A heart full of loves
Oct. 13th, 2008 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gementThis Saturday morning, I had a long and emotionally fulfilling date with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meowse, during which we picked up a new bedframe from a coworker's yard sale, bought other geek gifts from the same yard sale, had a long conversation about how we use very different vocal registers to convey the same emotions (which will significantly improve communication not just between the two of us but also between him and the rest of his family), and spent some hawt private time together.
Then in the afternoon we picked uparjache and drove up to my house to drop off the bedframe and the intrepid library crawlers.* Arjache, who has been doing lovely vector cartoons of my characters, shyly produced a hand-drawn picture of Mr. Gerard, which captured an emotionally intense moment so vividly that it made me blush. A lot. Then Meowse went home and the two of us struck out for the three libraries along the 16 route.
On the way into the Northgate branch, I caught her giving me That Look. You know, that one. I said something about it, and she admitted that she'd gotten lost looking at my eyes. She felt awkward. I assured her it was okay, and I was flattered, and not in the least uncomfortable about it. Something in the back of my brain that I had not given permission to click open before clicked open.
We decided to go to dinner. This is not a date, I assured myself. I don't have to romanticize everything. I am allowed to have intense platonic relationships. I started laughing at myself when I was tempted to offer her my arm in front of the waiter leading us to a table. That was obviously just wanting to genderf*** with people's heads.
However, it led to the thought of my Joker costume, because offering an arm feels like wearing a suit, and that will be the next time I wear a suit. And that led to the thought that she'd look divinely adorable dressed as Harley Quinn on my arm. And matching costumes is definitely a Dating thought.
I told her anyway, because costume geekery does not have to be about dating, right? Right? She said I should feel free to offer my arm, and at the costume suggestion, my straightforward and self-confident butch friend blushed, apparently flattered beyond words. (She was so tongue-tied that at first I was afraid I had offended her sensibilities with such a femme suggestion. Quite the opposite - it had not crossed her mind that someone might find her eligible for such a costume.)
And then there was spaghetti with meatballs. This was not just a date, it was a Disney date. Oh dear. We said so, and talked about it in our overly rational geek way. We agreed that courtship is definitely a tasty stage of a relationship, worth prolonging. We thumb-wrestled for the check.
She laughed at me when I finally got around to, "Oh, this is probably a silly question, but are you poly?" (She's apparently in a triad with two other people I know.) We resisted the urge to keep riding buses together. We regretfully hugged goodbye. I floated home on a small cloud.
Then that late evening, I came home to my Jason. I watched over his shoulder while he played computer games until I fell asleep on his arm, where I stayed happily snoozing for another hour. He dragged me downstairs to brush my teeth. I woke up enough to run and get the Paddington Bear I had purchased for him at the yard sale, make the bed, and hide it on his pillow under the sheet. He awwwed. We went to sleep.
Why am I finally inspired to post all this instead of letting it slip away like I usually do? Because Jason pointed me to the Google front page today. It's Paddington's 50th birthday.
My life is so full of love, and love, and love. Boom-di-yada.
* I haven't been posting about the library crawl, thougharjache has. Seattle Public Library got 196 million dollars (yes, that's 0.2 billion) overwhelmingly approved by voters in 1998, titled "Libraries for All." Over the last ten years, they've spent it to refurbish, rebuild, and in some cases redesign every existing library branch and add some new ones.
They have a passport program to encourage people to go look at what we paid for. The booklet has photographs, statistics, and locations (including both address and local bus routes) for all 26 library branches. Every library has a distinctive stamp, only obtainable at that branch. There's a drawing in January for people who fill the book, but we don't care about that.
We care about the fact that we have so far managed to visit 13 libraries in three consecutive Saturdays (6 in 6 hours the first week including a leisurely lunch, 4 in 4 hours the second week including a very long walk, 3 in 2 hours this last Saturday before we stopped for dinner). We have done all this using only shoe leather and public transportation, without using Metro Trip Planner or any information outside of the passport booklet. We haven't even had to do bus transfers yet (taking more than one bus number between library stops). It's that easy.
We're going to try to do everything except West Seattle following these rules. There are only 9 more to go on that list, which looks like 4 trips because we're starting to get into the far reaches now. It's great fun, and if there's someone you want to spend casual but quality time with, I recommend this as a hobby between now and the end of the year.
Pertinent to the story above, we've spent our bus rides conversing continuously, flashing our shiny brain plumage at each other. There have been no signs of tiring at each others' company. In fact, after the six-hour first library crawl, she followed me home and we played card games with Jason until late in the evening before reluctantly putting her on a bus. The best-friends-forever energy has been running high.
