Okay everyone Im here to finally update you on our first date! Thanks for the patience and investment in this cool journey of mine!

My work bled into Saturday a little but I was able to tie everything up by noon. That was enough time to get ready for our meet up. I get to her place around 6 and run up to her door, ring the bell, and wait. After a few seconds I hear a frantic shuffle and the door swings open and there she is. Just like in high school. Beautiful, mysterious, and wearing a smile that could light up the darkest room. My stomach is in my throat but I'm able to not let it show. "You haven't changed since high school", I said. She flashes a flattered grin and quickly replies, "You've changed allot!" This wasn't news to me and was widely known I'm almost a completely different person since that time. Mainly on the outside. My personality and amusement with the world is still very alive, present, and unchanged. "I've heard that before", I bounce back. "Let's get going! I have a few plans for us", I spit out almost unintentionally. She turns and grabs her purse and before I can blink, she's shut the door and already passed me down the walkway to my truck. I quickly react and catch up to her in time to pull the vehicle door open for her. I motion with my hand imitating a 1940's gentleman and she reacts with a perfect impersonation of a flattered woman of that time period. I close the door and turn to walk around to the drivers side. My mind is racing, heart beating, in complete amazement I'm finally taking this woman on a date. When you have a teenage high school crush, you tend to build this person into more than they are. Especially after so much time has passed. However, I was pleasantly surprised that so far, she seemed to be exactly like I remembered her. It felt like an eternity before I got around to my side. I open the door, jump in, and glance at her. Much to my surprise, I feel like I notice a little nervousness on her face. Her.... Nervous with me....? That was a pivotal point in our date. At that point, the butterflies in my stomach stopped and I gained composure knowing I had nothing to be nervous about. We both were nervous which was an oddly comforting realization for me. I quickly react to take her mind off the weight of first date jitters. "What are your three favorite music artists?" After she carefully and thoughtfully listed out her favorites, I put on my BT music to match her genre preferences and we pull out of the driveway.

I had the night planned already. The few days leading up to this date, I had the opportunity to get to know her again over the phone and through text. And I gained a good understanding on who she was as a person at this point in her life. Taking everything I learned about her in careful consideration, I planned a night I was confident she'd enjoy. Our first stop was a little diner on the edge of town famous for being featured in 'Diners, Drive ins, and Dives'. We pull into the recently finished black top parking lot as the last few raindrops of an early autumn shower land on my windshield. I pull into a spot, shut off the engine, and glance over to her. She's already looking at me as if studying my face in curiosity. I tell her "wait here". I jump out and make my way to her side. I open the door and do a similar gesture as before, she gets out a gestures a curtsy, We both chuckle and turn to make our way inside. As we're walking to the diner, the scene in front of us looked like a photo from an older time. One you'd see on a 50 year old post card. The old diner lit up by neon running along the top of the building, people inside lost in conversation with their partners, a black asphalt lot still wet from a recent shower reflecting a distorted early stage sunset from beyond the building as well traces of reflection from the brilliant neon. That moment, to me, was one I'll keep in the memory bank for awhile to come. I glance to her in contentment and as if she knew my current thoughts, she put her hand on my back. Gentle and meaningful, it was received just as it was intended. We make our way up the three steps leading to the door, I open the door for her, we step in, and we sit down at the closest open booth. As we're waiting to place an order were performing the socially awkward dance of small talk. 'What are your favorite things to do in the area? What shows, movies, and books have you been into? Glad we're finally getting away from the warm weather huh?' Just banter to fill the silent gaps of our time together. We finally place our order and after, she turns to me and says, "You know, I wish I was aware of your crush on me back in high school. To be honest, I always thought you were cute too but was too shy to tell you." I shot a glance of amazement and mentioned, "I didn't realize I was hiding it. I was a teenage boy with a crush. I didn't know it was possible to hide that" she chuckled. We start talking about how unfortunate it was we passed each other by but also what might have happened if we didn't and got together at that young age. Would we have been soured on each other by now? Would we still be together? But also does it even matter? We are both at a place in our lives where we've realized life itself has no rhyme or reason. There's no great cosmic being that decides this or that has happened for this or that reason. We both came to the agreement that what matters is right now. And right now, we both found our way back to the same town we grew up in, eating in the same diner our group of friends (and us) ate at, and enjoying each others company in a completely new and exciting way. That was enough for both of us. Our food arrived and by that time, we both seemed to have shed our nervousness and were just as comfortable with each other as we were over a decade ago. We're both eating and joking and flirting between bites and as we've almost finished our meals, I glance outside and notice we're running out of daylight. My mind jumps straight to the other plans I have for the rest of the evening. In excitement, I mention we should get going as to not waste the half hour or so of light we have left. She reaches for her purse without a second thought and pulls out her clasp wallet but I insist that I'd like to pay for her meal. She seemed a bit surprised but saw I couldn't be swayed so she agreed with a hint of hidden reluctance but mentions only if I let her cover the next one. After paying the tab, I get out of the booth and help her get out of her side just before opening the door for her as we leave the ever so familiar diner. Once we're outside, we both seem to notice the how radiant the sunset has become and seem to both take a moment to appreciate it internally.

