First Date

A quick preamble, Kelli wanted to write down our versions of the first date so we could compare. The results show that we were clearly out with different people. Take a look and see if you agree…

Kelli’s Version:

My recollection of our first date really begins the night before.  It was probably around 10pm and I was washing my dishes from that evening’s gourmet meal – probably frozen ravioli, leftover tacos or something of the sort (this was pre-John, after all).  While scrub-a-dub-dubbing, I noticed my bottom front tooth was sharp – painfully sharp, and it felt like the top half was missing!  I raced to the bathroom to check it out and could hardly see what my tongue felt be a huge gap.  After a consultation with a good friend, Amanda, (absolutely cancel, because who would date a girl with a broken tooth? great advice, right?), a few tears and an FYI text message to the questionable gent, I had a plan.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

6:30am                 I wake up earlier than a work-day to shower and get ready for the date – just in case it does actually happen.  Drive to the dentist office armed with a good book, prepared to sit there until someone could see me or 2pm when the office closed, whichever came first.

8:20                        One of the dentists has a no-show.  They call me back, inspect the tooth, and bond resin to the tooth to make it feel normal again.  I felt like I’d won the lottery – out of the dentist in under an hour and without Novocain – so I don’t even look like a chipmunk!

11:00                     30 minutes until go-time and I change my mind for the first-date outfit.  More ignored advice from Amanda – I’m wearing the red sweater, but I will lose the necklace from the old beau – maybe the shamrock from Uncle Roger will extend my good fortune.

11:30                     While sitting in the parking lot near Broadway Station, I get a call.  It’s John.  He’s at Andrew Station.  We quickly decide he’ll turn around and I’ll meet him at Broadway.  He seems…nervous?!?!  Strange, considering I’m the one with a broken tooth!

11:47                     Here he comes, up the escalator.  My man in shining armor… I mean … green cargo pants, a Marquette t-shirt and a fuzzy corduroy jacket accessorized with headphones and a Kindle (whatever that is).  Insert awkward small-talk here.

11:50                     We grab a table at Amhreins, and already disappointed that brunch is only served on Sundays, order up some drinks and take a look at the menu.   Conversation is surprisingly easy – we share stories of family, work, and our journeys to Boston.  The food arrives: salad for me, salad for John and a side of cooked spinach.  The waiter disappears.  Hmmmm, this is awkward.  John calls the waiter over and politely explains he’d asked for his salad over spinach rather than greens – NOT a side of spinach.  The waiter does not understand why John doesn’t want the cooked spinach, yet agrees to take it back.  The meal and conversation continue to go well.  The Marquette basketball game begins, and Amhreins doesn’t seem to be the best venue for watching.  We decide to go down the street to watch the game.  However, our ever-attentive waiter has another plan.  Even though we decline another round, he brings one anyway.  We slurp them down, pay the bill and leave.

1:30pm                 The second bar of the date: Boston Beer Works.  John strategically finds a spot in the corner of the bar where he can watch the game over my shoulder while I think he’s paying attention to the brilliant words coming out of my mouth.  John is introduced to Amanda via texts about Wisconsin and Kringles, and I learn of John’s passion for Midori and crazy college house parties.  I sure hope these stories are embellished like fishing stories!  Time FLIES and a few hours later John gets a message from his cousin Tommy, who happens to be at a bar a few doors down, so we head over.

4:00                        Enter bar three of the day – The Playwright.   After a few introductions, I score an invite to that evening’s birthday party from Tommy – as John’s plus one.  I agree, but realize I’m underdressed for the occasion.  John and I head back to my place where I change clothes in record time (I had enough problems selecting ONE outfit for this date) while John chats with my roommate.  Tommy and Jahnaa pick us up and we head off to the party Jahnaa is throwing for her good friend’s 30th birthday.  This is where I realize these people are not only fun, witty and intelligent – but they’re real.  Tom and Jahnaa interact like any stressed couple and I’m thankful not to be responsible for that cake sliding around in the back!

5:30                        MJ O’Connors is the fourth bar of the date and venue for the surprise birthday party.  Happy Birthday Chandra! The party was wonderful and I was able to meet more of John’s friends.  For transparency, Tom and Kevin did warn me of a few of John’s intricacies.  Even though I told them I didn’t know if there would be a second date, I absolutely knew there would.  Give me some credit – a girl has to have some game, even if it’s with the guy’s friends after she’s thrown out the rest of her rules!

10:00                        John and I decided to separate from the party and head down the street to bar five, Cottonwood.  After the first margarita, John informs me he doesn’t really like margaritas.  The chips and salsa are wonderful though, so he orders another.  He doesn’t really like that either, so he orders a Mexican beer.  That isn’t much better, so it’s back to margaritas.  I still remind John of these events when we go out for Mexican and he decides he doesn’t like margaritas as if it’s his first.

12:00am               The subway in Boston closes at 12:30 and we both need to get home.  I hadn’t planned on a 12-hour date, but I am pretty impressed with my ability to hold my alcohol at a reasonable level (I’m not used to marathon drinking) – enough to still refuse John’s not-so-subtle attempts for PDA in the middle of the street!

