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August 13, 2000 |
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Let's start with Friday. Although Pam and I did
have dinner plans, we had talked about my spending the weekend at my place.
It's not that big a deal really, just wanted to sleep in my own bed and
recouperate from the past week… and I've been neglecting some things at
home and wanted to attend to them.
At this point, we just made plans to meet at her place. We would work out
where we would be eating once I get there. I still went home and got
showered. I made it to her place by 8pm. She was still on the phone with
her friend Cheryl, and I just came in and kissed her.
I didn't really have any particular preferences for dinner with one
exception… we had to feasibly be able to drive there. Yes, I
realize that you can drive anywhere, but I meant a place that had parking,
which ruled out most of Seattle. No, and street parking doesn't count…
I wasn't in the mood to find a place and circle around looking for a nearby
spot on the street. If it means that I miss out on many good restaurants
because I'm not willing to put up with their lack of parking… so be it.
Look at it this way… It's only a meal. How much trouble are
you willing to go through for a meal?
After talking about it we decided to go to T.G.I. Friday's.
You're probably familiar since it is a chain. It is similar to Chili's and
Dead Robin. They have a restaurant and full bar. The decor is a bit
festive with things normal people would never have at home or their
offices. Naturally, I would, but then again, I never claimed to be
normal.
Pam was looking for a fried shrimp dish and we
looked at the menu. The one thing that Friday's does have to its
credit is that it has a much larger menu than either of the other two
places, and although I didn't know for a fact that they would have a fried
shrimp entrée, I guessed that they probably did. And indeed they
did… two of them in fact. It took a few minutes before they could seat
us, so we looked at the menu while we stood by the front door.
Naturally, she ordered the shrimp. I ordered the mushroom chicken and
mushrooms, which I have had before and thus knew I would enjoy. We
also ordered the onion rings as appetizers. The onion rings here are done
exceptionally well, fried soft in a very light batter.
During dinner they played a song which I liked a quite a bit, although I
had never been able to figure out the name of the song nor the artist,
which does little in helping me track down the tune. I asked Pam, though she didn't know. I asked our waitress and she
didn't know, but said that she would ask around. After a while, a number
of people guessed that it was Sarah McLachlan, and Pam agreed, but no one knew the name of the song.
We then split the check, which is a first time for us. Typically one of us
ends up buying, but not tonight. It did feel a bit strange.
We then returned to her place. I stayed for a while and kept her company
since she asked me to. By the time I left, I was pretty sexually
frustrated and felt a bit manipulated… I don't want to place blame
here, and there's a part of me that doesn't want to air out our dirty
laundry, but dammit, this is the way I felt. I really didn't want to
stay there any longer, so I didn't. I left.
I wake up the next day sometime during the Braves' game versus the L.A. Dodgers. Although the game wasn't actually televised, I was able to track it on the web and listen to the radio broadcast. It's not a bad alternative really. I have the internet radio broadcast running at work during most games, it's not that difficult running it at home, especially since I have DSL. Woo Hoo!
After the game I went to the health club to work out. It's the first time in about a month I gone on a Saturday… a feat I used to do on a regular basis. All I did was get on the treadmill and run. Okay, technically I didn't even run, much closer to a jog. I had not missed my workout for years and suddenly I've missed over a week. I feel like a slug. Still, I understood that the important thing was to return to the workout routine and I made a point to not push it on this first day back.
And to tell you the truth, it wasn't bad. Not nearly as bad as I was envisioning, granted I am nowhere near the pace that I was able to keep when I was at my peak, but I'll work it back up. I have faith in me. I kept it up for years, I'm not going to quit now.
It must've been about three by the time I had gotten through my workout (and the obligatory shower that follows). I called Pam to see what she was up to. She promised she would cook a romantic dinner. I suppose that I didn't really want to deal with the same situation as yesterday, so I asked her flat out, "Are you feeling amorous?". No joke. She responded that she was, so I drove to her place.
We got lunch first, neither of us had lunch, so we were both feeling pretty hungry. We drove down to the Kidd Valley, since I still wasn't in the mood for walking. The burgers were good as they always are; if there's anything about Kidd Valley is that they're consistent. I ordered a peanut butter malt this time, while she ordered a large Coke which she didn't finish (Okay, she wanted the Coke, but I ordered a large one). They did make a mistake in my burger, and I ended up getting bacon on my burger. I wasn't about to complain.
We then went back to her place and frolicked… and that's as descriptive as I'll get.
Since she was moving in a couple of weeks, she spent most of the remainder of the day packing. I kept asking her if she needed help, and occasionally she would ask for me to do one thing or the other, but for the most part she did the packing by herself. I just stayed in the living room and watched television while this was going on.
It must've been about 9pm when I started to wonder what ever happened to our romantic dinner. I asked her what she wanted to do for dinner. It took her some time to realize that she had forgotten about our dinner, and she apologized. We ended up walking down to Racha, the Thai noodle place about ten blocks away. Okay you do the math, in the time it takes to walk the ten blocks how far away can you drive? She treated for dinner since she felt guilty about having forgotten.
I'm not sure what it was about the environment outside, but I had been sneezing quite steadily on the walk to the restaurant. [Sigh]
We had a couple of satays for appetizers. She didn't like the calamari ones, which didn't really surprise me, since they were a little tough, but that's easy to do with calamari. I had the beef noodle soup, which was very good. Not the best I had, but very good nevertheless. They did open late… until midnight on weekends. That's a blessing, although still not as late as I would like. Then again, people have referred to me as a vampire…
We stopped by Blockbuster video on the way back to her place. And sure enough, as soon as I step outside, the sneezing started back up. I've been dealing with this allergy all my life, it is not life threatening. Sneezing is really a bit of a benign symptom. Normally, I just deal with it. No skin off my nose… well, you know what I mean.
