How We Met, Part II
4:08 PM
Where I left off in Part I, we had just made plans to attend the orchestra after an epic weekend of beer drinking, salsa dancing and karaoke singing.
In preparation for the great phone downgrade of 2015, I saved the text messages that K and I exchanged early in our courtship. They included this gem from K sent on the night prior to our first date:
He ran a little late picking me up, giving me plenty of time to stress over whether or not I was "formal" enough.
I think he was originally supposed to pick me up at 5:30.
True to his word, he went pretty formal - bow tie and all. I wore a
maroon dress and a raincoat, because I guess the forecast predicted
rain. We went to dinner in Little Italy, where I ordered eggplant parm and he ordered veal. I remember being puzzled by his entree choice - it didn't seem to fit with the somewhat crunchy impression I'd gotten of him when we first met (knew the JVs...didn't have a TV...rode his bike to work...) I also remember electing not to mention that I was (at that point) a vegetarian, thinking it would make a bad impression on him. Always with the over-analysis on my part.
Despite our (unspoken) philosophical differences regarding the eating of meat, that first dinner was lovely. We ran through the usual first date questions and found out that we were both the eldest of three (he of three boys, me of three girls) and that both our mothers were one of seven children. When the check came, I made that awkward half-hearted attempt to split it with him, but thankfully he insisted on paying, in exchange for some baked goods to be delivered at a later date.
We then headed over to the orchestra (Beethoven's 9th). I remember it being a pretty great performance, with a full choir accompanying the musicians. During intermission, I asked him all sorts of questions about his preferences for baked goods and learned that we weren't exactly in agreement in this area (I said I kind of liked fudge...he said something along the lines of "there are two kinds of people in this world, those who like fudge and normal people"). I did learn that he was fond of strawberry shortcake, topped with whipped cream and doused in whole milk (I thought that sounded like a strange way to eat cake, but kept that opinion to myself).
After the performance, he drove me back to my house. We sat there in the dark for a few awkward moments while I tried to figure out whether or not he was going to kiss me. Finally I had run through all of the parting small talk I could think of and wished him a good night. He looked at me, leaned a little bit towards me across the middle consul and said... "Don't forget to take your leftovers".
Thankfully, the story doesn't end there...there was still a night of strawberry shortcake cookies and a shvitz awaiting us...
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