LADB #17

I reluctantly went to the Northridge Mall after work on Wednesday to meet up with Justin.  He is a 5’10” Mexican nursing student who aspires to become an anesthesiologist.  I say “reluctantly” because this was not only my second coffee date in a row, but one I only went on because my night was free.  This kid was very excited & a bit pushy about scoring a date with me.  He is a promoter on the side for Club Excess, downtown.  His ideal, initial date would be for me to meet him at his club (of course I’d get in for free).  Really?  THAT’S your selling point?  Clearly he hasn’t had the opportunity to date a woman like me.  I don’t like being the one to suggest going to dinner because I don’t want to seem to them that that’s my prime objective (although with many of them it has been).  Then I have to ask myself, wait, why am I caring if I don’t plan to see them again afterward?  They’ll eventually figure out my angle anyway when I don’t call them back or tell them “I wasn’t really feeling it”.  *shrugs*

He kept me waiting for a little bit while he checked to see if he was catfished for a second time in a row by telling me to meet him downstairs whilst he scoped from upstairs.  Smart.  Yes, he admitted this to me (not smart) after he came downstairs to meet me in the lobby area of the mall, just outside Sears & Forever 21.  He has a very round face with a long, skinny nose.  He actually reminded me of Gru from one of my all-time favorite movies: Despicable Me.  So, yeah, no thanks.  He wore a black flat-brimmed hat with white writing on the underside of the brim, black t-shirt under a long-sleeved red & black checkered flannel-like shirt, black Dickies, & bright red cloth sneakers.  I actually really liked his sneaks.  

I was in my white booties, dark denim skinny jeans, & a cream white ruffled one-shoulder top with 1/2″ blue horizontal stripes under a gray motorcycle jacket.  I opted for no necklace to showcase the neckline of the top, but wore my square chunky bracelet & anchor earrings.  

We started to walk throughout the mall & I b-lined it to Starbucks.  Justin hesitated because 1. he didn’t want to wait in line & 2. he wasn’t ready for coffee just yet.  Or, in other words, 1. he’s broke & 2. he has ADD/restless leg syndrome & can’t sit still for a moment.  I was like, well, we were meeting for coffee, so I want some friggen coffee (despite being broke, myself)!  Alas, douche didn’t pay for my drink because of #1.  Stupid girl.  

I’m amazed that our date lasted for almost 2 hours for several reasons.  For one, I didn’t really like him.  He bounced around with our conversations all over the place (hence #2), although made an effort to get back to the topic at hand.  There were times when I had clearly finished what I had to say, but because he was so all over the place, he’d revert to, “but go on…” or “you were saying…”.  Once & a while, that’s alright, if you’re both engaged in conversation & you have something super relevant & fun to share.  Not this guy.  Although he’s educated, he’s pretty dumb & had very stupid questions to ask about things.  There came a point where he asked me what something was & it was so stupid that, although I knew the answer to it, I found myself dumbfounded & unable to answer it for being in sheer surprise at the question.  (Writing this now, 3 days later, I cannot recall what it was, so my apologies.) 

My favorite moment during this date was when he put my conversation on pause for a moment, saying, “I want to pause this for a second because I want to tell you something.  It’s really nice to talk to you because you have things to say; you’re not stupid.  You’re very SOCIALLY CALIBRATED.”  SOCIALLY CALIBRATED?!?!  Who says that?!  I couldn’t suppress my laughter.  Too bad for him, I wasn’t laughing as if it were a nice compliment that I didn’t know how to take.  

Another reason I’m surprised at how long the date went on was that this mall isn’t all that big.  We walked by soooo many sales!  I wish, after having started reading A Gold Digger’s Guide : How to Get What You Want, Without Giving it Up afterward, that I’d either read it beforehand, or gone out to the mall with a man I knew was a bit more affluent.  I mean, the entire Steve Madden store was 30% off!  I was drooling.  Justin kept saying we could go into the stores if I wanted, but why tempt myself with things I can’t afford when this dude’s not going to help me out?  We sat, briefly, 4 different times: once outside by a fountain until he had to go to the bathroom (& we hightailed it back to the same spot for a bit before antsy pants wanted to walk around some more, then to sit on a freezing cold bench outside towards the front entrance of the mall, and then inside to sit in front of a froyo shop.  As we were leaving the bench, Justin went to grab my hand to hold.  I immediately withdrew my hand to my side & was like, “umm, no”.  Humiliated, he remarked about how that was embarrassing.  By nature, despite not liking him, I still felt a need to smooth things over, so I told him it wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about; that I just take things slow (lies).  At this point, I was praying for the date to be over.  Luckily it was only about another 20 minutes until he mentioned he had to meet a friend at 8pm.  Good!

After wishing I could get back the last 2 hours of my life, I felt the evening needed to be redeemed.  On my drive home, I called Aaron to see what he was up to.  He said he was going to eat then go to the gym, but would like to see me after.  YES!  So I went home, made myself some food & tried to muster the energy to write this post, but fell asleep until my roommate, Tiernie, came home & introduced me to one of her new friends.  We chatted for a bit before I walked over to Aaron’s.  Good thing, because it gave me more energy to wake my ass up.  

He mentioned that he liked my boots when I got in.  Good.  He’s starting to learn to compliment me.  We ended up just cuddling with Dogler on his bed & fell asleep after watching 2 Kenny Vs. Spenny episodes.  I woke up the next morning late for work & Aaron offered to drive me home so I didn’t have to walk.  That was sweet of him!  I politely declined, not wanting to inconvenience him, & kissed him goodbye.  It’s nice to have a thoughtful man willing to wake up at the ass crack of dawn when he doesn’t have to, just to drive me 3 blocks home to save time for me in getting to work.

xx,

Lilly Cat