Novelties

For someone who has been single for as long as I have, it's easy to forget that certain situations even exist in life. So embarking on a new relationship has been full of pleasant surprises that, while they may be normal for others, have been novelties for me.

Take Sunday, for example... T.B. Player shows up for a day of hanging out, iced coffee in hand.

"Oh, no!" I exclaimed, "You already have one - I was going to see if you wanted to go grab coffee. Boo. Can stop back by there so I can get one?"

"Uh, that's like a mile away," he hesitated.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's no big deal. I don't really need one."

"Rees, I'm joking. Let's go."

"Oh! Right! Great, let's go get me one too. Yay. Um... I don't have any cash, can I borrow a dollar?"

"Take two and throw the other one in the tip jar."

Big smiles all around.

Now, I know that to normal, un-relationship-challenged people, this would not be an unusual situation. But for me there are a few great things about this little exchange. First, I'm not used to having the men in my life be so agreeable and want to make me happy. Even my father would have bitched and moaned about going back to get me a coffee too. Second, it's not usual for me to be so comfortable as to actually ask for the cash. (I know this sounds crazy since it was just a dollar, but it's true.)

Read on...

Last night, T.B. Player came over to hang out. We had no real plans, just sat on the porch and had a beer. Pondered what to do for dinner. Watched Jeopardy. Continued to ponder dinner. Lounged lazily on the couch. Got sucked into a celebrity version of the Price is Right, realized that there was no way that we could leave the house while this was on and decided to order Chinese. Then we happily snuggled on the couch while watching a supremely bad movie that I had rented a few days earlier.

Again, I realize that for a large part of the population this is just a normal Wednesday night, but for me the casualness of it all was wonderful.

Today capped it off...

While grabbing a sandwich at home for lunch, I made the mistake of sitting down on the couch. Ten minutes later I realized that I would be perfectly content to not move for the entire rest of the afternoon, and that I had no desire to go back to work for the afternoon. I decided to call T.B. Player for the sole purpose of whining.

"Hey, it's me. I'm just calling to whine about not wanting to go to my meetings this afternoon."

"That's cool, but can I call you back in like five minutes? I'm walking to my car and my hands are a little full. But I'll call you back and you can whine all you want."

Ok, this exchange definitely should not seem extraordinary... until you make this little connection. T.B. Player had a rehearsal this afternoon and a concert tonight, so "my hands are a little full" actually means that he had a double bass slung over his shoulder and under his arm, that he was carrying a stool in his other hand, and somewhere in between all of that he was also juggling a full tuxedo and musical score. Yet he still picked up his phone when I called.

I'm thinkin' he's a keeper.