Weekly Wrap-Up

Tuesday was Janell’s birthday. Lots of people I hadn’t seen in months, some “hot Germanic wine,” and Laura’s killer enchiladas. She was leaving for Louisville the next morning for a trucker convention event. She showed me pictures of the “snowbunny” models they booked. I kept expressing my need for the blonde’s phone number, but Janell refuses. Guess she’s looking out for me.

Thursday night I had dinner over at interior designer’s place. Then we watched 3:10 to Yuma, which wasn’t as good as I had heard. But she won a ton of points for asking her friend for a kick-ass recipe and then trying her hand at it. Enchiladas suizas with guac. I’ve totally been on a southwest kick lately. Also had my favorite beer in her fridge. I knew I wanted to be with J when she bought a case of my favorite beer and had it in the fridge the first time I ate over. So girls, figure out his favorite beer and have some on-hand. I didn’t stay the night, but left pretty late. I think she’d be a great girlfriend, but I’m not ready to make that call.  Sucks that she has three roommates.

Since I knew I would need to get up at 3 AM on Sunday, I made it a point to relax beforehand. So Friday night I made Hamburger Helper and Luke came over to watch basketball for a while. Saturday I tried to cut the grass, but the damn battery on the lawn tractor was dead and wouldn’t take a charge. Then it rained… a lot. And it kept raining… a lot. I took Benadryl and beer and was out like a light by 10 PM.

Marathon morning. Rainy and cold. I was the only idiot who wore shorts. We got the truck unloaded and got the water ready right about the time the wheelchair racers came through. Shortly behind were the front-runners of the half marathon. By the time I left at 10 AM I was freezing, stiff and hoarse. But I loved it. Didn’t see physical therapist, but she said she finished the half with a decent time. I texted her saying that I missed her and was looking forward to seeing her as the high point of my day. She wrote back later that night saying she was hurting and was trying not to move until Monday AM.

Then the boss man organized a Blue Planet Run 07 reunion since so many of the runners were in Atlanta for the marathon. We ate at this swanky place called the Peasant Bistro on Park Ave. Great view of the Park and World of Coke and they had this awesome specialty: sweet potato ravioli. Drool. Then we grabbed a drink across the street at Stats, a new sports bar on Marietta St. It was then that I saw the score of the Kansas/Davidson game and wished that I could have seen it.

Headed out in a few minutes to the Braves’ home opener. It should be awesome.

Plastic Guitar Virtuoso

To any of you who know me personally, you are well aware that I love me some Guitar Hero. Lately, I love Rock Band a bit more since I’ve become disenchanted with the Guitar Hero 3 game (I’m looking squarely at you Slayer) and banging on a plastic drum set is great for pissing-off your family/neighbors/etc. I’m still holding out for some Def Leppard tracks, but now I hear they’ll be a Guitar Hero exclusive artist. Maybe some Anthrax?

Anyway, Gibson guitars decided to sue the pants off Activision, the publisher of the latest and best-selling Guitar Hero 3, claiming that they patented the idea of a “virtual musical performance” in 1999. Ever since Guitar Hero was initially released in 2005, the official plastic guitar controllers have been licensed through Gibson in order to create a realistic experience. Now Gibson wants Activision to either pay licensing fees for the “virtual performance” patent also or quit selling the game franchise altogether. The suit has also been extended to Harmonix/MTV for Rock Band and a slew of retailers which sell the games. In response, Activision pretty much feels that by waiting until the game has become a cultural phenomenon, Gibson gave implied licensing consent and just wants a piece of this pie.

I believe The Onion sums-up everything nicely. “Excuse me, but after last week’s championship game at Ray’s Creekside Tavern, I believe it is I who owns Guitar Hero.”

Happens Every Time…

Seems like every time I meet a girl from an online dating venture for the very first time, there is this split-second look of disappointment… maybe not even disappointment exactly, but you can tell that I don’t look exactly as she envisioned in her mind’s eye.  Not that it really matters, because shortly she’ll warm-up to me as if we hadn’t even met online.  It’s just funny to me.  Sure, there will always be a few people who are hung-up on physical disparities and can’t get beyond it (maybe that’s why they never have any luck) but to most it is a passing thought.