12:15                     Arrive home to the girls’ movie night.  I simply couldn’t stop smiling and HAD to relay every last detail of my fairy-tale.  My story was so dreamy they weren’t even upset that I’d blown off our dinner plans!  Whew!

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Our First Date

John’s Version -

Kelli asked me to sit down and write about our first date. It is one of those day long affairs that seemed to go by in such a short amount of time even though it lasted for more than twelve hours. (Yes, really from 11:30 until b the T stopped running at 1:00AM).

At this point Southie was a pretty new place to me and I hadn’t spent much time in that part of the city. My cousins had lived down there for a brief while but when going out with them we tended to meet somewhere downtown. You may have seen “The Departed” or “Good Will Hunting” or maybe even “Gone Baby Gone”; all of those movies give you an idea of what notions I had about Southie when heading down there. It isn’t Cambridge that’s for sure. The important part to take note of is that this was clearly outside my comfort zone and not a set of T stops I normally got off at. (Lots of excuses for getting off at the wrong T stop right?)

The date didn’t start terribly well as I ended up getting off at Andrew when I was supposed to meet Kelli at Broadway (Side note – she DROVE to Broadway from Andrew… tsk() So after a hasty phone call to let her know I was running a few minutes late I ran back down into the subway to get on the train heading back in so I could get off at the right T stop. Kelli was in her purple getup, mittens, hat, scarf, and coat bundled up as much as possible. This is funny only because I can’t remember if I even bothered to bring a jacket. (It really wasn’t that cold out – seriously)  This was one of those wonderful Sunday’s in January when the weather was nice and there was a Marquette game on for the afternoon.

So we met and I think we may have hugged – but very awkwardly – and then went off to Amhrein’s (Kelli, me, and my kindle (that becomes important later)). I am going to digress here to go into detail about the worst service I have ever had the privilege of receiving. (With how things worked out I wouldn’t change what happened for the world)

As we were there for brunch we expected to have breakfast food. Turns out they didn’t have a brunch running that Sunday so we had to pick from the regular menu, setback but OK. I love a good chicken salad with spinach but they didn’t – easy right?
We place the order and I ask for an Asian chicken salad but with spinach instead of iceberg lettuce. The waiter looks at me and says he can do that but it will be 2.50 more. (I have never been charged more for spinach but I was working with it so I said OK) We order drinks that he gets right but only after an incredibly long wait to bring them back. Did I mention how busy the place was? There were four of us in the entire restaurant, Kelli and I, a bartender, and the person moonlighting as a really bad waiter.

Kelli’s food comes out and is exactly what she ordered but he has to run in and pick up mine. He sets in front of me the Asian chicken salad and a side of cooked spinach. I am out on a first date so I am doing everything I can to control my need to really ask this guy hard questions (I do listen sometimes Chandra) but I have to ask what the confusion is and why I received a side order of Spinach. I was then promptly informed (a bit curtly) that I ordered it and it was exactly what I asked for. I tried to explain that I wanted the spinach in the salad not COOKED and on the side. (Who orders a salad and a side of cooked spinach?) Our waiter got flustered and left and then came back and asked if I really didn’t want the side order of spinach. He tried very hard to convince me that all I wanted was my salad and as side order of spinach. At this point Kelli and I were a bit flustered by this guy and were ready to move onto the next stop on our day long trek and asked for the bill when he came back and asked if we wanted refills. Five minutes later he showed up with another round of drinks.

Seriously… but the drinks were fine so we stayed and had that one last round and then walked out of Amhrein’s (and haven’t been back since). From there went a short distance to the Boston Beer Works so we could get a drink and I could watch Marquette beat Georgetown (always a great day) So we drank and talked this whole time and Kelli swears I wasn’t watching the game – Always pick a bar with multiple TVs.

Sometime around 4 Tom gave me a call to see what was going on as we were off to Chandra’s birthday party that night (Her big 3-0) and it turns out they were at a bar about five doors down so we walked over to have a few drinks with them. At this point Kelli wasn’t really invited to Chandra’s party but by the time we had a few rounds with Tom and Jahnaa she was not only invited she was in the car with the rest of us and the birthday cake.

I won’t wander off into a story about how Tom and Jahnaa are when they are under pressure, driving in the city, and have a cake in the trunk. For those of you who know – you know – for the rest of you it was a small trial by fire for Kelli.

Chandra had a great birthday party, Jahnaa took my kindle away while we are at the party (apparently it is dorky to bring your kindle out on a first date – whatever). Kelli had a fun chat with Tom and his friend Kevin while I did my duty and circulated around the room. Around 11:30 we decided to bail from this large party and wander over to get some margaritas. A few of those later we realized we both needed to catch the T home and so we half ran to Park Street to catch the T.

The night couldn’t have ended better, catching the last train from the central platform – her going to Andrew and I out to alewife stole a quick kiss between the girders before watching her train slide off into the tunnel.