The writing scoring ended up ending early, which was cool in some ways, but not so cool when it comes to the extra money I need. Oh well. It ended on Thursday at 12:30, when it might have gone through Friday.
Things with Ben are still really, really good. We've seen each other about every other day since we met! I really, really like him, and I know he feels the same about me. It just feels so right, and I feel like I have known him forever. I have so much fun with him because he makes me laugh non-stop, and he's such a dork, and not at all afraid of making an ass of himself.
So on Tuesday we ended up going out for Mexican food. It was the same thing as with Jose--when the waiter sees them, they start talking in Spanish the whole time. I think it's really cute seeing him speak Spanish. Even though we aren't "sleeping together," we have been spending the night with each other, which is really intimate, too. I really love that. So he spent the night. Then Wednesday I picked my crazycousin up from the airport. I wanted her to meet him so he could pass the friend test, but also because she is who I have to thank for meeting him (more on that later). We ended up going out to a place called The Bucket Brigade first, and then I took her to this country bar, Duke's. My cousin loves country music, so I knew she would like it. She also loves pool, and they have pool there, too. They were having country karaoke, but I couldn't get her to do it. I did manage to get her kind of drunk since I was driving. Anyway, Ben came a little bit later, and they hit it off right away. She thought he was funny and charming and also mentioned he had a nice body! Ha ha. They played pool and I watched them. It was pretty fun.
On Friday, Ben had the day off of work, and I had the day off, too, since now I have EVERY DAY OFF!!! We ended up going to lunch, then to Bullwinkle's to play video games. Then we went to have ice cream. Later on we got pizza and rented Be Cool. I fell asleep during Be Cool. It was pretty lame. He spent the night again.
Yesterday we ended up going to his friend's wedding. It was at the same place where my friend Lucia got married, which was pretty cool. The bride was Russian and the groom was Hawaiian, so there were a lot of cool ethnic wedding traditions that they incorporated into the reception. They both seemed very sweet, and we sat at a table with some pretty nice people. I even ended up dancing during the last few songs, so that tells you how much I had to drink. Then Ben spent the night again, and ended up going to work from here. His roommate's brother took a picture of us with his camera phone. It's not the best, but I might put it up later on my picture page.
An example of how silly Ben is--he was telling me about how to be a good dancer at the wedding (because I am a horrible dancer and never want to dance because of it). He was saying that you just listen to the lyrics of the song and then you do what the lyrics say. So we were listening to various songs they were playing and thinking of how you would dance to the lyrics. Then he was like, "Well, you can also make up your own moves, like the fishing rod move." So he shows me the dance he does that is like reeling in a fish. Then he's like, "Or the making the sandwich move..." and he demonstrates that. It is definitely something I would have to imitate to let you get the full effect, but he was cracking me up. He was out dancing and he did the fishing rod move to try to get me out on the dance floor--and I couldn't help myself, I had to go out there! :)
He's also just so sweet and attentive at all times. I'm very happy I met him.
I said I would tell the story of how we met, so I might as well do that now. It is kind of embarrassing, but a lot of people meet people this way, so I guess it's not too bad. What happened was on the Thursday of the week that Jose ended things, my crazycousin called. I hadn't really told many people that it was over, because it was really hard for me to talk about. But I did tell her about it. I was like, "I'm through with guys for now, they are too much work, blah blah." She was like, "I know what would cheer you up--you should post an ad on Craigslist, then you will get all of these funny emails from guys to read through." She has been doing the online dating thing, and she posted an ad on their women seeking men section. I said no, that I wouldn't want to post my picture, and that I would have no idea what to say. She said that you don't have to post a picture, and that I wouldn't have to answer any of the emails, it would just be funny to see what kind of a response I would get. She said she would even write the ad for me. I said okay, but thought she would probably forget. Well, the next day she sent me a copy of the ad she wrote--and posted--and the name and password of the new email account she made for me for the emails. I checked, and there were already about thirty responses! Her ad said at the end that I would only reply if the guy sent a picture and a book recommendation and why I should read the book. The ad was basically a short description of my appearance, and what a guy I would want would be like. It was a lot more clever than I would have been, too. So I went through the responses, and some of them seemed okay based on their pictures. But the one that really stood out was Ben. He started his email by saying he felt like he was back in school doing a book report (my cousin hadn't mentioned that I was a teacher in my ad), and then he included two paragraphs about why I should read the book he listed. It was really cute, and he put in the most effort of anyone who had responded. I also just thought his picture was so cute and he seemed funny and nice. So I emailed back and sent my picture and told him that I was a teacher and he responded right away. We emailed one more time before we exchanged phone numbers, and when we talked on the phone I said we should meet soon so that we would know if we were attracted to each other. So we did, that Saturday! I felt a little weird about the whole thing, but he was so normal, and I guess he had only gone on one other date from craigslist (which went really badly). There were a few other people who I emailed, but since I clicked with him right away, I didn't meet any of them. So that's the weird way we met. I never really thought I would meet someone online, but I'm not complaining now that it has happened. So that was why I wanted my cousin to meet him, too, because it was her ad that got us together! He wanted to meet her, too, since I told him that she was the one who wrote it.
It was funny because he was cuter than his picture when I met him, and we hung out for three hours on our first meeting without any lulls in the conversation. I just couldn't believe how quickly we clicked with each other--he was already asking me if I would want to see him the next day, too. So that was really cool. With Jose, I liked him alright, but I was a little wary at first...I wasn't into him right away. With Ben it was immediate. So that was just really nice.
Oh, Ava, I wanted to tell you that I finally read The Kite Runner. It was so, so good! I loved it. My mom read it after me, and she liked it, too.
