April 15, 2000

It was a bit of a quiet morning. Pam and I woke up and cuddled for a while. I remember the first few times that I slept at her place. She would fall asleep and I would be awake, sometime for hours. I would hold her and watch her sleep. Sometimes, I would lean over and kiss her. She would stir and sometimes she would wake, making me feel like an insensitive pig. After a while, my mind would wander into either work or my web site and/or journal. I may think about the friends, who I have been neglecting or whatever else may be wondering into my mind. I'm not the kind of person who can sit still for very long. It's not me.

The last couple of nights when I've slept here have been good. I've actually been able to sleep. Granted both times I've been pretty tired, but I don't think that is entirely it. It has finally gotten to the point where I don't have to cram everything I want to do into every moment I have. It's like the moment you finally realize that you don't have to buy absolutely every type of food everytime you go to the market. If you really have a craving for something, the market will always be there. I'm getting comfortable with her. Our time is not rushed.

I got up and wondered to the living room. She was channel surfing and ran into a baseball game. We watched it for a few minutes and then I wondered if the Braves' game was televised. I suppose that I'm lucky that I'm a Braves enthusiast since many of their games are televised. Today's game against the Brewers was showing on TBS, so I started watching it. Pam went to make herself some coffee.

It was sometime during the sixth inning or so when she wondered into the shower, which she told me that she wasn't. I sneaked in and joined her in the shower… serves her right. I had to attend to cleaning my nipple piercing anyway. I'll have to endure this until June 1st, though otherwise having a nipple piercing is fun.

I watched the rest of the game while she got ready. We had a handful of things planned today; we were already running late for lunch. Incidentally, the Brewers won the game 6-2. It's a bad baseball day.

We went to Hooters for lunch. Just for reference, this was her idea. I suppose that she was curious about precisely what it is I do at Hooters. I watch the baseball scores cycle through the bottom of the screen since they alway have ESPN tuned to at least one of the many televisions in the place. I talk to the occasional waitress. As a matter of time I miss my favorite Hooters waitress. Her name is Kealy. Yes, I know what you're thinking… it is not like that. She's married with a baby girl. She likes talking to me; I'm not sure why. I wondered if she would be working today.

Kealy was working today. As soon as I walk in she says hi. Pam and I sit in her station. Kealy proceeds to tell me that her hubby, who was out of town, sent her flowers and points to the bouquet. We had a good lunch; I watched the scores and kissed her a number of times during lunch. What else can you ask for? …I mean besides Hooters chicken wings. I said goodbye to our waitress and left her a nice tip.

We got Ben and Jerry's ice cream immediately after lunch. I got something with coconut in a waffle cone, and she got something with entirely too much chocolate. We sat down at the little shop that had a total of about four tables and chatted while the guy behind the counter tended to his work. We were the only ones there most of the time, most other customers got the ice cream and left.

We went to Tower Records after the ice cream. She had noticed some of the music I was playing in my car one day. The particular tune was The Oracle Within by David T. Chastain, off the Instrumental Variations album. I like Chastain, my friend George had introduced me to his music when we were roommates. We looked for the disc, but they didn't have a listing for him on the floor. I searched their computer and found that he had also released a newer album called Acoustic Visions. They had neither one, of course, and when I asked the cashier, there was no hope of even ordering it through them. Why even bother listing it?

It was a beautiful day and we sat out in the sun for a while. There is a little courtyard that overlooks a coffee shop downstairs. They had chairs laid out for presumably this purpose, although I can't imagine that they would get much use here in the Seattle area. No offense, but I suppose that, at this point, I don't tie much of my morale to the weather, in either direction. The weather here is unfavorable most of the time. To rejoice when it is good also means you'll be at least a little disappointed when it is not. In Seattle, this would be most of the time. We watched one mother sit out on nearby chairs with her young son simply because she had to have a cigarette. This is the same woman who was taking too much time at the register at Tower.

We drove to pick up my new futon at the store. They had gotten the covers in as well; originally they thought it would take an additional week. We drove her SUV around the back of the store where we all contemplated how to fit everything into the vehicle. It wasn't a big deal, except that we would not be able to close the rear door. Still we were able to fit everything in, the salesman was able to give us something to tie the door shut. We should be fine.

Oh something I forgot to mention yesterday. Pam finally saw my place yesterday. We stopped by to pick up a video tape. You know what? She didn't dump me. It was as messy as it always was, maybe even messier since I was rearranging some things.

We did stop by my place today to drop off the futon. Not particularly eventful, but I wouldn't want you to think that we were driving around with this thing in the back for the remainder of the day.

We then stopped by a shopping center. She had been wanting to go to a Bath and Body Works for some time, and we had finally found one yesterday when we went to dinner and a movie. We also roamed around a bit. I found at one of the perfume stores that there is a fragrance named, "Mickey Mouse". Actually, there is one for Minnie, Daisy, and Donald. Who would buy this? …I mean except for Disney enthusiast like me? I can't imagine that there are many of us that wear cologne. The fragrance itself had a bit of a lemony scent to it. No, I didn't buy it.

I started to head back to her place after this. We only had a couple of more stops. While I was driving back, I noticed a fabric store and stopped to get needle and thread. Actually, Pam was the one who paid for it, but I was the one who stopped. She needed a couple of things from the drug store, so that was our next stop. It was a relatively non-eventful stop, save for the cashier who was entirely too upbeat for a drugstore.

The last stop before heading back was a car wash. We stopped by one of those automatic, drive-thru places that hang off the side of gas stations, in this case, a Texaco. I shudder at the idea of having a machine wash my car. I suppose I'm old fashioned in that way. There's a part of me who believes that if you're not willing to wash your car with your own two hands, you simply don't deserve a clean car. I mean, let's have some perspective folks, who on earth is going to care if you have a filthy car?

We finally made it back to her place. I had to leave shortly to do stuff back at my place… to do my workout for instance. However, I wanted to fix the buttons on her coat, which is the reason why I got the needles and thread. I re-attached two buttons and reinforced a third button. It was no big deal… really! She seemed to be impressed though.

Well, I can't have my girlfriend walking around with loose buttons on her coat… can I?

April 15, 2000