and says part of the reason is “not what you say, but how you say it”. Then my job lets me go due to what I consider a huge lack of communication between my boss and me. It’s like I was saying the words but they weren’t being understood. Finally, DubDub and I are talking on the phone. She says I’ve been feisty lately. “What do you mean feisty?” I ask her “Can you give me an example?” She can’t come up with a specific example but has a problem with “not what you say, but how you say it”. Sound familiar? I really, truly and honestly don’t know what I’m doing wrong. These are general statements of dislike without specific examples to learn from. I see a trend but I don’t know how to stop it. I wouldn’t mind if others were thrown by my words but it affects me greatly when I’m losing jobs and relationships over

I figured that, being out of work, I’d spend more time doing things that I needed to get done. To a certain extent, I have but to that other extent – I haven’t. I wanted to write more and be more creative than I have been that past few years. My mind has been cluttered with passwords, procedures, documentation and habits. It’s hard to keep telling myself that I’m just taking a vacation. It’s getting harder to suspend the truth. I’ve spent most of my time at home trying to get my house in order – both literally and figuratively. My kitchen has never been cleaner. Where there is usually a stack of dishes on the counter there currently is none. I feel like all I do these days is sleep, eat and watch TV. It’s more of an existence than a life. I have to keep telling myself that things will get better. For my own good I have to keep going forward. I need to see how this story ends. I need to start each paragraph with “I”.

If my body truly does remember everything that’s happened to it, I think this is what it would have to say: “Laying in the warm sun feels nice. Cool breeze. Too bad you won’t remember it” “The fall from the 3rd story window did not feel good. I don’t care if you thought that bush would break your fall – it didn’t” “This is a new place to live but you’ve become a lot more conservative with me. You would find out that girl has smooth skin if you would only touch it” “You were in a fight today but only your heart feels bad” “You tried to run fast but there were others there who were faster” “I feel like I’m building to something good but there are too many people around” “Pressing through these crowded hallways reveals neither pain nor pleasure” “That watch is too tight” “It’s good to see you breaking out of your shell” “Man, the foot is in pain but I know a tetanus shot will fix that discoloration” “I am strong” “5 more push-ups? Are you kidding me? No way” “I can’t believe that, after e

I have been catching up with the series “Six Feet Under” lately. Superman let me borrow his copy of the entire series, so I have been watching. I have noticed a few trends within each show: Saying the f-word a lot Sexuality (gay and straight) The mother’s outbursts (sometimes laced with swearing) A call being sent or received on a cell phone The dark lighting Casual drug use Male nudity (especially early on in the series) Death It’s always offsetting to me that the show opens with someone’s death. It’s weird having a show start but not seeing any of the main characters for the first few minutes. It’s like trying to identify as quickly as possible with strangers. I’d like to say that I identify most with Claire, but in reality I’m probably most like Nate (without the headaches). To warn you, I’m currently only half way through Season 2 so please don’t tell me whatever happens after that. Let me just say that I didn’t include female nudity in the list above because I don’t have a problem

After having been rejected by Renee earlier in the week, I have been rejected again – this time by the company I work for. I guess I’m officially “between jobs”. I don’t like this feeling. I’ve always been the kind of person who likes a certain level of security. I like knowing that there’s another paycheck coming down the road in 2 weeks. This is a bit unsettling. I probably have enough money to get me into the new year if I do it right and nothing major happens. You’re probably asking yourself: “What happened?” Ultimately, I think my boss and I were out of sync. There is also a bit of “setup to fail” in there as well. He mentioned something about performance but I’m sure he had to say something like that. This is clearly not the best week of my life. It doesn’t even get to the top 10. So my new is job is finding a new job. Blurgh!

