A Date

About two weeks ago, around Feb 8th, I was offered a place at my second choice law school. I was so happy! It’s one of the more competitive schools in the country, I don’t really know how I got in there. And they sent me the letter JUST after I accepted the offer from my third choice school. But oh well, the only reason I “accepted” to my third choice was because no other school had offered me anything at that point, and in order to keep my third choice as a viable option, I had to “accept,” or, in other words, pay them the non-refundable deposit. So I haven’t really decided where I want to go yet. My first, second, and third choices are all good, reputable schools. The main difference is that my third choice is much closer to home than the other two, and is somewhat less competitive. And it would be cheaper to go there. I think I’ll still choose my second over my third choice… but I’m not committing for a while. I have until May to decide on this new offer.

School’s been busy but good. Last week was definitely the busiest week of the semester so far. Not insane busy like other weeks I’ve experienced, like, no all-nighters, but still busy. A few 3am nights. And for some crazy reason I decided that I’d message a few different guys on a few gay profiles sites. And then started chatting to the se few guys. I always choose the moments when I have the least spare time.

The first guy was a cute, 30 year-old hair dresser. I considered meeting up for coffee or something. He seemed nice. Had just gotten out of a serious long term relationship. Truthfully he didn’t really seem like my type, but I was like, ..whatever, meeting up can’t hurt. The age difference didn’t really bother me (30 – 22 = 8y). Age is just a number anyway, it’s really all about how compatible our personalities are. On Friday last week, quite randomly, Shannon goes to get her hair done at his hair salon, and somehow I come up in conversation lol. So then that evening I tell Shannon all about him (I love that this can happen and it’s not awkward). She tells me that he’s nice, cute, and that I’d probably get along with him, but that he is a huge gossip. Stereotypically? I suppose so, but that’s not a turn on anyway. As the days passed, he and I continued chatting, but he seemed to lose interest a bit, so at this point in the week I’m really thinking that I’m not going to push the meeting up thing, I’ll just leave it up to him.

The second guy (and the last one I kept around from the few I msged and started to chat with from last week) was a university student like me, also 22, but he goes to school away and was home for the break. Name’s Chris. He seemed nice. Very closeted unfortunately. But I’m always happy to help someone along, offer advice and support, especially if they’re good people. Gradually I was able to discover that he had gone to my school last year, also taken biology, and that we’d actually sat next to one another in a class! Pretty random. I’d always had a feeling that he was gay, though apparently he’d never pegged me as gay. But then he says his gaydar sucks. Anyway, we kept chatting, he seemed nice, if a bit too excited to meet up. I generally like to be kind of low-key, low-expectations on the internet prior to meeting up with someone, if only to quash potential disappointment. But we decided to meet up.

And so last night we did! He came and picked me up at 8:30pm and we drove around for a while. It’s amazing how much ground you can cover. Like, we could have covered quite a distance if we’d actually driven in a straight line instead of driving in circles all night. Personally, I don’t like to drive too much on these random hang out things, just because of all the gas you waste. But some people, like Chris, and Six, too, LOVE to just drive and drive. And of course they never let me give them gas money. At least Six lets me buy him coffee. Anyway, so we chatted about lots and lots of different things. School, people we know in common, his future plans, my future plans, what it’s like to live away, working, summers, music, religion, gay issues, coming out to family, friends, how ppl took it, and in his case, how ppl will take it. Eventually we got to guys we know in common, and it turned out he knew Six! Not only that, he also knew S, Six’s ex, and he had also had felt in the middle during their whole break up drama! I couldn’t believe someone else had been through the same experience lol. He also knew of Vince, though hadn’t met him. Hadn’t heard of Alex. We knew a bunch of other guys in common too. It was so cool. We parked and chatted eventually, at this park/track I seem to always go to when I’m talking with anyone. Chatted about a lot more stuff there. Eventually I suggested grabbing some food, because it seemed like everything was going so smoothly. He liked the idea, so off we went to McDonald’s, where I got an oriental chicken salad, the only thing I ever get at McDonald’s. We parked and chatted some more. Got into some really deep topics, like, people who had died who were close to us – he definitely could’ve made me cry if he’d kept talking down a particular path, but then thankfully he made it funny and we were able to laugh, and the laughter was all that more intense because of the intensity of the conversation. But we talked more about the future, about our families, about lots and lots of things. He was very easy to talk to. Much easier to talk to than, say, the last guy I’d hung out with in January, who I’d first met this past summer. Anyway, he ended up dropping me off at 1am – the time had FLOWN. I kind of wanted to give him a hug or something, though I could tell if I’d gone in to kiss him he would’ve been pretty receptive. But I don’t really know how I feel about him, so I opted to kind of touch his arm, and say “..I feel like I should hug you or shake your hand or something,” and so I ended up shaking his hand, but it was a very warm hand shake, not a formal one. Almost a hug, really. Goodbyes can often be awkward, so I was fine with however we ended it. So yeah, definitely a successful meet-up. I refer to is as a date when I’m talking to Shannon or Rachel or Megan lol. I’ll have to call Alex and tell him how it went.

