an e-mail I just sent to the Mango

Okay, damnity damnity, here’s what happened after our last chat today (that was fun by ze vay, bruja):

(broohaha)

I went to [the place where I do volunteer work].  Yay, the usual Monday shipment unloading beautifulness.  It was a good sales day (for a Monday in February) and I was constantly having to zip over to the cash register, in the middle of putting new stuff away.

There’s this fellow who comes in now and then to buy coffee.  I’ve seen him a few times.  He comes in, grabs a bag of fair trade coffee, buys it, and takes off.  The quiet type.  Today, he came in, grabbed a bag of coffee, bought it, and a moment later, came back to say he actually thought he’d like to try a dark roast for a change.  E. (the woman who works with me) uses this opportunity to teach me how to do a return.  Then, he decides to buy yet another bag of coffee.  "I think I’ll try them all and compare!"  Somewhere in all this he introduces himself as G., and asks for my name.

Just before finishing his transaction, E. is called away by a woman hunting for something specific, and he looks at me across the counter: "Would you like … "

The phone rings.

I hesitate: he says, "No, go ahead."

I pick up the phone.  "Hello … [place where I volunteer] … "

"Oh, sorry, wrong number." click.

I blink, put down the phone … finish the transaction … he looks sort of crestfallen and embarrassed and I begin to wonder what he thought I would like.

I stick his stuff in a bag with his receipts and then I busy myself putting new chocolate bars on the shelves (wow, the trust).  He saunters over and asks if I like coffee.

"Oh yeah, adore it," I say.

"Would you like to grab some after you’re done work?"

"Oh!  Um, I’m sorry, tonight I’m teaching a voice lesson when I’m done here."

"Well, would you still like to have coffee with me some other time?"

I panic.  "Perhaps?"

He panics.  "Is there a day … or time … you’d … like to?"

I think.  "Thursday night?"

He smiles with relief.  "Okay!  Thursday night!  Where?"

I point to [a coffee shop] across the street.  "How ’bout there?"

"Okay!"

Suddenly I remember: I promised [Miss Good] we’d play chess and go for dinner on Thursday night.  So I say, "Oh, no, wait, it can’t be Thursday."

"How about Wednesday then?"

"Um, okay.  Wednesday at five?"

"Sure!"

"Okay.  G., coffee, [coffee shop across street], Wednesday, five."

"Great!"

Somewhere in there he says, "So we can just, you know, talk."  And does this thing with his hands like two lobster claws yakking at each other.  Very sheepishly.

I say, defiantly, "I’m really shy."

He says back, "So am I."

He leaves.  In a poof of smoke for all I know, I’m so flustered.

A moment later it hits me.

I rush over to E.  She is helping a customer.  I shamelessly interrupt them.  I squeak, "Is Valentine’s on Wednesday?"

"Yes, I think so."

I whimper.

I explain it to E. later.  She is totally shocked and delighted.  She says, "He’s such a quiet guy.  I would never have thought it of him.  He’s so shy."

Anyway, so they just did inventory at the store, and everything that has been sitting around for two years or more is on sale for 75% off!  Volunteers apparently get first dibs.  So, I couldn’t help myself.  I checked the list, and a beautiful big blue cushion that I’ve always loved there was only $13 (it’s meant to be $50).

So I’m walking home with a huge blue cushion in a big . . . bag, cursing myself for getting a Valentine’s date with someone I don’t know named G., and I’m cutting through the parking lot behind P.’s building and whaddaya know, there’s P just arriving home, and he suddenly looks really good to me in his plaid coat.  He says, "I was just thinking about you!  I was going to invite myself over to ask you to teach me to play the violin I have."

I start guffawing madly.  "This is the weirdest day!!"

He’s like, "Tell me!" and starts laughing too for the sheer heck of it, it seems.

So I’m like, "W. can recognize circles at sight now and is totally ridiculously cute to look after and the babies in baby class gave me hugs today and there was such a good feeling in the air and my best friend and I were IMing each other twice and a stranger asked me out while I was volunteering at [the place I volunteer at]  just now and I’m about to go teach a sight-singing lesson I haven’t prepared for at all and I bought a freakin’ huge cushion … "

P’s eyes are wide and he is laughing, and then he says, "Woah!  So … what did you say to the guy who asked you out?"

"I said ‘Perhaps’ and somehow this turned into a date and time, and the stupid thing is we settled on Wednesday and I didn’t REALIZE it was VALENTINE’S until AFTERWARDS" – here I stamp my foot in a puddle and spray myself.  This makes me dance in the puddle madly.  When I stop P is staring at me smiling.  "Bah!  See you later!"  I flit off and I can hear him laughing behind me.

Did I even tell you about P?  He was a League of Composers member back in the day.  I even butchered the premiere of one of his piano pieces.  I wince to think about it even now.  I didn’t have the pages in a binder and there was a draft.  You can imagine the rest.  Anyhoo, I tend to cut across the parking lot behind his house when I’m heading for the [place I volunteer at], and that was how we first bumped into each other and realized we lived across the street from each other.  This was just after New Year’s.  Anyhoo, I’ve gone to visit him once since then and we had a grand old yak.  He’s the sort of person I could see playing Cranium.

So I scribble out a lesson plan SECONDS before D. arrives.  It doesn’t go too badly.

As soon as he’s gone I run out the door and order a pizza at the Papa John’s nearby.  Pizza Guy isn’t there (Ms. Spur even greets him now: "Hey Pizza Guy!" it’s starting to feel like Stars Hollow around here, I actually bump into people I know on errands).  I go to the dollarstore and get some Jumbo Gums.  (Do you have any idea how sick I feel right now?  😀 )  I eat the entire pizza, down two glasses of Dr. Pepper, and watch Wayne’s World.

What the HECK.

I would like to state for the record that when said fellow asked me out, my hair was up in a functionalbun, I had no eye make-up on (just a wee bit of lipstick), but I was wearing the brown Wozzeck skirt (you know the one) and the nice green V-neck that I bought with you in Victoria and a black sparkly cardigan on top.

Well … better sleep because tomorrow is nuts ……..