"Lee" Comes to Portland, Part 2

*If you haven't read the blogs before this, scroll down and start with "Adventures in Dating, Part 2," then go to ""Lee" Comes to Portland, Part 1."*

Trepidation, nerves, and Allee woke me up much earlier than I was ready for on Saturday morning, so I was already awake (but still in bed) when "Lee" texted me AT 8:00 IN THE FREAKING MORNING. Seriously? On Saturday? I mean, I know the point is to hang out with me, but can't we get a slightly later start to the day? So I did what any self-respecting person would do...I ignored it. (That might make me a jerk...but I just couldn't face SIXTEEN HOURS OF AWKWARD, and I knew that's what I was up against if I texted him back right away.)

I took my time taking a shower and got mostly ready, then texted him and told him I'd pick him up around 10:15ish. It was POURING rain (welcome to Portland!), which is what the forecast had called for the whole weekend, and he had said the night before that he'd checked the weather and knew it was supposed to rain the whole time he was there. Consequently, I was a little surprised when I picked him up and he was wearing jeans and a cotton hoodie. I mean, really? What about "rain all weekend" made you think "cotton hoodie" instead of "waterproof rain coat"? So doing anything outside was definitely out.

We drove downtown to my favorite brunch place, an adorable creperie in a cute old house, and snagged the only open table. I put my raincoat on the chair to save it and turned around when I heard people calling my name. Don't worry, we happened to have chosen the table right next to FOUR of my good guy friends. AWESOME. They all jumped up and hugged me and said hello, so I had to introduce them to "Lee." They were all super polite (LOVE them!) even while giving me the "who the heck is this guy?" look, and we went to order. I again ended up paying, and we went to sit down. "Lee" didn't even know what crepes were, so it was an experience for him, I think. Side note: how can you be 29 years old and not even know what a crepe IS? I mean, really? I guess he DID grow up in Wyoming. :)

We finished another awkward meal (where this time he barely talked to me at all), and then headed out. I asked him if there was anything he really wanted to do, as most of the "Portland-y" things are kind of outside (and he wasn't exactly dressed for the weather). After thinking about it for a minute, he said he wanted to go ice skating. ICE SKATING??? WHERE THE HECK DID THAT COME FROM?!? Luckily there is an indoor, year-round ice rink in the downtown mall, so we headed that way. We got there just after free skate started (good timing), and this time he paid (finally! By the way...I'm not saying the guy should always pay, but once in awhile, you know? Especially if you're trying to make a good impression). While we were lacing up our skates another of my guy friends from college called AND texted asking me to go to a movie (I didn't answer, I got the messages later. But SHEESH! Why did this have to be the day that practically every male I know got ahold of me? And later that day Erik texted me asking me to give my mom a hug for him while she was in town. When it rains, it pours!). As I honestly haven't been ice skating in like 7 years, my feet were KILLING me on those skates. So I kept taking breaks, and then the zamboni came on the ice, so in total, we probably spent a grand total of about 30 minutes skating. I thought we would stay later after the zamboni finished, but we literally skated for like 5 minutes before he said, "Okay, one more round, then we can go?" Ummmm....okay? Not like we have anywhere else we need to be, and my feet are finally getting used to the skates. Oh well.

Okay, to be fair, I think he was trying to think of something to do that might be "romantic." That would make sense, right? I mean, don't most people hold hands while they're ice skating? But the guy never even tried to hold my hand. Not once. So the other reason I could think of was maybe he was really good and wanted to show off a little and impress me? Nope. He wasn't any better than me, and like I said, hadn't gone in at least 7 years. So still baffled by the choice of ice skating.

So that night was my sister's birthday party, and I had told him in advance we would be going to it. I also mentioned to him that my mom would be in town and she'd be at the party. I was making Amy's cake and I needed to finish frosting it, so I'd told him we needed to run to the store and go back to my apartment before we could head over to her house. We got back to my place and I told him he could watch TV, so he sat down and watched football and kind of played with Allee (he was better) while I whipped cream by hand. Have you ever whipped cream by hand? I can't really say I'd recommend it! It takes like 20-30 minutes of constant, hard whipping to turn it into whipped cream frosting. Holy exhausting, Batman.

I finally finished the cake around the time the football game ended, but we still had like 45 minutes before we needed to leave. There was literally nothing on tv, so we turned on "Deadliest Catch" and watched that until it was time to go. Nice date, eh?

Stay tuned for Part 3 to find out what happened at the party...