It Just Keeps Getting Better

Kitten and I had a great weekend! The Preds lost in overtime to Detroit, but we got the point and are still in fifth place. We had a great time at the game, no goals = no kisses tho. :( We had to park on the other side of downtown, so after the game, we went over to Wild Bill's for beignets and chicory coffee. After snacking on the sugary goodness, I was in the mood for another beer, so we went to the Big Bang for a bit down on Broadway. Does every bachelorette party in Nashville go there? The traffic finally died down so we headed home. Somebody mentioned breakfast (it was one in the morning) and since I was afraid Kid Rock might be in town, I didn't want to go to the Waffle House. That left only one option. The Hermitage Cafe is the best greasy spoon in town!

We tried to sleep in on Sunday, but the dogs weren't having it and once Kitten is up, everybody is up! I had to send her home that afternoon, but we are planning for me to drive to Kentucky this weekend. It must be something special if I'm willing to drive.

Big Weekend

Big weekend! The Preds are in a fairly solid position in the playoff hunt. They get the Red Wings at home on Saturday for a pretty important game. As I write this, Kitten is on her way to Nashville to help me root the boys on to victory. We will spend another weekend together and the hockey is just a bonus. Don't hate me because my life is so great right now.

Wow!

Where do I start? Kitten (that's what I'm calling the new girlfriend) changed some things around and managed to get here on Friday after work, a little early. After we unloaded her car and got her and her dog settled, we drank a couple of beers and enjoyed each other's company. Netflix had sent me "Pandorum" and even though Kitten says she likes sci-fi, we spent a good portion of the movie looking at each other and saying "What the fuck?" A person would probably get more out of the movie if they were actually focused on watching it, but we were a little too focused on each other.

Saturday, we got up and Kitten fixed the strongest pot of coffee I've ever had. Thirty minutes later, I was bouncing off of the walls and was babbling incessantly. She would just kinda give me a look, but I could tell that the wheels were turning in her head. ie "What have I done?" We left the house and drove down to Gnoshville for lunch. I showed her around town a bit. We walked around the Parthenon which is Nashville's exact replica of the Parthenon in Greece. Don't ask me why it was built, I couldn't tell you. I always look at the pictures of the Greek Parthenon, sitting on top of a majestic escarpment and think about how beautiful it must have been before time and vandals destroyed it, then I look at Nashville's Parthenon perched on a flat area surrounded by a park and think "Why?" About that time, I got a phone call from the Nashville Predators. Saturday was the last day to renew my season tickets and the rep wanted to know what my plans were. After I told him that regretfully, after five years, I wasn't going to be a season ticket holder any more because I didn't think I was going to be in Nashville next year, he invited me to a private showing of the Olympic medals that a couple of the players had won. I filed it away as something we might do given the time.

After a stop at Hustler Hollywood (don't judge, we hadn't spent significant time with each other in twenty years, there was a lot of pent up energy) we went home and took a nap before the game.


We left the house very early for the game because the parking situation is horrible right now. We walked down Broadway and went into a place I had been once before called "Past Perfect." They do vodka infusions. They take a gallon jug, fill it half way with fruit or peppers or even vegetables and then the rest of the space is filled with vodka. The whole thing is stored for a period of time until the vodka takes on the flavor of whatever has been put in it. I know, nothing new really, we've all had citrus or strawberry vodka, big deal right? Try it with ginger, or jalapenos, or cucumbers. My favorite of all time? Bubble gum. That's right. They put a whole bag of double bubble in there! The bartender shook it with ice and strained it into a glass. Cool liquid bubblegum flavor with no vodka bite. I could seriously sit and drink it all night, although the sweetness would probably catch up to me at some point.

We then walked over to the arena for the game and because we were a little early, we went back to the meeting room to see the Olympic medals. To my surprise, they were taking fan photos with them. It was way cool! A side note. There is a Swede that plays for Nashville named Patric Hornqvist. He's having a great year, so instead of my normal Steve Sullivan jersey, I wore my new t-shirt. It said "Me So Hornqvist" Yeah, I thought you would like that. The Preds won in overtime, a great game.

The next day, we got up and had brunch at the Germantown Cafe. They have the best french onion soup ever. That night we met up with two couples at one of my favorite restaurants, Sambucca. The dinner was great, the music was fantastic and I couldn't ask for better company.

Monday, I had to work, but Kitten straightened up the house for me and did a little work on her laptop. I was on call that night, so we just hung out and played with the dogs.

Today, I was off of work, so we got up and went down to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. They had a small exhibit of kinetic sculptures by a Korean artist named U-Ram Choe. Each sculpture was a like a mechanical living thing and had a fictional description of it like it was a newly discovered species. Very, very cool. If you get the chance to see his work, I recommend it.

We walked over to the Flying Saucer for a couple of beers and lunch and then I had to put Kitten in her car and send her home. It was a very intense weekend and we are both fairly smitten. I find myself regretting the fact that I have wasted the last four or five years of my life when I could have been with her. I hope we have many years ahead of us.

Because her son is on spring break all week, she is coming back to see me on Friday. It's really nice to have something/somebody to look forward to now. I see a lot of mileage in our futures.

How You Like Me Now?