Well, I don’t know how to put this any other way, kind readers, but Renee has dumped me. She called last night and asked where I was. “Home”, I replied. “Are you busy?” she asked. “No, I’m just watching TV” I said. I was getting a little nervous and I asked her what was going on. “I don’t really know how to say this,” she tells me “but this isn’t working for me”. This is not what I was expecting when she called, and I told her so. I remember her saying something like “It doesn’t bother me what you’re saying but HOW you’re saying it”. She had a talk with me previous to this and said that I had somehow disciplined her daughter but then couldn’t give me an example of what she meant. She also told me I was dismissive in my tone. I recall that, toward the end of the call, we both sat there with not much to say and we were wondering how to end the call. I mean, how do you segue from “it’s over” to “okay, have a good one” (or “have a nice life” – that’s what I wanted to say). In the minutes a

The past week-and-a-half or so has been a blur of activity and nothingness. I’ll try and hit the highlights. I finally met Renee’s parents and her daughter – on the same night. Originally, I was invited to come to Sunday dinner but Renee thought that might be a bit much hitting me all at once. So the plan was that she and I would go out while the parents watched the young’n. So I drove to her parent’s house (to pick her up) and would then meet all the interested parties. Renee’s parents live just outside of “the middle of nowhere” so I dutifully missed the mailbox of the homestead. But I finally found the place. I met the parents and her daughter. We basically sat there for 20 minutes watching the child run, hop, bounce and dance around. Then Renee and I went off to dinner. Sunday dinner went off without a hitch and I felt right at home. The only additions were an aunt and uncle I hadn’t met before but who seemed really nice. We sat around and drank beer, ate food, watched football and

Friends, I have had a weekend that was downright decadent. Friday night I went over to Renee’s house so she could make me dinner – Lasagna, no less. She was concerned because I was picking up all the checks whenever we went out. “I’m going to have to make dinner for you” she says. So we had a nice quiet dinner at her place on Friday night. The next morning we got up and did a little shopping. She bought some sparkly shoes for her daughter and I bought some new shoes that I can wear to work. We also walked around a couple of “house wares”-type stores and she bought some new sheets. Later that day we went to see a movie (“Dan in Real Life”) and ate some food. Sunday morning we got up and she had to go pick up her daughter – ex-husband had her for the weekend – so we didn’t have much planned. * It was so nice and so comfortable I just couldn’t believe it. We talked about all the ‘heavy’ things you’re supposed to talk about: Religion, Politics, Sports, Life, etc. There wasn’t anything she

Biscotti! To the person who understands the humor, please do not respond. We will talk later.

On Wednesday of this week I got a call from the dating service saying they had another match for me. “Uh… well, I – uh..” I stuttered to her. “Is there a problem?” she asked. I then proceeded to tell her that I’ve had several dates with one of the young ladies that they set me up with previously. She then said I could put myself ‘on hold’ and explore this new relationship. I needed to talk to Renee to see where her head was. When we finally talked, Renee was pretty frank about the whole situation and said that I should go on the date. I felt weird at that moment. I wanted her to say that I shouldn’t go, that she wanted me all to herself. I wanted to feel good after the conversation, but I didn’t. By the way, this is sort of what Renee looks like: I called the dating service back and asked them to set up the date. In the mean time, Renee messaged me and asked if I wanted to come over Friday night. As quickly as I could, I replied “yes”. So Friday night comes and I’m very relaxed about t

I know I just wrote but I had an experience I thought was cool that I'd share. I went to deposit my check in the bank today so I drove to the nearest ATM that belongs to my bank. I had been to these ATM's recently and saw how they were new units now with large color screens. So I pull up and I'm looking for the little envelopes they have at the ATM so I can shove my check in there with the deposit slip. No envelopes. There's a little sticker on there that even says "you don't need envelopes anymore". I'm a bit confused but I look further. There's a slot just above the one where you insert your card for putting in cash or checks. Wait, what? So I push the button that tells the machine I want to deposit my check and it tells me to slide my check into that slot. It grabs the check like an angry librarian. A few seconds later a scan of the actual check appears on the screen with the amount it's made out for. "Is this the correct amount?"

For some reason, going over to Renee’s (that's what I have decided to nickname her) house on Friday night was giving me some anxiety. I was more nervous than a hooker in church… and I don’t know why. Maybe because I was unsure of where she lived and didn’t want to appear foolish. You see, usually I map out everything ahead and make a dry run to the location before I end up going. Well, I didn’t have time to do that in this case. Anyhow, I have my map and my directions and I head out into the great unknown. But first, I stop at the store and pick up some beer. Now, I know you’re thinking this is what screwed me up (keep reading) but it really didn’t. So I’m traveling along with my instructions and I get down this really long and winding road (Beatles!) and I’m thinking to myself “this can’t be right”. One of her instructions to me was to go all the way to the end of “North Whatever Blvd”. So I get all the way out to the end of this road and I decide to call her. “This can’t be right

