remember when?

This new OD Facebook group has got me remembering. And reminiscing. And all that good old nostalgia floods in.

As I lay here with a sleeping little one on my lap, I can’t help but think about the most important thing this site brought into my life. Well, the two things, really. The little one and his father.

I think it was shortly before 9/11 that Eric began writing here. I discovered him and his long time friend Cool Dork at that time through a friend. I remember what a talented writer Eric was and how funny Mike (Cool Dork) was. Upon discovering that Mike lived in LA and after we had become OD buddies I suggested we meet up sometime. I always did that. I met dozens of diarists in the LA area and several more who came through on vacation, or who had just moved here. A handful of those people went on to becoming very close, dear friends of mine in real life.

So, Mike and I met up a few times, with other friends, without. We became friends. At this time Eric was living in Philly and active on OD but we’d had a few terse exchanges. I found him to be arrogant and condescending. He found me to be arrogant and shallow. I kept reading him though. He was just so good. Also he annoyed me and oh, how I loved reading people who annoyed me.

Fast forward a year or so and Eric had quit the law firm he was at in Philly and was moving back home to a beach town outside LA. By then the dislike we had for each other had abated. We were on friendly-ish terms but weren’t picking out BFF charms.

I ran across an attorney position at a non-profit that I knew of and emailed him about it one day shortly before he’d moved back home. That began a pleasant back and forth email exchange that laid the groundwork for the rest of any lingering mutual dislike to fade completely and for us to become proper friends.

A couple months after he’d moved back home, I got a call from Mike asking if I wanted to meet up with him and Eric in Pasadena for a night out hitting up a few restaurants and bars. I said that I’d love to and we made plans for that very same night. I remember being particularly anxious to meet Eric. I wanted to make a good impression after our rocky start. And i was so curious to meet the guy I’d heard so much about here in OD, that we’d all heard so much about from another diarist.

I walked into the little bar at this chic new restaurant they’d chosen and I remember that I got shy. And I don’t get shy. Like, ever. I barrel into nearly all situations with hardly any fear or trepidation, especially social ones. But I said hello to them and I got shy upon seeing Eric and quickly excused myself to grab a drink at the bar.

Later on, Eric would tell me how surprised he was that I fit his type to a tee. And how surprised he was by how genuinely nice and I was. Apparently that did not come off in my diary too well!

We all had a great time that night. We hit many a bar and indulged in late night burgers and fries as the inebriated so often do. He and I hit it off beautifully and never ran out of things to talk about. In fact we both remember thinking that night that we could’ve talked for hours and hours. They drove me to my car at the end of the night and we both fell easily into poking fun at Mike in the most hilarious, good naturedly way.

And that was it. I didn’t like him LIKE him. He didn’t like me LIKE me. It was all platonic. Later, we can recall that there was an intrigue with one another underneath it all but it wasn’t something we were really conscious of.

We stayed in touch with emails and OD of course but it wasn’t until several months later that when I found out he didn’t have any appealing options for new years eve that we saw each other again. I invited him to a party that me and my best girlfriend were going to and he drove up and met us there.

I don’t remember much from that night regarding the two of us. We all just mingled and enjoyed the party. It was greathaving him there, but we were still just friends. He told me later that that night, as he drove back home, he kept glancing at his cell phone thinking I might call and wanting me to, but it was sort of in passing and he didn’t think about it again after that.

A few more months passed and we hung out a few more times. He met up with me and my friends out for a night on the town twice, I think. I recall one of those times we sat close together in a booth and I flirted a little with him and he flirted back. It was harmless but there was a little something brewing for both of us, though we weren’t super conscious of it.

A few weeks after that, Mike invited both of us to meet him and his date at the Ritz in Pasadena to hear one of his jazz musician friends play. Eric and I decided to go to the same restaurant we met at in old town for some drinks and appetizers at the bar before heading to the Ritz.

It was the first time we had been out alone and we talked and talked at the bar and had such a delightful time. I thought he had been involved with someone but that was the night he cleared it all up and assured me they were merely friends and had been for quite a while. He was and had been very single.

As we left the bar I mentioned I’d just gotten the new jeans and boots I was wearing and he appraised them and I did a little spin so he could see the back. I remember thinking “I hope my ass looks good!” and he remembers thinking I had a great ass. Ha!

After we got to the Ritz we found Mike and his date and settled into a little couch next to them and we were whispering comments to each other during the jazz set and finishing each others sentences here and there when talking to Mike and his date. Mike commented that we were just like George and Gracie that night, Which I’ve always found impossibly cute.

We had so much fun together that night, going outside to smoke, telling jokes only we seemed to get. When it was time to leave we waited for the valet to bring my car and I remember thinking, holy shit. What’s going on? I’m all of a sudden looking at Eric, this guy who I had only thought of as a friend, ODs Zwolf!, as something more. I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. And wanted to find out. I started hoping in that moment that I looked cute. It was a million crazy unexpected thoughts racing through my head in the few minutes that it took for my car to be brought around.

I drove him to his car and he lingered in the passenger seat. He didn’t seem to want to leave and I didn’t want him to. He told me I smelled good. I said it was a new perfume, and ‘here, smell’ and I offered up my neck to him. And that few seconds of him leaning in was just… sexy.

And that was it. We said goodbye and he went home. Later, he’d tell me that it hit him too that night. That he was finding himself having the same More Than Friend thoughts I was at nearly the exact same time. He was thinking, hang on a damn second, this is Daylight, for Christ sakes! I’m wanting to kiss Daylight! What the hell?

That night I kept thinking about him and into the next day. That night he kept thinking of me and into the next day. I kept wanting to call him for no reason and i hoped he was feeling the same We IMed each other the following evening and refreshingly, we talked about what we were feeling. We liked each other, we admitted. It had come out of nowhere. But there we were. It was this strange, intense pull and we both felt it strongly.

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Ok, the babe woke up from his nap. As much as I don’t want to I must stop here. I shall be back to finish soon!

Ps, how OD is it to stop the story and be like, To Be Continued!!! Hahaha. So 2003!