2002-04-15
Grocery store girl / House concert, posted at 8:40 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com This entry will be divided into two parts: The Girl at the Store and The House ConcertThe Girl at the Store
Okay, so yesterday I was grocery shopping, picking up a few extra items for my house concert on Sunday night. The was a very attractive girl in front of me (when I say "girl," I mean "woman," because it just sounds funny the other way). She had shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, and looked like an intriguing cross of Katie Couric and Carol Vessey from Ed. I noticed her immediately, and even chose her lane specifically to get a better view of her, despite her full cart and my only having three items. Perhaps I would start a conversation with her, even.
I didn't know what else to do, so I glanced at her items while thumbing through a People magazine. She owns a cat, as the cans of pet food attested. She eats healthily. Not much else to go on than that, though.
She was apparently looking at my stuff, too, because she asked me, "So, have you ever had that Canadian Bacon before?" (FYI, it was veggie canadian bacon). So we had a brief conversation about canadian bacon, then about vegetarianism, then about teaching. I'm not even sure how the latter came up, but she's a teacher - elementary at a nearby county school. I mentioned where I teach, and since my school has been in the news all week, she knew it. "You're not the guy, are you?," she asked with a grin.
Okay, so even though it seems obvious now, I didn't know she was flirting. But here is a cute girl, starting a conversation with me in the checkout lane about vegetarian canadian bacon. And I didn't do anything about it.
I suck. I suck.
As she's leaving, I think to myself that tonight (it was yesterday) would have been a perfect opportunity to invite her to my house concert. I rush to my car and look for a flier. I'm all out. I have next month's flier, and briefly consider running it over to her and her roommate (also attractive). They're loading their groceries in. But my feet are stuck to the ground. I can't move. I think how foolish I would look running across the parking lot to drop off a flier for a show that doesn't happen until May 19. My feet are still stuck to the ground.
They leave.
I get in my car, and sullenly drive away. I'm right behind them. I consider memorizing their license plate, but don't. Don't want to be a stalker.
So I'll never see her again. She could have been "the one".
I suck.
At least I have my diaryland girlfriend to keep me company.
The House Concert
This could not have turned out better. In fact, it was absolutely wonderful. W arrived at around 6pm, we hung out, and the people started shuffling in at around 6:30. The first hour or so were just his fans and I, and my friends started showing up just after 7. In all, we had about 19 people - the absolute perfect number.
Some highlights:
*The food! It was a potluck, and we had competing Mexican dips, veggies, chicken wings, pop, and more.
*The music! W was definitely "on"! He played for two hours, taking a break in the middle. It was all acoustic, and worked out really well. He played all the old favorites, plus a couple of cool new ones. My friends all seemed to like him a lot, and of course his fans enjoyed it. W joked that he doesn't have a large local following, but has a sparse national following. We had folks at the show from DC and Cleveland, and a few transplanted Michiganders. Wally made $80 at the door, plus sold a bunch of CDs.
*This will probably only be funny to readers who know him, but I took a shot with W! Before the show, he asked if we had any whiskey or anything "hard" so he could take a shot. I told him I didn't want him to do it alone, so we both took a shot of tequila together. It blows my mind that I actually took a shot with him! I was in no mood to drink at all, but that one shot was worth it just for the stories.
*W slept on our couch. We chatted for a long time after the show. He's probably still there now; I left him my spare key so he could lock the place up.
So, yeah, my first venture into house concerts went swimmingly. I can't wait for Kristin'sshow next month.
Other occurrences this weekend
I saw Changing Lanes. Solid movie.
I entered Hugasoul's phone number in my new cell phone incorrectly, and ended up calling a wrong number like three times. The number was at school, so I couldn't call her.
Eleanor/Janine (I'm thinking about changing her pseudonym to Janine, after Janine Turner, whom she closely resembles after her new haircut) had a date with old guy yesterday. I can't wait to hear how it went. She's also coming to visit this weekend, and I'm excited.
Three baseball games this week will make for a busy week.