So Bachelorette #2 calls me last night (I haven’t decided what nickname to give her yet) when she’s driving home from the airport. She’s been out of town, you see. She tells me about her trip and I tell her about my quiet week so far. Then we talk about what we want to do next time we get together. I get the feeling that she’s been to most of the restaurants in the area – even the “out of the way” ones. So she tells me “why don’t you come over to my house and we’ll watch a movie”. I tell her in my most calm and collected voice “Yea, I can do that”. She tells me it will have to be after her daughter goes to bed (around 8pm), which is fine with me. In the hours since then, I have wrestled with the idea that this is too soon, too fast, too much. On one side it’s not like she asked me to sleep with her – on the other it’s not like she DIDN’T either. The problem? I don’t want to mess this up. This woman is really cool and laid back. She is (self-described as) low maintenance. She’s got a gr

Well, after my last successful date, I figured we ought to try it again. In fact, at the first date I told her that it wasn’t up for debate – that we WOULD go out again. And we did. It was the Saturday following the first date. She had been out with a friend of hers on Friday night and they must have gotten a little wild with the drinks because she appeared to be “hurtin’” come date-night. I suggested a couple of places and we settled on a laid-back little place where we could just hang out and talk. Before we get to the date, I have to explain what I was doing beforehand. Superman had invited me to a corporate function of his wife’s work. It was given a renaissance theme. That was fine but the woman who was doing the announcements had a very screechy voice… AND she was amplified… AND she was yelling. We ate the obligatory hot dog and hamburger and generally made our presence known – then got the hell out of dodge. I think if it wasn’t for the screeching woman we would have stayed long

I was naturally nervous before my date this evening. I had my doubts and now I wonder if my expectations were too low. My last date the conversation was stilted, it was generally uncomfortable, and the conversation did not come easy. I did not see any attraction to her even though she seemed like a very nice young lady. The same cannot be said of tonight’s date. It was wonderful, easy and flowing. Any silence that occurred was nothing but comfortable. I could easily see myself with this woman for many nights to come. Of course, it would be a huge overstatement to say she’s “the one” but – wow – it could not have gone any better if I scripted it. I was early to the restaurant. We were only supposed to have drinks but we were both hungry, so we ordered dinner. The conversation came easy as well as the smiles and laughs. We had quite a bit in common and much to discuss. I was early. I waited at the table. I watched as the hostess brought several women to their tables “is that her?” I’d as

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been in a slump with the ladies… a pretty major slump. Brought on by DubDub and her teasing me with her presence and my own wuss-itude while sitting at a bar just staring at beautiful women, I did the only thing I know to do: hire a dating service. So that’s what I did. I’m not going to name them here because I don’t want to advertise for them at this point. If they are a rousing success you might hear about it from me. They called me on a Thursday (I had inquired about their services in the past) and asked if I was still available. My ‘advisor’ wanted to meet with me and see if she couldn’t match me with someone as soon as possible – she suggested we meet that night. I drove to their office and met with my advisor for about half an hour (kind of quick, I thought). We sat and talked in this very small office and she asked questions about what I like and what I was looking for in a woman. I explained all the usual surface material and wondered when we were g

I don’t know what made me think of this, but I thought I’d mention my Uncle Jimmy. Everyone has that ‘crazy’ uncle, or the “pull my finger” uncle – well this is my silly uncle. He was good with his hands and was always building or fixing something. He could make just about anything out of wood. He was always collecting bicycle parts and putting them together for kids in his neighborhood that couldn’t afford them. The parents would arrive at his house insisting to pay for the bikes but he always turned them down. I had a pair of shoes that I ran into the ground. They were so worn out that my toes were sticking out the front of them. I was getting ready to throw them in the garbage when he asked, “Hey, how much you want for those?” in his silly way. I asked what he wanted them for. He needed some throwaway shoes that he could paint in. He tried them on and they fit. If you want to get a mental image of Uncle Jimmy, just picture Bert Larhs only taller and thinner. He had that big broad sm