We end up renting the movie, The Insider. I think I may have mentioned this before. I don't really get junk food, when I shop for food they're pretty much raw materials… chicken, potatoes, etc. with the occasional canned goods. I rarely ever buy sweets… okay, Coke notwithstanding.
Pam is not like me in this respect. It seems like everytime we go to Blockbuster, she checks out the collection of candy. This is not what I find the most puzzling part of her behavior, the one thing that I find even more puzzling is her predisposition to experiment with unfamiliar candy. In this case, it was a Push-Pop, and a grape flavored one at that. This time, like all the other times in the past she was equally unimpressed by the new candy. [Sigh]
As soon as we get back to her place, she pours me a dose of Nyquil, since it has an antihistamine. I asked if it was going to make me drowsy, and naturally it would. I figured that I would chance it. We curl up on the couch and I proceed to fall asleep. Terrific. If I had to choose between being asleep and being sneezy, I would easily pick the latter. Next time I'll know.
Pam too fell asleep, simply because… she always falls asleep watching movies. Seriously, the chances of her staying awake through a movie are about 25%, it doesn't matter if it is a theater or rented. Sometimes I wonder why she bothers watching movies at all?
I did watch the end of the movie. It was enough to get the jist of the plot, although it would've been nice to have seen the actual scenes. Would I recommend this movie. Yes, I would, but there are really few movies that I dislike. And then there are things like Steven Seagal movies that are better used as paperweights or doorstops.
By the time the movie ended and we were up from the couch, it was 3am. And I had to go home; I had plans for tomorrow.
Today is the day of the game. Remember the day back in June? Originally the game would be against the Brewers, but I was able to talk the promotions coordinator into getting me tickets to a different game. Now, I've been a Braves' fan for years… since 1982. I'm sure that's before some of you even remember. I looked at the Braves' home schedule and decided that August 13, would be the game to see. Back in the early-mid 80's the Braves had a big rivalry with the Dodgers. At the time it was a date that was far enough away so that I could plan the trip for it. As it turns out though, I wasn't able to go. [Sigh]
So the tickets sit here at home, by my desk. Only to serve as a reminder of what could have been. I'm not upset really, the chances of my going were slim to begin with. I understand that, but somewhere there's the little boy in me that would've liked to have seen the game in person. The last time I saw a live Braves' game was about fifteen years ago. I know so much more about the game now.
I turned on the television by my bed and started to watch the game. It was a disappointing game for the Braves. They were heading to the bottom of the eighth trailing by four runs. The new pitcher for the Dodgers was Mike Fetters. A name among many opposing pitchers that would normally blend in with the vast assortment of other names. I continued listening to the play-by-play by Pete Van Wieren, who along with Skip Caray, has been broadcasting for the Braves as long as I can remember. This was when I heard him mention that Fetters does some theatrics on the mound… similar to Al Hrabosky.
Wow… Al Hrabosky!That's a name I haven't heard for years. He was a Braves' pitcher way back in 1982, and I actually remember the very theatrics that Pete was referring to. He would stand behind the mound, facing center field. He would stand with his head bowed, rubbing the baseball. Abruptly, he would throw the baseball into the mitt and pounce unto the pitching rubber. They used to call him the "Mad Hungarian". That brought back memories.
As for the game, Andy Ashby, the Braves' recent acquisition from the Phillies, was pitching and ended up being the losing pitcher. The final was Dodgers 7 vs. Braves 2. It was a bittersweet ending to a game that I would remember forever, the first time I got free tickets to a Braves' game… the Braves lost to the Dodgers at Turner Field. [Sigh]
I didn't do much else, I tried to recouperate from the sleep deprivation over the course of the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, this also meant that I skipped my workout, although I rationalized that I really did want to come back slowly. I'd rather not push it at first, and wind up with an injury.
I did however go to dinner at Pam's place. She was putting together the dinner she had forgotten about the night before. I arrived right around 7pm and brought some wine. If you're thinking that wine would normally trigger my snottiness reflex, you're right. However, this was brought to my place by a guest for Thanksgiving, never to be opened. So I decided to bring it.
We sat side-by-side on her table facing out the window. She had opened up both the side windows and the sliding door, and there was a cool gentle breeze flowing through her place. It was a nice day out, not the overbearing hot the way in can get here. Seattle apartments typically lack air conditioning and her apartment faces west, which can make it very hot in the evenings. Tonight, however, was very pleasant.
Dinner was great. She made these salads with romaine lettuce (although, if you're keeping track, I prefer iceberg lettuce), although it did have some slices of spiced mozzarella, which was very tasty. We also had a garlic bread that was toasted nicely.
Dinner was spaghetti with a marinara sauce, although she added spicy Italian sausage that gave it a very nice flavor. It was a wonderful dinner and was one of the few times when she had cooked for me. It was very sweet.
We sat for and relaxed for a while. She later suggested that we move to the bedroom where we might… work off some of our dinner. And we did. Thank you!
I feel asleep immediately after, and didn't wake up until about two hours later. By that time, she was about ready for bed, and I had to leave. I kissed her goodnight and drove home.
August 13, 2000