Well, here's something that hasn't happened in quite a long time.

I was sitting watching TV earlier tonight when the phone rang; it was Julie. No, that wasn't what I was talking about. As the conversation went along she asked what I was doing for the evening and wanted to know if she could take me up on an offer for dinner.

Up[ until now, due to work schedules, her kids, illness and more we have been doing little more than lunch together almost every day. While that isn't a bad thing, of course, it is little more than a rushed 30 minuets trying to digest and talk at the same time. No the best way to get to know each other.

I had occasionally made suggestions and we would have tentative plans but something would seem to come up. And just like I worried how much my son might have been drifting apart from me I also worried that things might never really take off with Julie. All those worries flew out the door the moment I got that call.

Well, the worries went out the door and panic took over!

We agreed on dinner and she ended up having to bring two of her daughters with her; oh, good....the kid test! I hung up the phone and raced through shower, shave and finding something to wear. I think I was ready within 8 minuets when it took her almost an hour to arrive. She had Olivia her 18 month old Gerber Baby of a child and Nicki, her 5 year old clone. A 2 foot tall carbon copy of her mother, she played the shy child, hiding behind her mother every step of the way into the house. The minuet she saw my Spongebob Squarepants throw pillow and all of the stuffed animals and doll house in the girl's room she was apparently sold on me.

We went to the local Carraba's when I continued to win Nicki over. The waitress gave her a pile of pizza dough to play with and we spent the evening making all kinds animals but somehow making nothing but animal's butts. She laughed out loud at using the word and with the twinkle in her eye a child gets when they can get away with something a little "bad" with the approval of an adult. Yes, I seemed to have won her over.

Julie, on the other hand turned red each time her daughter said the word "butt". My 16 year old parenting skills might have earned me some points with her as well.

Time will tell.

Something else that hasn't happened in a while was the first kiss. There's this wonderful moment in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" :

ALVY
Hey, listen, listen.

ANNIE
What?

ALVY
Gimme a kiss.

ANNIE
Really?

ALVY
Yeah, why not, because we're just gonna
go home later, right?

ANNIE
Yeah.

ALVY
And-and uh, there's gonna be all that
tension. You know, we never kissed before
and I'll never know when to make the right
move or anything. So we'll kiss now we'll
get it over with and then we'll go eat. Okay?

ANNIE
Oh, all right.

ALVY
And we'll digest our food better.

ANNIE
Okay.


ALVY
Okay?

ANNIE
Yeah.

They kiss.

ALVY
So now we can digest our food.


I had something in mind to say. Not quite as clever as Woody Allen, but still, I thought, cute and humorous enough to break the tension of the moment. Or, so I thought.

What happened? Well, let's just say it may need a re-write. We talked about it a little and I hope there will be a chance to have a do-over for that moment. We both agreed it had been a while since we've dated and that may have led to some nervousness on both our sides.

Again, time will tell.