I’m sure you’re asking yourself: Why hasn’t he had a blog entry in a while. Oh, he rambled on about music and what-not but not a whole lot lately. I’ll tell you why. The hottest part of the summer my air conditioner broke down. I woke up in the morning like I had just gotten off a water park ride. I didn’t feel much like turning the computer on let alone writing in this blog. I got the air conditioning replaced and all is well in that world. Then work picked up. I worked 12-hour days all Labor Day weekend (yes, I’m aware of the irony) and long days Monday through Wednesday of the following week. I wasn’t sleeping well any of those nights. My boss gave me Thursday and Friday off but ended up calling me in on Friday and, again, ended up working a long day. That’s not an excuse – it’s my reason. I want to tell you what’s going on in my world. I want to explain why I am the way I am. I want you to understand why women cringe when they see me coming toward them, even when I don’t understand

I have finally reconciled with “The Gods” of music. I broke down and signed up for iTunes and will begin paying for the music I download. Actually, it paid off instantly. I had been looking for a song for quite some time through, uh.. ‘other’ channels and had not found it. I figured “what could it hurt – I’ll look and see if it’s on iTunes”. It was there. I was amazed. More than that I was sold. So I started thumbing through my wish list of songs I was looking for. I found all but one. With that one, though, I don’t know the title of it. I have resisted doing this for so long because I felt like the music industry owed me for 2 reasons: a) I have over-paid for music for years now, and b) for putting out such crappy music for a long time and expecting us to continue buying it. And then the music industry cried foul and thought the Internet was to blame for lower music sales. No, you idiots – it was because people were going back and downloading all the GOOD music you’ve been overchargin

It hit me at some point while I was looking through my music collection that several artists had the same song title – “Save Me”. I explore each one here: Jem – I don’t know a lot about this artist but I heard this version on “Grey’s Anatomy”. The music they select for the show hits the mark about 90% of the time (in my estimation) and this song was one of those times. I don’t remember the scene that was going on while the music was playing but I remember trying to look for it afterwards. Luckily, this is one of those shows that is not shy about advertising what music is playing during the episodes – in fact they list the songs on their website. I like the bouncy, reggae feel it has. It has overtones of seriousness and playfulness all at the same time. Seriously! p.s. – did not know what Jem looked like until I went searching for the picture. Wow! Doubly impressed. Dave Matthews – For some reason, Dave Matthews put out a solo album called “Some Devil” a few years back. To my ear, it

First, let me catch you up on happenings. I finally got my new air conditioning installed and up and running (well, I didn’t, but you know what I mean…) I came home on a Friday to find my house on the cold side. “Okay” I thought to myself “maybe I’m just not used to it and the temperature will even out”. A 3am, when I couldn’t turn off the air at the thermostat, I had to kill the new system at the electric panel. It was SO cold. The thermostat said it was 60 degrees on it’s way to 67. HA! If it was anything it was 40 degrees in my house. I could almost see my breath. So I called the company that installed it and they sent a technician. He was at my house for 3 hours. The thermostat that was installed was so new he didn’t know how to work it correctly. He ended up installing one that he knew would work – and it did before he left. He said that someone would be out on Monday to fix the real one. So, thankfully, they were out on Monday and the problem has been resolved. My house is now a

You know, I feel sorry for Beth. She’s dating (or married to) a HUGE ass. For purposes of this story, I’m going to assume she’s dating “JJ”. I’m sitting in this restaurant, staring out the window, minding my own business when I see this couple drive up and get out of their car. The guy looks like your typical ‘yay-hoo’ (as my dad used to say). He’s wearing the oversized, baggy shorts with the white sneakers and the a-frame t-shirt (known as a “wife-beater”). He’s got the trucker hat that is slightly askew on his head. Beth is very pretty (you’ll understand how I know both their names shortly). She’s wearing a very nice short skirt and chic top. She’s young and, if I had to guess, would say she works at a clothing store at the local mall. She has long, dark, perfectly manicured hair. When she gets out of the car, she is talking on the cell phone. When JJ gets out of the car, it’s like he’s a clown at the circus. He dances around wildly and is flailing his arms like he’s on fire. Beth is

The title says it all.

I haven’t written in a little while, so I figured I’d catch you up on what was going on. It’s been the usual up and down ride. First, the bad news: today I was blamed for something I was told to do. I was the ‘face’ of the project so I took the brunt of the firestorm. Let’s just say these people can get really hateful. I’m hoping that this will help with leverage later on in my career. Now for the good news: I had my annual review and got a nice little raise. Later in the week we had our division meeting and I was recognized for all my hard work of late. Yea! More later.

