Blind date... Full length version.
My mom used to have a best friend whose daughter would hang out with me as friends and nothing more. I don't exactly recall if this was eight or ninth grade for me but what I clearly recall is that we both had a healthy distaste for each other from any kind of attraction or romance standpoint.
But one day as I was visiting over at her house along with our respective moms visiting together, she was on the phone with a friend of hers that I had never met and the friend expressed significant interest in the voice that she heard in the background of another boy being around.
My friend ("B") laughed out loud so hard, knowing what the implication and interest was on the other end of the phone, but her friend (C) would not be dissuaded by B's enthusiastic and laughter-riddled criticism of me as a prospect for anything but comic relief an occasional relief from boredom as well.
C absolutely insisted on talking to me on the phone herself and of course this provided additional amusement for my our mutual friend who eventually gave in, much to her own personal amusement and disgust and staunch scepticism.
It was love at first sound byte. Well that's a bit exaggerated, but let's just say that C & Me saw things very differently than B about our prospects and one another than the kind of esteem that B held us and our potential future together in!
We exchanged phone numbers and discussed getting together over the next few weeks, marveling at how much we had in common and mutually expressing how much we both looked forward to seeing one another when the blessed time would arrive.
We also managed to exchange wallet-size photographs of one another via B, and as you might be able to tell from my narratives on here, I can be just as verbally self-deprecating as I can be confident or selling what I consider to be my good points. Meaning that I was trying to be as honest as possible on the phone, but still putting my best foot forward.
We both decided to meet at her school carnival thing that was going to be happening soon. I think my mom must have dropped me off for a few hours, since it was a very public venue and heavily attended by so many people. I do know that Mom wasn't anywhere in sight for the occasion however it was that I managed to get there and get back home.
I suppose I should note here, too, that our mutual friend B regretted that she could not attend the occasion, and therefore we were on our own. Although you could almost hear the laughter from wherever miles away my friend B was at echoing in my head.
We had each described what kind of outfit each of us was wearing so the other would know what to look for...The wallet photos we had exchanged were rather poor quality after all, and I think they were taken from a distance as well.
For the life of me, I could not find this girl, and since this was in the day of rotary phones, she apparently was also struggling to get into contact with me.
After a good while wandering around and me not knowing anybody that was there, a couple of young girls my age saw my touristy look and decided to inquire as to whether or not they could help me get where I needed to go or find who I needed to find.
These girls were REMARKABLY attractive, by the way, but I am a loyal sort, and I try to keep my word & commitments and also to greatly respect other people's feelings. I am not nor have ever been a player or an abuser of trust or lady's feelings.(Although that point might come into some question where the story about the "conversion" is concerned!)
As we searched for C, I felt it only fitting to humor my assisting investigators, and I did entertain a whim or two of theirs in the process of the search, out of my gratitude for their assistance in my cause.
At some point, I passed a certain person and got this awful feeling in my stomach. It was very much like a scripted thing that you might see in a story, because she seemed to have the almost identical reaction at the same, identical time as we both turned back to face one another after getting about 10-15 yards apart after passing directly by one another.
I realized all of a sudden that this was the girl I had been "dreaming of" and yet...This was not the girl that I had pictured in my mind's eye at all! And apparently the very same horrific realization also dawned on my blind date at the very same time regarding me!
My assistants politely excused themselves when they realized the mission was accomplished, and C and I proceeded to make the best of things. there was nothing that I could call unattractive about the girl exactly... But it was the shock of the difference between what I had pictured and what manner of creature presented herself before me in her place.
I almost wonder if this isn't a little bit of what Biblical Jacob went through when he woke up and found out that he was married to Leah instead of Rachel on his wedding night or morning after!
In any case, I was of no mind to hurt a lady's feelings, and I did my best to hide the shock and to proceed to treat her as a gentleman should. We held hands and proceeded to do various booth contests at the carnival thing, but after a while I decided that it was time to come clean or rather to give her the chance to be set free of her obligation 2 humor me.
I told her that I could tell that seeing the real me was something of a shock to her, and that this was her school carnival and not mine, and that she should be enjoying herself and feeling really fantastic about being there instead of feeling miserable or horrified. I said she had plenty of friends there, and that I wouldn't want her to have to explain or feel any more awkward than she already did, so she was free to go if she so desired.
With obvious great relief, I finally got to see a smile come across her face! And she gladly and enthusiastically accepted my release of her from the mutual commitment we had both bound ourselves to over the phone. She wasn't nearly as rude as that probably makes it sound, but the body language was screaming "free at last...free at last... thank God I'm free at last!" as she practically ran away into the comfort of her circle of friends off into the distance.
Since I didn't know anybody else that was there, I immediately began to feel rather out of sorts, since I had to wait for my mom to return and pick me up...or however I managed to get there.
However, much to my great relief and delight and surprise, it seems that my two erstwhile assistants had been stalking the situation from a distance to see what the outcome of our finally meeting one another would be!
Once they realized that we had so quickly parted our ways, they came right back to me to resume their role as guides!
I must say it was nothing but happiness for the three of us at the time, even though I've never before sported more than one possible romantic interest prospect so brazenly in the presence of another at the same time in the same place! But this was their decision not mine, and I was happy to be so eagerly and enthusiastically "competed" over for their separate and yet mutual attentions to be paid.
They both gave me their phone numbers before the time was concluded, and both expected to hear from me again! I suppose another remarkable thing is that this was a Christian School, if I remember correctly, so it wasn't exactly like a barroom environment or a club or anything of that nature. Particularly since I was either 13 or 14 at the time!
I think that the worst part of it for both C & me was having to concede a kind of victory for the i-told-you-so camp that was altogether owned by our mutual friend B.
C and I did talk on the phone some after that experience, but I don't think either one of us were able to get over the initial shock of actually meeting one another in the flesh and having to reconcile our mental pictures with the physical reality that stood before us.
But I look back on the memory and smile every time because really everyone pretty much lived happily ever after on that one.
[This message edited by Cephastion at 1:00 PM, March 17th (Sunday)]