Speaking of Alex, we got to hang out on Saturday. It’s always so nice to see him. We went to the mall, then had Chinese food. I don’t know when I’ll get to see him again in the near future. Within the next few months sometime I’m sure. He was taking a little trip to see a guy-friend he’s made on the internet, I’ll have to see how that went, too.

Saturday night was awesome, I got drunk at a friend’s party, and went out to a bar. So much fun. Shannon even came, and took her boyfriend, who has definitely grown on me. It was a great night.

Sunday I went to tour that #3 law school with the pre-law group at school. Plus the pre-med group, who naturally were touring that school’s med school. It was a great trip, though I’ll blog more about it later.

And this week I’ve done almost NO school work. I’ve been to the lab ONCE, and only for about 2 hours. So awful. Planning on going tomorrow, early. Wednesday night I went to a low-key potluck, and the host gave us all the leftovers because she knows we’re home sans parents. So nice! Good food, too.

This evening I hung out with Megan and Shannon and Rachel. We watched The Notebook. So sappy, yet so sad. Totally hooked me, dragged me in, and then when it dumped the sap all over me I was balling lol. Like, it got seriously cheesy, but I’d been sucked in, and it only made me cry harder. Good movie. It was good to see Megan, too. She’s seeing someone! A crazy girl she’s mentioned before. I’ll call her soon and we can have a good chat about it, because we didn’t have a chance to really talk this break. They were all so excited for my date lol. I love it that we can talk about it so openly! I’m still not used to being out of the closet. I love it :)

Anyway, talk soon!

Friday night

I accepted my law school offer day before yesterday. :)
The admissions woman was so nice! She makes me feel like I would really enjoy attending this school. That’s irrational, I know, but still, little things like that definitely influence people’s overall perceptions. I’m still going to keep checking my application status to those other schools though. Just in case.

Mom and Dad have gone to Florida. They called us yesterday from Penn. They always have to rush whenever they drive anywhere because my father just has to get where ever they’re going as fast as humanly possible. It’s one of his most infamous traits, at least amongst Beth and I. They’re going to visit my aunt and uncle, and a few friends. They’ll definitely have a great time. I’m jealous. John, another gay friend of mine, a guy with whom I have a somewhat more complicated relationship (for another entry), is going to Florida for spring break. I, however, will stay here, and probably spend spring break in the lab frantically trying to get as much done on my thesis as I can before the conference in March. Gah, I have so much more to do, and I can’t get to the lab tomorrow because we’re going to have a snow storm. Or, ice storm, or something.

My sister bought a gym membership today. It only serves to remind me how long it’s been since I’ve been active. I think the last time I ran was… October. And I haven’t been to the gym since early last year. Blah. Thank god I’m skinny… but I’m definitely not as fit as I want to be. This is one of my qualities that I’m least satisfied with. My lack of physical activity. Or rather, my lack of ambition to do physical activity. I must admit that I am usually satisfied with my body, at least, when I look at myself in the mirror. If you get me to stand next to a bunch of muscular male athletes at school or something, then I’m less happy with my body. But if it’s just me and the mirror, I’m usually happy. I think this is both good and bad. Good because feeling good about your body usually has positive repercussions for how you act, your confidence level, the things you choose to do, and thus how you are perceived. It’s bad, however, because I know that I would rather be more fit, at least slightly more muscular, and if I was more unsatisfied with my current appearance, it might motivate me more strongly to pay a visit to the gym.

Anyway, snack time. Cereal, plus sci-fi short story anthology (when I probably should be reading that article on water economy in avian models, or reviewing gastropods for invert., or the circulatory system for a&p, or etc, etc, etc… but it’s Friday night, and since I dismissed the bar, I’m going to do something at least mildly fun).