Thursday, April 2, 2009

Nice to meet you. Now let's date.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about past and current relationships I've had with guys. I've heard my friends and my sister talking about the right place to meet them, and I'm not sure such a place exists. In my personal experience, I've met the guys I've dated totally randomly.

So I thought I'd share some of my stories. I left a couple guys out because my post would probably be about 20 pages long, but I kept in the good ones. And I changed the names to protect the innocent...and to give myself a laugh.

Dairy King—My high school boyfriend, AKA my first boyfriend. Our relationship can pretty much be summed up by cars, Dairy Queen, cheating (on his end), drama, drama, drama and gas stations. Yes, gas stations. Because that's where I met him. On that fateful February evening of 2002, a love connection was made at a Mobile station in the suburbs. My friend and I were at pump 6 and he and his friends were at pump 9 (can't believe I remember that). I was a junior and desperate to find a date for my junior prom because I went to an all-girls high school and boys were quite scarce. So my friend and I had actually been on the prowl that night, driving around town looking for cute boys. Ok yeah, probably not the coolest thing to admit, but whatever. 

So while we were pumping gas, the guys noticed us and came over to say hi. Boys were actually talking to us. Amazing. We ended up making random small talk and then they invited us with them to Taco Bell to go get food. And I can honestly say, I've never been more excited to go get mediocre and somewhat questionable Mexican fast food. I was giddy the whole time. We ended up hanging out the whole night and then talked on the phone the next day and despite a small mix up with the guys (I liked Dairy King, but he liked my friend and my friend liked the guy that liked me), it all worked out. Dairy King and I started dating and the rest is a whole long teenage drama-filled story.


Sligo—My Irish guy. The only guy I've actually met while at a bar. It was September of 2005 and I was studying abroad in Galway. It was like a Monday night or something (we went out pretty much every night of the week there) and my three roommates and I were at our favorite pub, Hole In The Wall. We went out just to have a few drinks, maybe meet some cute guys and have some fun, but we didn't realize that Irish kids didn't go out during the week. The pub was dead

So we sat there at a table in a corner, drinking our double red bull vodkas (yikes) and looking like total lushes, when we noticed a group of people sit down at the table next to us. The group was made up of two guys and two girls (all Irish) and they were being pretty loud. And the girls wouldn't stop looking at us. After already having a few drinks, I was getting super annoyed. That is, until the good-looking, dark-haired guy got up and started chatting with us. He asked if he could buy us drinks, ALL of us (though apparently my dear friend A missed out...sorry). I later learned that apparently if an Irish guy likes you, he'll buy drinks for you and everyone you're with. Not sure if that's true, but whatever.

So after he bought the drinks, he slid into the seat next to me, introduced himself as Sligo, told me I had lovely green eyes and then asked for a kiss. Well of course I giggled and asked why, to which he explained that it was his 21st birthday and at that pub it was customary to get a kiss from every girl (or guy) at the pub on your birthday. So what did I do? I kissed him. Within 5 minutes of meeting him. Though I was a bit drunk, it was good and I was totally hooked. We texted the entire next day, went to a movie (Goal!) the next week and dated until I left in December. We actually never "broke up", we just said goodbye to each other and left it at that.

I later found out that it was actually his 23rd birthday the night we met, but he thought 21 sounded like a more interesting age to an American girl. Actually, I didn't find that out until a year and a half after I got home. He sent me a confession e-mail. Hilarious. 

J—The peanut butter to my jelly. My dear, sweet boyfriend, and the guy I'm moving up to Milwaukee (eek!) for at the end of the summer. When people ask us how we met, we tell them it was through mutual friends. We lived in the same dorm sophomore year when we met and we do have mutual friends, so it seems totally legit. 

The truth? That's a bit more embarrassing. I actually had a rather large crush on his roommate, before I even knew who J was. One night, I went out with my friends and we ran into the roommate at a party. We ended up all hanging out together and I drunkenly (ok yikes, I sound like I drink all the time...I really don't) followed him back to the dorm. Well, he clearly didn't want to be anything more than friends, but I made some excuse about watching TV and went up to his room with him. We sat on his futon, flipped on the TV and I passed out. Nothing happened at all, and I didn't expect it to...I was totally not that type of girl. So I guess the roommate got up and went to his bed, leaving me sound asleep on his futon. 

J was working late that night and got home to find me, a girl he didn't know, sleeping curled up, shivering in a little skirt and tank top. So he very kindly covered me in a blanket so I wouldn't freeze. The next morning I woke up, not knowing where I was and got up quickly to flee the room. J was laying on his lofted bed, looking down at me. He asked me if I was alright, but I freaked out, grabbed my purse and ran out the door without saying a word. Really classy, I know.

I later found out through mutual friends (see they do tie in somewhere), that J kept asking about me. We became close friends and even went on a few dates, but it wasn't until I got back from Ireland and after I'd said goodbye to Sligo that I started dating J. And we've been dating ever since.

Talking about the guys I've dated opens up a whole can of worms. Yikes. I saw Sligo last summer for the first time in almost 3 years, which was....I don't know how to describe it. Bittersweet, I think. I haven't seen Dairy King since summer 2003, though my mom runs into his mom occasionally. Hmm, perhaps I'll have to share more guy stories sometime soon, now that this got me thinking...

4 comments:

Alison said...

Cute stories :) Did you just loooove Sligo's Irish accent? I totally fell in love with a bartender at an Irish pub (that only employed true Irish men) during college solely because of that accent. So dreamy :)

Rachie said...

This got me wanting to write about my ex's. I actually have a draft started but got stuck when I didn't know where I wanted to go with it. You've helped me.

Unknown said...

Hi,

I just stumbled randomly upon your blog and am loving it. I always wonder about how people got together with their boyfriends, present and past, and these stories are great.

Anonymous said...

Good stories. I met my boyfriend through his brother who I wanted to be with. My boyfriend was so persistent. He's quite older than me so I wasn't feeling it. His persistence paid off! I <3 him! BTW, so glad you like the new name. I was worried I had lost you!