Another first date tonight.  Another girl I want to see again.  She was a little hard to read also, the non-verbal stuff wasn’t as much of a dead giveaway as with some women I’ve dated.  Could have been nervousness.  The nervous jitters don’t really affect me any more… probably because I’ve learned to detach myself from the outcome and just take things for what they are, becoming less “desperate” and more of the laid-back, smart, funny guy that women want.  I want to learn more about her, but physically she’s totally what I go for.  Older than me as well.

Tomorrow night the interior designer is cooking me dinner and we’re making it a Blockbuster night.  It appears that I won’t be able to do the same with the physical therapist until next Friday or Saturday, but maybe I’ll see her at the marathon.  The actress seems to be too busy lately, so I’m considering a demotion (or maybe just being friends with her altogether) and replacing her with the girl from tonight.   I never did meet the girl who works at the zoo and honestly at this point I really don’t care if I ever will… the initial “oomph” is gone.

ING Georgia Marathon

The 2nd Annual ING Georgia Marathon is this weekend.  Early Sunday morning, 15,000 athletes, both pro and amateur, will be running, jogging and wheeling their way around our city.  42.2 km (26.2 miles).  It’s a pretty big deal.

Four of the athletes who participated in the Blue Planet Run with me last summer will be in town; three are running the half marathon (to qualify for the Boston Marathon) while one is racing the full marathon.  A Kenyan and professional runner, his best time is around 2h14… the world record for a male is 2h04:26.  That is just under a five minute mile pace.  I am definitely not a runner (emphasis on definitely) so a ten minute pace would kill me after a couple of miles.

I learned quite a bit about (ultra)marathons and running in general during my experience last summer and I’m sure I will learn more in the coming year… footwear, diet, blisters, toenails falling off,  etc.  Training for these can take half a year for some.  Recovery can take more than a week and your immune system may take a hit.  Ice baths afterwards will force the blood to the muscles in your legs to promote recovery… but at an unpleasant cost!  Like taking a cold shower x 20.  And for many this is just a hobby.

So I’m getting up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to volunteer at one of the hydration stations along the route, hopefully around mile 6 in L5P or 12/25 by GA Tech.  Either that or wearing a dashing fluorescent vest and ensuring pedestrians/spectators stay clear and out of the way.   We’ll see what happens.  I spoke to my would-be-girlfriend, the physical therapist, and she is going to attempt to run the half marathon with her boss even though she didn’t officially register.  Not really sure if they will let her do that.  It’s only 13 miles, so I think she can handle that… she’ll just be sore for a week.

Hard to Read

The physical therapist and I had our second date Friday night.  Showed me around her apartment.  Her dog likes me, which always wins points with the would-be girlfriend.  Same goes for roommates, friends, Moms and Grandmoms.

We went to Chow Baby on Howell Mill.  I heard about this place via a story on channel 46 news (it was a positive review, no bad health scores) and had been eager to try it out.  It’s a create-your-own stir fry/Mongolian BBQ joint with kick-ass mojitos.  I would TOTALLY recommend it to anyone, though if you go for lunch or dinner on the weekend it may be very busy and crowded… as it was Friday night.

We talked about memories of being children and stories from work.  She’s got big, expressive eyes which I love.  I can usually tell a lot about a person from their eyes; where they look when they’re remembering something can tell you if they are a more visual person or if they are more  kinesthetic… meaning they feel things at a deep level.  The theatre major I’m dating is the latter.

We finished-up dinner and drove to Dave and Buster’s in Marietta.  She did something so cute on Thursday night when I called to tell her when I’d be picking her up.  She had no clue as to what Dave and Buster’s was, so she didn’t know how to dress.  Was it more a club?  Was it more of a sports bar?  I take that as a good sign, as she wants to look good for our date but not out of place.

We played games all night.  She beat my ass pretty good in basketball and I sorta beat myself in air hockey.  Any time we won tickets we always found some cute kid to hand them off to… it was really cool to see the kid’s eyes light up when she handed him a couple of hundred tickets so he could get that stuffed Elmo or whatever.  We joked around all night, brought up inside jokes… flirted.  I would put my hand on the small of her back or around her waist to pull her in… squeezed her thigh just above the knee… interlocked my fingers in her’s when we pushed the button on some game together.  When I dropped her off and gave her a hug and kiss goodnight, she gave no objection to the kiss (nor to any of the other physical touches) yet she didn’t kiss back.  It was like kissing the back of your hand.  I’m thinking she just takes things much slower than any other girl I’ve dated.  I typically enjoy doing flirty push-pull type of interactions with girls who are attracted to me and they always eat it up, but I haven’t with her yet.  Maybe I should.

