3/32/08

I wasn’t going to tell y'all about this but I can’t hold it any longer. I think I've met “The One.” She was at that birthday party the other day and, I don’t know, something just clicked. She’s a good friend of my second-cousin Becky who introduced us. They were in nursing school together but now work at different hospitals. We talked for a bit, before I spoke to my second-cousin-in-law about the shop, and decided to go out later. So when Amy called to ask if I wanted to go to Gallery Night with the gang, I asked Chloe, that’s her name by the way, if she wanted to go. She said she’d rather we stayed in, if you know what I mean! That’s why I had to make up the “I’m too stuffed from Genghis Grille” story. She had to work on Sunday so that’s why I hung out with Mario moving cars and stuff. It was tough not telling him all about it then but I knew he’d blab to Pat and then it would get back to John and I wasn’t sure I was ready for them to know. Well, we went out again last night. It was magical! I skipped out of work early and rented a limo, I know it’s corny but I'm just a romantic, and picked her up. I gave her a dozen red roses, I know it might be too soon for “red” roses but see the reason for the limo above, and we went to dinner. Oh, I had also called ahead and reserved that little “wine room” by the front door of the Silver Fox for us to dine in. We got to the restaurant and the Maitre D’ sat us down and popped a bottle of champagne. We sipped the bubbly and chatted some more. I found out she’s about my age, 38 to be exact but don’t tell her I told you! She dated some in college but never got married for a myriad of reasons. One of which was, get this, she used to autocross and her boyfriends kept dumping her when she’d beat them! I almost snarfed champagne through my nose when she told me that! I almost couldn’t believe my ears when I asked what she used to race and was told, “Oh, it was an old Datsun. You probably don’t even remember them.” “Try me,” I urged. She told me she started off in H-Stock with the B-210 she drove in high school but got bumped to E-Prepared when she bolted on the dual Webers and header. She assumed I was stumped as to what she was talking about because I was totally slack-jawed with awe. She got all demure and coquettish for a second until I urged her to go on. “D-do you still have it?” I stammered. “No,” she told me, “I sold it to buy a Honda Civic.” When I obviously made a face she went on to say, “It was because that was what Kathleen won the E Prepared Ladies championship with two previous years in a row. I thought it would be the hot ticket.” I looked it up and a Kathleen Barnes did win EPL in 1989 and 1990 in a Honda Civic, so that part of her story checked out. She then told me that she hated the front wheel drive and could never make it work for her so she got rid of that and bought a 260Z which she ran for a few more years. I was flabbergasted. I asked if she still had that car but she said she’d gotten out of racing and into nursing when a good friend was seriously hurt at an event. I said I understood and told her my tale when prompted. We ate and then moved on to the next portion of the date. We took the limo downtown where we hopped on a horse-drawn carriage, I know it’s cliché but see the limo and roses bit above, and rode around sipping more champagne. We pulled up to the Ashton hotel and went inside to the piano bar. After a few more drinks, and some dancing, she asked if we could get a room! I said, “Consider it done,” and snapped my fingers. A concierge appeared and led us upstairs to the room I'd booked earlier, just in case. When he opened the door she just about melted when she saw the candles all around and the rose petals strewn all over the bed. We went in and… well, I'll leave that up to your imagination. I knew she had a later shift today at the hospital so this morning I woke her to breakfast in bed brought by room service and apologetically took my leave to come in to work. I think she’s hooked. She called earlier and asked what I was doing for lunch. I told her I usually go to lunch with the desktop support guys and she said, “Blow them off.” I did and she picked me up to go have lunch. We went to her place! Oh yeah, nooner! Oops, I probably should be a bit less crass about that. Sorry. So, she just dropped me off and now I'm back here talking to y'all. I invited her to join me on the USA Sevens Hill Country Tour thingy on the 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th of this month. She said yes. She’s also joining us at the shop on Saturday to see all of the Datsun crap I have accumulated. She’s interested in Barbara/Eddie as a possible “return to autocross” car. I told her about the V8 idea and thought she was going to slap me! So, DLR might be building an autocross B-210 for a combined attack on the E-Prepared and E-Prepared Ladies title. We’ll see. So on that note, I'll talk to y'all tomorrow.