Boom-di-yada.
meowse, during which we picked up a new bedframe from a coworker's yard sale, bought other geek gifts from the same yard sale, had a long conversation about how we use very different vocal registers to convey the same emotions (which will significantly improve communication not just between the two of us but also between him and the rest of his family), and spent some hawt private time together.Then in the afternoon we picked up
arjache and drove up to my house to drop off the bedframe and the intrepid library crawlers.* Arjache, who has been doing lovely vector cartoons of my characters, shyly produced a hand-drawn picture of Mr. Gerard, which captured an emotionally intense moment so vividly that it made me blush. A lot. Then Meowse went home and the two of us struck out for the three libraries along the 16 route.On the way into the Northgate branch, I caught her giving me That Look. You know, that one. I said something about it, and she admitted that she'd gotten lost looking at my eyes. She felt awkward. I assured her it was okay, and I was flattered, and not in the least uncomfortable about it. Something in the back of my brain that I had not given permission to click open before clicked open.
We decided to go to dinner. This is not a date, I assured myself. I don't have to romanticize everything. I am allowed to have intense platonic relationships. I started laughing at myself when I was tempted to offer her my arm in front of the waiter leading us to a table. That was obviously just wanting to genderf*** with people's heads.
However, it led to the thought of my Joker costume, because offering an arm feels like wearing a suit, and that will be the next time I wear a suit. And that led to the thought that she'd look divinely adorable dressed as Harley Quinn on my arm. And matching costumes is definitely a Dating thought.
I told her anyway, because costume geekery does not have to be about dating, right? Right? She said I should feel free to offer my arm, and at the costume suggestion, my straightforward and self-confident butch friend blushed, apparently flattered beyond words. (She was so tongue-tied that at first I was afraid I had offended her sensibilities with such a femme suggestion. Quite the opposite - it had not crossed her mind that someone might find her eligible for such a costume.)
And then there was spaghetti with meatballs. This was not just a date, it was a Disney date. Oh dear. We said so, and talked about it in our overly rational geek way. We agreed that courtship is definitely a tasty stage of a relationship, worth prolonging. We thumb-wrestled for the check.
She laughed at me when I finally got around to, "Oh, this is probably a silly question, but are you poly?" (She's apparently in a triad with two other people I know.) We resisted the urge to keep riding buses together. We regretfully hugged goodbye. I floated home on a small cloud.
Then that late evening, I came home to my Jason. I watched over his shoulder while he played computer games until I fell asleep on his arm, where I stayed happily snoozing for another hour. He dragged me downstairs to brush my teeth. I woke up enough to run and get the Paddington Bear I had purchased for him at the yard sale, make the bed, and hide it on his pillow under the sheet. He awwwed. We went to sleep.
Why am I finally inspired to post all this instead of letting it slip away like I usually do? Because Jason pointed me to the Google front page today. It's Paddington's 50th birthday.
 |
My life is so full of love, and love, and love. Boom-di-yada.
* I haven't been posting about the library crawl, though
arjache has. Seattle Public Library got 196 million dollars (yes, that's 0.2 billion) overwhelmingly approved by voters in 1998, titled "Libraries for All." Over the last ten years, they've spent it to refurbish, rebuild, and in some cases redesign every existing library branch and add some new ones.They have a passport program to encourage people to go look at what we paid for. The booklet has photographs, statistics, and locations (including both address and local bus routes) for all 26 library branches. Every library has a distinctive stamp, only obtainable at that branch. There's a drawing in January for people who fill the book, but we don't care about that.
We care about the fact that we have so far managed to visit 13 libraries in three consecutive Saturdays (6 in 6 hours the first week including a leisurely lunch, 4 in 4 hours the second week including a very long walk, 3 in 2 hours this last Saturday before we stopped for dinner). We have done all this using only shoe leather and public transportation, without using Metro Trip Planner or any information outside of the passport booklet. We haven't even had to do bus transfers yet (taking more than one bus number between library stops). It's that easy.
We're going to try to do everything except West Seattle following these rules. There are only 9 more to go on that list, which looks like 4 trips because we're starting to get into the far reaches now. It's great fun, and if there's someone you want to spend casual but quality time with, I recommend this as a hobby between now and the end of the year.
Pertinent to the story above, we've spent our bus rides conversing continuously, flashing our shiny brain plumage at each other. There have been no signs of tiring at each others' company. In fact, after the six-hour first library crawl, she followed me home and we played card games with Jason until late in the evening before reluctantly putting her on a bus. The best-friends-forever energy has been running high.
Boom-di-yada.