The town we live in is fairly small so it only takes 10 minutes to make it to the other side. We're getting to the edge of town and start to leave population as her curiosity begins to visibly grow. I can tell she wants to ask but seems to be stopping herself from doing so. In order to move her away from that internal battle, I lean over and say you're gonna experience your first geocache. It was something I brought up the other day and something she said she didn't know about. In the time we spent getting reacquainted over the last few days, she mentioned to me the best way to describe he current self was " a total hippie". She enjoyed being in nature so naturally geocaching was the first idea I came up with. We drive for a few more minutes and I come up to the place I want to park. As I'm helping her out of my truck, I look over to a clearing and see, to my surprise, what would probably be the last group of fireflies of the season dancing over the naturally grown grass. It was the perfect setting. Just enough light to track down this cache but far enough into dusk to bring out the magic of the forest surrounding us. As the area is being illuminated by both the last of daylight, thedancing fireflies, and the rising moon, I explain again the purpose and goal of geocaching and we set out to find it. Little to her knowledge, I had come out to this place just the previous day to find the cache to make sure was there but also help her if she needed it. I let her take the reigns on the search and she impressively tracked it down in no time. We open the box as were sitting on the soft grass and start taking out items one by one and studying them as if they're some recently discovered historical artifacts. But in a way, that's exactly what they were. Just specific to our potential history. After examining everything in the old weathered box, we pull out a little log book with a pencil attached to it by a string. We proceed to write in our names. Blank & Blank followed by the date. In a way, immortalizing our first date in a notebook in the middle of the woods. That notebook holds the first log of what I hope to be many logs we submit together. We sit there for a bit further chatting about other geocaches in the area and about upcoming holidays and which ones are our favorite. I mention to her I have one more thing planned for us before the end of our date so we get up and follow the path we impressed through the grass on our way in.

By the time I pull up to the last location on the list, nightfall has set in and I internally congratulate myself for landing prefect timing with each stop. After again helping her down from my truck, She doesn't let go of my hand after she's out. I look at her and she's giving me a look I'd only seen once before in my life. One that says we're old souls, and old friends, and new lovers. The butterflies in my stomach have woken up fully by this time and I'm content, excited, and again, nervous. As I'm fighting to play it cool but also enjoy this very rare moment, we make our way to the water's edge. The last stop I planned was to take a walk around a lake near my house. I thought it would be a nice romantic way to conclude the evening and I was right. The lake was far enough out of town where the sky was lit up with a million stars. As we started on our quick walk, our conversations went back to when we were kids and all the ancient memories we both held onto after all this time. She was one of the first people I met After moving to that town over ten years ago. I was a small and awkward little kid which turned most people off to me. As a result, I found it difficult to make friends. But it was never difficult with her. It just came naturally. 6 months into the first year in the area and 5 months into our friendship, she invited me to a Halloween party her family was throwing. As a kid who grew up in a poor family, I never really celebrated Halloween the same way other kids did. That didn't stop me from trying though. Every year, I'd hand-make my Halloween costume and try to go trick or treating with everyone else. It usually ended in me being teased and rejected but every year, I tried. That year was different though. I couldn't bring myself to do it. It failed every year before. I wasnt going to risk being ridiculed for making my own costume again. Much less in front of the girl I had a mad crush on. So I didn't. I wore normal street clothes and showed up not in costume. Regardless of the effort, it was something I was ridiculed over. In hindsight, I should have seen that coming. After awhile of being teased for not being in costume, I decided to call my parents to come pick me up. It was an utter disaster and I didn't want to be there anymore. It took a few minutes to find her to ask to use her parents phone. But as soon as I saw her, she wanted to talk about something else. She asked in a caring and almost concerned voice why I hadn't worn a costume to her party. And I told her. I was completely honest and told her it was just something that we couldn't afford. Her concern seemed to grow deeper and without saying a word, she grabbed my hand, turned and ran upstairs dragging me behind her, and into a small study. She started digging through boxes and throwing things around in a rush. "What're you doing" I asked. "We're gonna make you a costume" she replied in a matter of fact tone. If I were a cartoon, I would have knocked her out with the hearts popping out of my eyes. "But what am I gonna be?" I asked shyly. She stopped in her tracks as if she was replacing motor function with brain function. "You're gonna be everything!" She exclaimed, obviously proud of her own ingenuity. By the time we were finished, I believe I was Frankenstein, a mummy, and doctor Jekyll (because of a monogram?).

As we sat on a bench side by side talking about that night and laughing at how hopeless we were without realizing it, we looked out over the moving water watching the reflection of stars dance in an abstract painting presented by nature. We sat there. On that bench for much longer than I'd planned but I was so okay with it. Her head rested on my shoulder talking about everything from childhood dreams to the intricate workings of the world in general. After some time, she fell asleep on my shoulder for a split second and kind of jerked back awake. At that point, I knew to offer to take her home. Everything inside me screamed your house is closer. But after such a wholesome evening, it just seemed proper to end it on a wholesome note. I drove her to her house, opened the door for her, walked her to her front door and said good night. She grabbed my face and gave me maybe the most meaningful look I've ever seen and kissed me for what seemed like an eternity. An eternity I didn't want to end. She turned, opened the door, walked in, turned and gave me one more look that would melt the toughest heart, lipped "good night", and closed the door.

Needless to say, the night exceeded my expectations and made me feel things I hadn't in ages. Life has a way of hardening you and when you find someone who reignites the feelings you had before you started building up walls, I think it'd do good to keep that person around. I'm going to her house this evening because she offered to cook me dinner so I can only imagine tonight going without a hitch again. Thank you everyone for your investment in my journey and pulling for me! I feel I'm living out a fantasy and can only see it getting more fantasy-like. I hope this was the update y'all were hoping for!