Tuesday, June 06, 2006

 

A resolution, of sorts

So there's this guy at kickball. We had one magical moment at the flip cup table, oh...months ago, and since then, it's been one long, drawn-out process. The process finally came to an interesting head, with an unexpected twist, this past Sunday.

Welcome to the story of Meg, and a guy we'll call MS—for "Mixed Signals," of course.

MS is fairly tall, with dark hair, and a bit of extra weight. But it's cute. He's kind of a weird mix between Vince Vaughn and Carson Daly. Is quiet, but is loud and fun around people he's comfortable with.

So the moment months ago wasn't that magical. But there was definitely a moment. There was some flirting, helped along by a raucous game of flip cup. We talked a bit, and it turns out that he went to Catholic, and he's going there for grad school right now. We talked about his work, and where he lives. As I was leaving, he looked - dare I say it? - sorta bummed, so I told him that we were going to a concert at the 9:30 Club, and he should come along. MS said he'd think about it. I've heard that line before, so I didn't think much of it.

E and I went to the concert...well, we went and stood in line in the freezing February cold to get our pre-ordered tickets. A brief phone conversation revealed that the main attraction wouldn't be showing up. No, not the singer/guitarist/tortured soul, but the guy who was the reason for our attending the concert. Since you can't stalk someone who isn't there, we decided to ditch that popsicle stand, and scalped our tickets to the college-agey couple on a first or second or third date making awkward conversation in front of us.

(The boy was cheap. We wanted to tell the girl to take off ASAP, before it was too late, but we had other priorities.)

At kickball the next week, MS and I had a brief conversation. It turns out that he had gone to the concert. Whoops. I never expected him to show, for two reasons: 1) the singer was pretty obscure and 2) did he actually go to see me? Would someone do that? Nah.

After that almost promising start, things kind of fizzled. His team wasn't into league spirit, so they never went to the bar after the games. About a month into the season, MS came to the bar. We chatted for a bit...a very small bit...and I said something along the lines of "you never come to the bar!" He said "no, but I go to the happy hours during the week. You should try to make those." I told him that I would.

So, the next Thursday, I went to a kickball Happy Hour. This was actually the Thursday before tax day, in case anyone is interested in the timeline. It was also, quite inconveniently, a Holy Day of Obligation (Holy Thursday, actually). So I left work, went to Church, met up with Nata, went to the Front Page, talked with a bunch of kickball people, drank a bit too much, kept an eye out for MS, left at 9 p.m. to go to H & R Block to get that pesky thing called taxes sorted out. After I left the Front Page, Nata called me to tell me that MS was there, at the bar. My hopes raised, I finished my taxes by 10 p.m., and went back to the bar. Most of the people were gone, including MS. I did wonder if MS had ever actually been there, since I didn't see him, and Nata wasn't quite clear on what he looks like.

So I basically forgot about it. And by "forgot about it" I mean that I "happened" to ref a couple of his games, and we chatted a bit on the field, but that was it. It went from being a possibility to me wondering if I had imagined the happy hour encouragement. It was just something that made kickball a little more interesting.

So life moved along, as it does, and it came time for kickball's Halfway to Home party. This was...probably a little over a month ago. Our team got really dressed up, and we looked fantastic. Hurray! And MS was there, with some members of his team. He was spending time at the little golf arcade game in the corner, so I made my move. Well, it wasn't much of a move, but I went over, and chatted, and he encouraged me to hit a few of his balls.

I did quite well.

(and get your minds out of the gutter!) I jokingly mentioned that I had gone to a happy hour, but he wasn't there - and he said sorry and that he must have been travelling that week.

Throughout the night we kind of smiled, made eye contact, blah blah blah. I went off to dance with my friends, and this awesome guy who was a fabulous dancer, and he spun me around. It was great fun. While having the time of my life (la di da) I noticed that a girl was pretty much sticking to MS's side. I had never seen her before, and it added an interesting new facet to the situation. They weren't touching, and didn't seem to be very affectionate - were they brother and sister? Teammates? Friends? Girlfriend and Boyfriend? I pretty much decided that they were bf and gf, just because of the way she didn't leave his side. I mean, I had probably misunderstood his intentions, and I'm not the type of girl to encroach on another girl's guy. Better to be safe than sorry.

But they were so unaffectionate - no touching, not even really any smiling. The girl seemed miserable and out of place, in fact. She was a total sour puss. And I'll call her Sour Puss from here on in.

