The other night Izzy and I hung out for the second time and we had a blast. We met once for coffee after she stalked me (no joke, she totally found this blog and everything and I still hadn't laid eyes on her) and had a great time and having decided that there was no need for a restraining order I decided to give it another go.
We decided to go a little heavier than coffee and have drinks. There are not many classy places here in the Haute so we ended up at a supper club. I have said it before and I will say it again, you have to be either under the age of 22 or over the age of 50 to find some thing you like in this town. Izzy was a little worried because it was pretty much next door to the Travelodge where passers-by have been getting robbed. I would have to channel Napoleon Dynamite, but I was secure in my nun chuck skills and felt I could protect us because come hell or high water, I was gonna have a nice drink in this town. When we walked in, we were greeted and seated in the bar area at an out of the way table which kind of made me think that maybe these people already know I am a hot mess and decided to hide the likes of me from their illustrious 50-something crowd. Whether they knew or or not, I am sure they were happy I was in the corner and are probably calling their restaurant brethren to warn them of the new girl in town...
We were that table that couldn't stop talking to each other long enough to order but did manage to pause long enough to get drinks (Izzy got red wine and I had a martini). The food was great (portabello fries! lobster mac and cheese!) and it definitely exceeded my expectations of any restaurant in this town. In addition to being surprised by the food and the atmosphere, we had a super cool waiter. His name was Jeff and I asked if it was spelled with a G (you know, like boss Geoff) and he gave us a look and said something unsatisfactory about spelling it with a G. (Sorry boss Geoff.) From that moment on, we kept calling him G-off and giving him crap (in a fun way) about the most random things including the time he pointed out the sauces he placed on our table and felt the need to point out the carrots and celery (who does that?). We had fun with him as I realized my martini was a little strong and I desperately needed our food to come so I didn't embarrass myself.
Despite the alcohol sucker punching me, we did manage to have good conversation. Izzy was telling me of the last time she was there with her husband and they were sitting in an awkward place facing the bartender and she was trying to remember if his name was Isaac or something else and I was telling her about my crazy holiday in New York with my family (Side note: sometime during this conversation the bartender walked over to the wine cooler near our table and Izzy whispered "Hey Isaac" to be funny, but he had supersonic hearing and was all "Hey! I didn't see you there!" and struck up a mini conversation with us before heading back to the bar. This resulted in a fit of silent giggles that resulted in tears and possible snorting. Yep, we are some classy ladies...). We both talked about how weird it is to call Terre Haute home (even though she moved here three years ago) and the difference in the people that have lived here all their lives and the people that have moved here. There is also a distinction between the people that have left and come back, they have just enough Hautian in them to call this place home and mean it, but they lack a lot of the ignorance. By the time we started talking about the smell "it smells all over this town!" says Izzy, waiter Jeff walked up and we were (slightly) embarrassed. It was then that he told us he was from the big TH and me being 3/4 through my martini says "Really? You don't seem like it!" After chuckling he explained that he did move away for a few years during college and had been back for a few years now. That explained a lot and while he was talking I was thinking that he was kind of cute both in a teddy bear/cabbage patch kid way, but also in a buy me a cup of coffee kind of way. We asked him what there was to do in this town for people our age, found out he lived in my neighborhood, and we asked about the places to go for karaoke and but wasn't sure of all of them and he left us to look after his other tables. Izzy gave me a look that suggested that she knew what I was up to (apparently, I was a bit giddy) and was thinking that he might not mind a little brown sugar. I told her she was wrong and we went on with our conversation and our eating/drinking. About five minutes later, Jeff walks back with a smile on his face ready to tell us all about the karaoke in the area. He looked it up! I can't believe that! Izzy and I both noticed that he looked at me the whole time.
I should mention that sometime during our time in the restaurant it came up that Jeff was born and raised Catholic but had not been to church much as an adult. Being a convert to the faith, I feel like a good enough evangelist and am all about bringing people back to the church...at least I thought so. Izzy has me beat. I am sure that if she had the time and the money she would start a "No Catholics Left Behind" campaign and before I knew it, we were good cop/bad cop-ing this guy into coming back to church. We weren't all fire and brimstone about it, we were just letting him know that two fun girls such as ourselves like to get our Jesus on so it can't be all that bad and there are some cool things happening at church if he wants to check them out. So he might have been looking at me because he was afraid that Izzy would have him all signed up to lector on Sunday. Either way it goes, I was happy to have a little attention (either Ted is not that into me or he is super shy and I have read that book too many times that I am not banking on shy) and flirt a little. At the end of the night he did walk us to the parking lot and we said that we'd be back. I should also mention that he gave us his email address so we could tell him about all of the Catholic things coming up (I decided that I should hold onto that) so maybe another Catholic won't be left behind after all...
Before I went to bed that night, I realize that I am finding my footing here. I am making friends, I like (most of) the people I work with I have flirted with two guys that were totally worthy of being flirted with. I am doing OK and I do think I'm gonna like it here...eventually.
No comments:
Post a Comment