Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Not sure why I'm dating these posts. Every day is almost an exact replica of the one that came before.

Since most of us are on lock down, I've been thinking about who I feel the sorriest for. It has to be the 18 to 30 crowd right? The people who are supposed to be going out the most, meeting new people, experiencing new things.

I'm sorry if this is sentimental, but it made me recall the first time I ever went out on a date. I was sixteen years old and had just started driving. I remember because it was after I started driving that my mom let me stop attending her church, which I hated. But she still wanted me to go somewhere, so she told me to try this church one of her friend's sons attended.

I started by attending one of their Friday night bible studies. I remember walking into the room and immediately recognizing this girl I used to have a crush on back in junior high. She had no idea who I was, of course, but I remembered her. Let's call her April.

When the bible study was over my mom's friend's son introduced me to everyone. They asked me where I lived, and it turned out I lived only about a mile or two away from the beautiful April and someone asked if I wouldn't mind dropping her off on my way home.

As the two of us rode in my car April did most of the talking. She was a lot friendlier than I expected. I was used to being ignored in those days. Then at one point we drove past this video store and I pointed it out and said how I was always going there to pick up my mom's Korean dramas for the week. Back in those days there was no Netflix, so each week I would pick up a plastic bag full of VHS tapes for all the shows my mom watched.

Anyway, when I dropped April off in front of her house, she said I should drop by and say hi the next time I was in her neighborhood.

"Sure," I said.

When I went back to the church the following Friday, April wasn't there. It turned out she had just been visiting. So the next morning, I did the unthinkable and stopped by her house and knocked on her front door. I remember she came to the door wearing a t-shirt and boxers and she looked a bit shocked to see me.

"What are you doing here?" she said.

"You said to drop by if I was in the area," I said, and she gave me this look like she didn't know what to think.

Eventually she went back inside and changed and when she came back she said we could do something but could I give her mom a ride to her church first?

"Of course," I said.

So we dropped off her mom, and then April and I went to watch a movie together. A matinee showing of this movie called Milk Money starring Ed Harris and Melanie Griffith. At one point during the movie my eye was itching so I rubbed it with my finger. April happened to see.

"Were you crying?" she asked afterward.

"No, what are you talking about?"

"I saw you rubbing your eye," she said.

I laughed.

"I promise I wasn't crying," I said, but I wasn't sure she believed me.