So what have I been up to? No good apparently. Now I've gone Bat Shit Crazy. The old girlfriend from twenty years ago that I wrote about earlier? You know, the one that had a boyfriend, lived in a different state and our time had come and gone. Well, it looks like our time has come again.

She broke up with her boyfriend a few weeks ago. He refused to be around her fifteen year old son, so he kinda dug his own grave. I made her swear that it had nothing to do with me. I don't know if I believe that completely, but I take solace in the fact that I encouraged her to give him another chance. I told her that she should talk to him and make sure he understood what she needed. He just shut down on her and told her that if she didn't like it, she knew what she could do.

So, after that, our talks turned more to regretted mistakes and second chances. She has apologized a dozen times for things that happened twenty years ago. Actually, nothing really happened. We were together and then she just sorta went away. She tells me that she was young and selfish and has always felt like she made a huge mistake.

Where did that leave us? Once I allowed it to happen, all of the old feelings began to surface and I told her I would give her a second chance if she wanted it. However, there was still a sticking point. She lives there and I live here. She can't move for several years and I'm not really interested in doing the long distance thing for any length of time. If I really wanted to give her a second chance, I had to agree to go to her.

We decided that we should see each other some before making any kind of commitment. Just to make sure we smelled right to each other. Her son will be away on spring break the weekend of the twentieth and we decided that she would come to Nashville and go to the hockey game with me then (I did make sure she didn't have a sick turtle first).

That was a couple of weeks ago and we spent the next several days on the phone talking about everything and nothing. We finally decided that the first time we see each other in twenty years shouldn't have the pressure of a full weekend behind it. Last weekend, we decided to meet each other half way at Mammoth Cave National Park.

I got there at the agreed time and was a little nervous, not about meeting her, but about the fact that there is NO cell service at the park. I had no way to tell her where I was or that I was waiting for her. I pull into the parking lot, easing around a car that had been pulled over by a park ranger and found a spot where I could watch for her to arrive. I'm sitting there, wondering what I'm gonna do if she doesn't show and listening to my iPod. I look in the rear view mirror at the ranger talking to the driver and realize, that's a charcoal grey sedan. Hey! It has a Harley Davidson plate on the front and there is a blond sitting in it! Did I drive past her and not even notice? I got out of my car and began walking back to where the other car and the ranger were. As I'm walking back to the car, the ranger pulls away and the door opens and there she is. She rushes over to me and I start to try to explain that I didn't realize that it was her. She isn't having any of it. She grabbed me, gave me huge hug and then kissed me. Twenty years just melted away. We chattered like monkeys, kissed some more and then walked hand in hand into the visitors center. We walked up to the counter to buy tickets for the tour, the lady behind the counter lifted her head when she saw us and immediately said "Here are two people looking for trouble." I haven't laughed so hard in months.

We toured the cave. It was pretty cool. I had no idea that the world's longest cave system (over four hundred miles of interconnected caves) was only an hour and a half away from me. The best part of the tour? At one point, we are in a giant cavern and the ranger leading the tour tells all of us (about a hundred people) that to really experience what it used to be like working in the cave (there is evidence that early man mined the caves for salts and minerals) we had to know what it was like without modern lights. So he turned them off. There, in the pitch black, with a hundred other people around us, she kissed me again. I was hooked.

So we are gonna make a go of it. She is spending most of her son's spring break with me. We have decided to go to the Jimmy Buffet concert together and then in May, I'm taking her to my favorite vacation spot in Florida. I've put in an application with a travel company hoping they can get me an assignment closer to where she lives. That way I won't have any long term commitment to a job or a residence if we don't pan out.

She tells me she loves me and I believe her. She promises that she won't hurt me again and I believe that too. I could go into what attracts me to her, but I will just say that from what I can tell, she is a polar opposite from the last person I dated. Example? I was trying to tell her that I had talked to a female friend about something and I began to go into great detail about what the emails we had traded said. She stopped me and said "why are you telling me this? That's your business, not mine, you don't have to explain anything to me." I was blown away. I'm so used to having to explain and justify every interaction that I have, I don't know any other way to act. It was a breath of fresh air.

So that's where I'm at right now. I need to find a nickname for her. Can't just keep calling her "her". I thought about RG for recycled girlfriend, but that sounds a bit insulting. In the interest of full disclosure, I told her about this blog. She thanked me for telling her, but she has no desire to read what I write here. "That's like your journal," she said. However, she might change her mind and I don't want to hurt her feelings with an insulting nickname. I will put some thought into it.

Poor Girl

For some reason, I was thinking today about an apartment I had in Jackson. I had been separated from the wife for about a year and had moved into an apartment building that had very thin walls. Of course I was awakened one night by the sound of a couple in the place behind mine getting frisky. Apparently, their bed was pushed up against the common wall shared with my space. It started with a thump, then another, then began the rhythmic noise that announces a project in full swing. She was enjoying herself, I think. At least that's what it sounded like.

At first I was thinking, "good for you bro, I'm glad somebody is dipping his wick." This went on for a good bit, with me mentally cheering him on to victory. After about thirty minutes of the same thump, thump and the same moans and groans, I began to feel bad for the girl. Now, instead of thinking "hit it man!" I was saying to myself, "Cut the girl some slack! Put the horse back in the barn cowboy."

I have no idea why this particular memory is on my mind.