FLASHBACK: 8 Ball Corner Knockout

Good Evening All,

Since a tired night home on a Sat. evening (I did get up at 6:30 to attend an ALL day writing conference) doesn't breed the latest and greatest story I've chosen to delve back into the past frogs once again. At the end of my first serious relationship, started in high school I embarked on a new and rather strange journey into the land of dating, really for the first time. The quintessential high school first love was someone I'd known for a while and we kind of fell in, and luckily fell out (alive, more on that perhaps another time) of our 2.5 year drama relationship. Being in college at this point and unlike most (note here for those reading, NOT ALL) of my sorority sisters at the time I wasn't interested in dating the two selected frat whores who everyone routinely dated/ mated with. Mind you, in a sorority dating a non frat boy (and coming in with a HS boyfriend) are major faux pas.

In preparation for the writing conference I had to go through some of my older materials and came across a story that reminded me of why I titled this blog kissedallthefrogs, and not just some. Dating undesirable wackos have turned into somewhat of a niche market for me. So we travel back to where it all began after I bid the initial psycho frog goodbye.

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The first official date I went on was kind of random. A guy that I had taken acting with the semester before, called up out of the blue to chat. I didn’t really think anything of it because all of the class members were required to exchange numbers because we did a lot of class projects outside of class time. Budding Actor was a tall, and handsome guy who appeared to be pretty sweet. During one of the first few days of acting class we were chosen to do kind of an embarrassing exercise together. He had to put his head in my lap, and I had to stroke it as if we were madly in love.

Let me just interject in my own story here for just a few moments and share a few relevant pieces of information about this acting class. The professor- well he was in a class of his own. Most notable for punching an older gentleman in the face after he took his (non assigned but apparently self designated) parking space, and also equally notable for being a little too close with the ladies. The professor himself had once called me into his office to inquire if I had considered adult films (at this point not so much). I can also recall an exercise that only the female members of the class had to participate in involving slithering on the floor like snakes. No doubt this provided Professor perv an excellent view of young coed asses gyrating beneath him. Somehow I'd venture to say this was not his first experience with young coed ass beneath him.

I digress- back to budding actor. He used to talk to me in the class after that initial exercise and we were always friendly, but he knew I was dating someone. I am not really sure what possessed him to call me out of the blue, but he asked if I was free later that evening and abandoning the “rules” I told him I was. He invited me out to play pool with him, and another guy from acting class, as well as his female friend. Sounds normal enough right?

Later that evening I left to meet him at Borders bookstore. He was quite polite as he led me to his car and we began the drive to the pool hall which was located a few towns away. He played this slightly annoying music throughout the drive and it wasn’t until we were almost there that I began to sense he wasn’t as shy as he appeared to be. He told me that his biggest passion was watching pro-wrestling. It was ironic because I thought one of the largest benefits of being single again, was that I could choose a guy who didn’t watch professional wrestling. My exes fascination with it drove me nuts. Why men enjoyed watching other men grab each other in awkward places concerned me.

When we got to the pool hall, he began to quote pro wrestlers as well as talk as if he was one of them. “The Rock says corner pocket. The Rock says I’m going to sink this shot. The Rock says a stellar performance by the budding actor man.” After I got over the nauseating feeling of having to deal with this wrestling fan, I decided I would have to do something to make sure the night wasn’t a total waste. I started a conversation with the girl who his friend had brought, and she turned out to be really nice. We ended up talking the whole time and even exchanged phone numbers. It's always a pleasure to have someone else to exchange tired glances with when rolling your eyes.

Unfortunately budding actor and I were left alone when the other girl and her date decided to take off for a party so we played a few more games when I just couldn’t take it anymore. As we were driving back to the bookstore budding actor asked if I wanted to stop at a diner but all I wanted to do was get out of the car before the wrestling quotes started up again. Budding actor certainly didn’t seem like the shy guy I had envisioned him to be in class, or even an inkling of someone who I would have any interest in, even as a friend. The next strike came when he told me he had some pictures and asked if I wanted to see them. Nude- I hoped they were not.

When he took the first one out I was immediately alarmed because he explained that he and his friends had formed their own fight club and these were his pictures of them beating one another up. If that wasn’t odd enough, he actually described in detail along with showing me several of his scars, every injury he had received while participating in this unusually barbaric activity. At this point I wanted any excuse to get out of the car so I told him that I had to use the bathroom and since the bookstore was closed now, I would need to drive home. As he leaned in to kiss me I turned my head with a quickness, and thanked him for calling me, silently praying that he wouldn’t make a habit of it.

As in the law of frogs, he called me the next day and asked me out again but I tried my best to tell him I wasn’t interested. He didn’t take a hint well, probably since one of his friend had bashed him in the head one to many times. He continued to email me for a few weeks until he finally got the message. In his emails, he spelled everything wrong on purpose. They sounded something like “Haylo thees is budding actor juz sayn wuz up gurl.” Finally the emails stopped and he was out of the picture. I heard a few months later that he was arrested and detained for a driving under the influence. And thus my affiliation with the frogs didn't end, it merely began and continues.

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In other potential non frog news, I received an email from lawyer today who is on his way to a legal conference. I'm not sure lawyer has enough of the courtroom strong personality as he hasn't mentioned meeting yet. However, in a bold move I emailed a guy I met at work last week in the elevator. I work in an office with over 5000 people so seeing someone I don't know isn't very rare. Random guy and I got into the elevator at the same time and he started making conversation. We continued to chat as we walked outside and I saw no wedding band, and was able to catch his last name on his company badge. Not knowing if I would ever run into him again, I decided to send him a relevant business question that I actually needed an answer to and referenced our meeting earlier in the week. He responded later on that day with his first sentence being "I'm so glad you found me!" and then an answer to my question and an invitation for any future information from his area. So now I'm pondering- is he glad I found him because he's interested, or because he was able to be a professional resource? Any thoughts? The plan is to shoot him a thank you email on Monday and ask how his weekend was- therefore inviting him to say something other then good that might prompt more conversation. To possibly be continued.

Farewell now and thanks to those who are visiting regularly and to those who are commenting. Hope everyone is having an excellent weekend!