portland is pretty (& also a story)

it snowed off and on all day yesterday in the great pdx. at moments you could hardly see out the window and last night driving home i got caught in a brief blizzard where signs suddenly disappeared (this and the possible freezing temps gave me just enough push to forgo the gym and cozy into my house).

i expected to wake up this morning to icy roads and the recommendation to stay home from work (i even took my computer home in anticipation. well that, and the fact that they recommend that we take our computers home every night in the winter b/c you just never know...funny, really). alas, some snow and frost on my car and many school closures, but a regular work day for me. it was seattle who got lucky this time...here's hoping for pdx ice storm of 2006 (but only after i am home in my warm slippers).

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and now for a fun/disasterous dating story...b/c i haven't shared a good one in awhile. frequent commenter, coho, will remember this one as this is from the days when we were like peanut butter and jelly and she had to live through the recounts of a ton of these (although let's be honest, she brought plenty of her own dating disasters to the table).

oh, and also, this is the part where i reveal that i am an evil, evil woman...

it took me a minute to remember where i even met this guy, over the top dater (OTTD), but everything has just come back to me.

it was my friend travis' b-day and his boyfriend always threw some kind of wild party for him - this particular year was no exception. (incidentally, it just so happens to be T's b-day today and though i haven't spoken to him in a couple years i'll throw him a virtual happy b-day!) coho and i had gotten all dolled up to join in on the festivities at a local, but swanky new, bar. OTTD was a friend of a friend of a friend or something and in a nutshell basically no one anyone we knew knew him so when he kind of latched onto me early in the night i turned to coho and said, "let's see how long it takes for this guy to ask for my number." (see, me? mean.)

it didn't take OTTD long and being the seasoned dater that i was, i simply handed him my business card expecting never to see him again (b/c honestly, that's how these things work - seriously). but you see, that's the part where i didn't know OTTD was OTTD b/c if i had known that about him then, i would've clammed up and never given the guy my card just to avoid this scenario.

OTTD called me at work the very next day wanting to know when we could get together. i stalled and stalled and finally agreed to meet him, for coffee, in a very busy location near his workplace. (this is a good time to call out that he worked for the company where coho now works and they also sometimes pay my bills. coho - you running into that guy ever?).

date day comes and i drive to meet him directly from work (see this all sounds pretty nice and innocent right now, eh?). when i first spot him i'm surprised to discover that a man who i know works for a company with a dress code of jeans, is wearing khakis and a jacket - this should've been my first clue. OTTD gives me a quick hug and suggests we go to dinner in lieu of coffee, i agree and we walk to a nearby thai restaurant. we sit down for what i assume will be a slightly awkward, but overall pleasant dinner and it did start out that way right up to the point where OTTD reaches into his suit jacket pocket (proposal style) and pull out a jewelry box. my initial reaction of wtf is sent through the roof when i open it up to find a silver necklace with flower charm a) not my style, but how would OTTD know that - he just met me and b) really, honestly too much for a first non-date, date - we were meeting for coffee for crying out loud!!!

OTTD then tells me that his mother told him to always bring a girl flowers, but he thought this would last much longer (gag!). i tell him it's lovely (what else am i to do?) but that i can't wear it right now as the neckline of my sweater doesn't allow for accessories (that's a line if i ever heard one).

now, i might have survived and not even written about this story if that had been the end of it. (wait! who am i kidding, it was still way too much), but when OTTD insisted on paying for dinner, walking me to my car and pushing past my handshake for a hug he'd already made it to my worst date hall of fame. the whole store got worse when the next day, at work, i got 5 phone calls and the largest and fanciest bouquet of flowers i have ever received in my entire life - needless to say OTTD went racing straight to the top of the too much and a little scary dates.

long story short, i had to call this guy (after one non-date, date!) and tell him that it just wasn't working. seriously, scary!

one closing note, over the years, many friends have pointed out that had i actually been attracted to this guy that i would've been thrilled with the gifts and calls and flowers and maybe that is the case. i guess that's the part that is the most scary about the dating - one man's OTTD is another man's treasure (that's the saying, right?)

oh, and the necklace? i ended up taking it to the store where it was purchased and exchanging it for something that was a bit more me. sometimes i still wear it.