Every Sunday morning I watch CBS’s “Sunday Morning” news program (it’s TiVo’d if I’m still sleeping). This morning’s episode dealt with the upcoming July 4th holiday. A lot of it centered around elements of the holiday itself – marching men in tri-cornered hats, fife-and-drum sets, kids holding sparklers as parades went by and scores of people waving flags. And then they got me. It opened with a shot of Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA. I didn’t think anything of it as I watched a stream of immigrants file up the main aisle and take their seats. It wasn’t until the speaker said “everyone, please rise” that I started to tear up a little. There were 396 people not born on this soil who were willing to raise their right hand and swear allegiance to this country. And they got me. These people weren’t worried about what is wrong with this country; they were most concerned about what is right. They were well aware of the war in two countries and the tension with other nations our country endures.

I used to think those biorhythm charts were bunk but I think about that when I have a great Monday and a terrible Wednesday. You remember biorhythms, right? Basically, you put in your birthday and then find today’s date. It shows a scale of Physical, Emotional and Intellectual well-being. I don’t know, maybe they are bunk. I was at home Saturday and just got ensconced with my dinner. The phone rings. I have to break out of my little mold to answer the phone. It was my sister “Hey, where are you?” “Home”, I say. “What are you doing?” she asks. “Eating dinner,” I reply. “Oh”, she starts “when you’re done with dinner, how’d you like to have a drink with your nieces and nephews – and your sister?” We had a really nice time sitting around drinking and laughing. It’s kind of strange that my nieces and nephews are old enough to drink. I barely feel like I’m old enough to drink. My sister tells me, at some point, that a few people from the family are going to breakfast next morning. I love me

Well, I had a wonderful time down in Florida. I was at a conference at a huge venue with a lot of other people. A good time was had by most and if you didn’t have a good time it was your own damn fault. When I got back on Friday, I didn’t want anyone at work to know. I sent a quick e-mail to one of the guys I work with to let HIM know that I was back and I was sure he wouldn’t tell anyone else. I get a call from him about an hour later basically saying the world was falling down around him. He needed some help and called me to get it. I ended up spending a good part of Friday and now the better part of Saturday in the office taking care of the issue. Don’t get me wrong; there are others in the office as well, all taking on their own part of the overall problem. It’s tiring but a good learning opportunity – which is what I could say about the conference I went to. I must have walked about 3 or 4 miles a day going from session to session. I talked to a lot of vendors and learned a LOT ab

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While I was off for Memorial Day, I went to a part of town I don’t normally go. I ate food at a fast-food place to which I was unfamiliar. I drove down streets in which I was sure to get lost. I waved at neighbors who were unfamiliar to me. I needed to go to a place where nobody knows me. Then I realized, as I pulled up into my driveway afterward, that nobody knows me here at home. I wave at my neighbors but I don’t really know them. After yet another rejection, I was feeling a little melancholy. I drove around trying to find myself and my place in this world. I looked all around but couldn’t find myself anywhere. I guess that means I’m lost. Why is this so difficult? It looks so easy for others and even easier on TV (Yes, I know that TV is not reality). It is at this moment that I tell myself that I’ll be single for the rest of my life. Whatever dreams of a relationship I had were gone. Of course my all time favorite rationalization “I’m done with women”. Lately my brain has been all

I don’t want to get too excited about my date last night with my new “lady-friend”. She is a lovely person, we had a good time (I thought), but I just don’t know what she’s thinking. Here’s how things went: A few hours before we were scheduled to meet, I got a text message from her. She just wanted to make sure she was reaching the right person. We went back-and-forth, trading messages and our excitement for the evening. She asked that I meet her out front of the restaurant so she didn’t have to walk in alone. My response: “Of course”. I got to the restaurant a few minutes before our scheduled time (I like to be early) and waited only a minute or two before she arrived. I sent her a message as I sat in the Adirondack chair asking where she was. Her response: “pulling into a parking place now”. I looked up to see about 3 cars making their way into parking spaces. She got a spot right up front – in a very NEW looking Jaguar. We walked in and found there was about a 20 minute wait so we i