Spring | Breezy Books

On March 1st, I went on a date!

Sort of.

I haven’t been on a date in thirty-seven years.

I am in love with trivia night at our local pub. And our team does well! We’ve taken first a couple of times. The team to beat, however, is always a team of four men. We have a lot of fun throwing barbs back and forth with them based on who had the right or wrong answers. These four men also go to trivia at a local brewery. They’ve encouraged us to play there, too. My friend Shelly and I went one night. The guys had no idea we were coming, and their team was already full. Shelly and I ended up as a team of two. I told the guys we needed a phone number so we could let them know the next time we decided to come. “Gary” gave us his number.

We were across the room from the guys. As standings were reported after the third round, and Shelly and I were ahead of our friends (a six-man team tonight!), we had to rub it in, so I sent Gary a text. Shelly and I had fun texting our barbs to them this night.

The next morning, shortly after nine o’clock (and you already know I don’t get up before noon), my phone was blowing up. LOL! It was Gary. By texting him at the brewery, he now had my number. He was super cheerful, sending photos (clean photos for all you wisenheimers!), lots of smileys and musical notes. I turned my volume/ringer off and climbed back into bed. At four o’clock that afternoon, I finally responded – nicely, but I was aloof. I didn’t want to encourage him.

Later that evening, in retrospect, I didn’t like how cool I had been with him when he had been so cheerful and friendly. I sent him a text and asked him to lunch the next day – March 1^st. I told him if he was going to send pictures and be so cheerful, we may as well get together and get to know each other better. In my mind, I didn’t want anything to be weird when we met again for trivia. I felt if I let things go as they were, it was going to be awkward.

He was waiting when I arrived, and it didn’t take long to realize this was a very nice man. Great personality, positive, charming even. I knew he was fun from trivia, but this was a more in-depth look into his personality.

Fairly soon into the conversation, I let him know I wasn’t looking for anything other than friendships (and not friends with benefits!). I wasn’t ready for any type of relationship, dating, or commitment. He let me know he was disappointed. He’s looking for someone to spend the rest of his life with. He’s old school. He said he never had “just a friend” of the opposite sex to hang out with, and he thought that would be too weird for him. 😊

We talked for well over an hour – all good conversation. I paid for lunch (after all, I invited him), and we left as friends for when we saw each other on trivia nights.

One fun thing (for me) that came about from this was that Gary told me he was sixty-five. He had been worrying he might be too old for me. Ha!

Here’s another trick you all probably know but I didn’t until March. Sometimes, when I’m typing a comment here at WordPress, a finger goes astray and hits who knows what, and my entire comment is deleted. If it’s more than a line or two, it’s a brain drain to recreate my thoughts. I googled if I could recover this deleted text. Yep! Ctrl+Z. Sigh.

I saw my cardiologist in March. He’s happy, and so am I. He did have some raised eyebrows over my cholesterol but was fine with not putting me back on a statin and keeping the status quo. I usually see him every six months. He turned me loose for a year!

Wednesday, March 14 was my first day out on my bike this year. I managed to get my bike rack onto my car (after watching YouTube videos because I forgot how to do it). I hauled my bike to a friend’s house for him to put air in my tires, check the chain and oil, thump under the hood, etc. I hauled it back home and took off. Sixty-four degrees, and I managed 3.4 miles with no difficulty, but I knew not to push it. However, it felt glorious riding in the sunshine and getting some exercise. There were no signs of spring in sight. I googled that phrase later in the day, and the AI response was basically, “Of course there are no signs of spring. You live in Ohio in “insert town here,” and considering it is still winter, what were you expecting?” Humph! I don’t need Google’s AI overview talking to me like a child.

I’ve lived in this town for thirty-six years. The closest grocery store is four miles from my apartment. An eight-minute drive unless you hit a traffic light. The store has one of those outdoor conveyor belts. Your grocery bags are put into tubs and sent outside. You drive around to the conveyor belt, and a worker will happily slam your groceries into your trunk. One day in March, I did it again! I can’t believe I keep doing this! I got in my car, buckled in, turned on the radio, and off I went … home without my groceries. It is wildly embarrassing to admit I’ve done this a lot over the years. I blame it on the fact that my mind is constantly whirling with too many thoughts. And I drive on autopilot.