So MS, Sour Puss and their crew took off from the party. I was near the doorway, playing darts, or something. I obviously saw MS leaving (and he was the last in the line of his friends), so I said a brilliant, "oh, you're leaving?" He stopped, and said that he was. He then said AGAIN that I should go to the happy hours on Thursdays. I asked where the one that week would be, and he said he didn't know. He asked me if I'd be going, and I said "maybe!"

Since he added another happy hour hint, I decided that it was decidedly flirtatious, therefore he must be single. Why else would he push for the happy hours? And since I'm a sucker for hope, I went to the one that next week, even though it was the week we were moving, and it was horribly inconvenient. He wasn't there.

I alerted E and C-note to the new girl angle, and we surreptitiously observed Sour Puss during the next few weeks. MS and Sour Puss seemed to come to the game together quite a lot. But once at the game, she'd collapse on the sidelines (I don't think I ever saw her play?) looking quite sick and out of sorts. And he'd go out and play, and be loud, and fun, and good humored. I heard a rumor that their team goes to a bar beforehand to get all-you-can-drink vodka for $10, which explains her absurd behavior.

This Sunday the game I had been waiting for finally arrived. We were playing MS's team for the first and only time. Walking to the field from the parking lot, I told E and C-note that my modest goal for the game was to talk to MS. Tell him I'd been to the happy hour. Either make some progress, or stop this happy hour nonsense.

So the game is about to begin, and MS is on the mound. There are a couple of players on the sidelines, mainly Sour Puss, sitting with a look on her face, and a friend who is talking to her. I'm standing on the sidelines, all ready for the game to start, roster in hand, and E is next to me. MS yells to the girl talking to Sour Puss, saying, "KATE!! GET on the FIEEELlllllllllD!"

and she yells back, with a bit of an attitude,

"Well, cool it, BECAUSE I'm tending to YOUR WIFE!"

I look at E. She looks at me, and says,

"Wife?"

I can only imagine that the shock on her face mirrored my own. I looked down at my roster, completely surprised, and E looked over at Sour Puss - excuse me - Mrs. MS. At that moment, E claims, a sunbeam broke through the clouds, and a sizeable sparkle shot up from Mrs. MS's left hand.

I just couldn't believe it. E couldn't either, so she went over to one of our teammates to spread the great story. E called me over, because we needed to confer. E said "Did you see the ring?" and I think responded with something like "They're really married?"

I looked over, and there was definitely a ring on Sour Puss's left hand, and it was definitely a diamond. I looked at MS, drunk and pitching. Through the muddle of his ridiculous, clumsy, ball throwing motions, I saw a ring on his finger.

WTF?!

Comments:
Okay... I'm still young but I'm one of the (if not the) first among my guy friends that regularly goes through this process when pursuing a girl:

1) Attractiveness check
2) Ring check

I've got to believe he was wearing it all the times you saw him, especially if he wore it while playing. You could've saved yourself a lot of time and effort with a quick glance.

Those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

Now you know :)
 
oh, but then there wouldn't have been any story! any surprise ending!

granted, the blog entry was pretty boring and long (because I had to get it out), but living it was amusing. :-)
 
Haha, you totally should have hit some of his balls.
 
Yea...I think most people our age have this happen to them a few times before they know well enough to start looking.

It was never this hard in college, reaffirming the fact that we should segregate bars into single and married people.
 
Great read meg, sorry about the associated trauma. I hope, at least, that no animals were harmed in the making of this blog entry.
 
mel: I'm sure Mrs. Sour Puss MS would have loved that.

JC: No, no, it was pretty much this hard in college. Guys at Catholic...just aren't into me!
 
rem: sneaky! posting a comment while I was!

I don't think any animals were harmed...you never know, though.
 
Wifey is so lucky to have this glowing example of manhood with whom to spend the rest of her life.

If he's like this now, what do the next sixty years hold?

Wombat
 
wombat: I totally agree! After one of my friends heard this story, she sighed and said, "all the good ones are taken."

I was like "he's a good one?! Are you kidding me?" Nooo thank you.
 
I am still a bit amazed that you didn't check for a ring. I have zero experience in this area, but still know that.
 
Silly Meghan, even I always check for a ring.



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Hey, you never know.
 
Rem + Bub: I just never think to...so much effort. And I just wouldn't think that a married guy would pitch happy hour hints.

Now I know to check. And maybe I will. :-)

BUB I'm GOING TO MISS YOU!!!!
 
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