I’m having a hard time reading her interest and attraction towards me… which may be why I’m more interested in her than the other two girls who are obviously into me.  For the third date I’m planning to cook dinner for her at her place.  We’ve talked about going to Braves games and hiking/running together, but I want some alone time.

Why All the Fuss?

This girl is going to be in the Miss England beauty pageant. It seems that she isn’t built like a Barbie; her backgrounder says she’s a size 16 (UK) which is about a 12 (US). People hear this and are having an aneurysm because their feeble minds cannot compute why anyone would deem an average girl “beautiful enough to win a pageant.” But she’s also 5′10″.

Personally, I think she looks fantastic. Jailbait, but still hot.  To quote famous Tennessee-wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler, “All those curves and me with no brakes!!”  The best thing about curvier girls is that it enhances their cleavage… and her’s is in the 38DD range. The only way a skinny girl could get a chest like that is via surgery… and face it, fake boobs are no fun.

I’ve looked, but I can’t even find the measurements of a recent Miss America, but I’m sure it hasn’t changed much since 1958 when Miss Georgia was 36-24-36… which makes her a “brick house” according to the popular song by The Commodores.

Come on Ride this Train

After a successful third date on Tuesday with interior designer, we move along to Thursday night. Initially I was going to spend the evening with the lovely physical therapist, however, her mother decided to visit this week and spend the evening with her tonight. She called me Wednesday afternoon to inform me of this revelation, citing that she didn’t want to deal with the intensive Q&A that would arise if she told her Mom that she had a date. I could tell she felt badly about canceling and wanted to reschedule ASAP.

So we’re going out tomorrow night instead. It’s Luke’s birthday, but he doesn’t seem too gung-ho about turning 26. We shall dine at Chow Baby on Howell Mill. Has anyone eaten there before? I’ve been to the whole stir-fry/Madarin grill sort of restaurant before in Kansas so I know what to expect. I’ll thoroughly enjoy it, I just hope she will and isn’t a finicky eater. Can’t stand that, personally. My brother and father are like that.

So with a free Thursday evening, I whipped-out my cell phone and called the theater girl who I have wanted to meet for quite some time now. We got a late drink at Front Page tonight… which turned into a three hour first date. I’m getting quite good at those. Unlike last week’s first date, I want to see her again soon. I see a lot of my ex in this girl, but I’m trying to decide if she possesses the good qualities or the bad ones.

Now you may be asking: “RA, it’s March Madness… what kind of heterosexual man would date a time like this?!?”  I’ll admit, I was a little upset when I left the house during halftime of the Duke game and returned to see the final score.  But last time I checked, Greg Paulus neither smells nice nor wants to make out with me.  And he’s kinda flat-chested… not that I care about that sort of thing.

Eharmony in a Nutshell

So for any of you who have dabbled in Eharmony at some point, you might have noticed that you must go through multiple stages of communication before you’re allowed to freely speak with your match.

I Will Be on the Colbert Report Tonight…

I got a tip from a co-worker in my inbox this afternoon that Colbert will be showcasing the book that was compiled about the event my company and I helped to produce last summer, the Blue Planet Run.It was a 95-day, 15,200-mile relay run around the globe to raise awareness and donations for water harvesting and purification projects in less-fortunate countries.

And my name and picture is in the book, so therefore… I’ll be on the Colbert Report tonight. That urge you’re feeling to shower me with affection is totally natural.

Way to go to whomever managed to get this media hit. I’m looking forward to what he has to say about it.

Easily, the Largest Man I’ve Ever Seen

Last night was the double date.  I picked her up at her place, met her roommate, etc.  Then we hauled ass over to the Vortex to get a burger and beer before the show.  Patrick and his girlfriend joined us and, if I were a less confident man, would have totally embarrassed me with the stories told in those 45 minutes.  But she was a good sport and joined-in.

We walked down to the Variety and I thoroughly enjoyed that show.  We upped the physicality a little.  When she went to the bathroom, Patrick’s girlfriend nearly jumps clear over him to talk to me about her.  Apparently both of them think we’re a good match.  So anyway, I’m not the type of guy who openly does PDA in front of my friends.  I walked her to the door and we made out a bit under the yellowish glow of the porch light.  I didn’t stay, though I probably would have if the situation were different.

I don’t think I’m pursuing any “new” people on Eharmony.  I need to tactfully deal with what I’ve already got.