Update – 1.13.2008

Warning: long entry ahead…

I went out with two of my girlfriends last night and the plan, in addition to hanging out with them, was to finally meet up with Ryan the Text King. He had texted me earlier in the day regarding whether my plan for the evening was still to be at this well-known Irish pub. I wrote back that we’d be there around 10:30, and he responded that he was going out with some friends, but hopefully he’d get to meet up with me.

After two drinks at the Irish pub, I hadn’t seen or heard anything from Ryan, so we went to a different bar (where a guy that one of my friends is interested in was headed). On the way there, I texted Ryan to let him know where we were headed. This bar is in a basement and there is absolutely no cell service; when I was able to get a signal, my phone was roaming. I realized this after about 15 minutes, so I stepped outside to see if Ryan had sent me a message. Nada.

About 15 minutes later, I was back downstairs in the bar when my phone started vibrating. I pulled it out of my purse and saw the following message on the screen: Unable to deliver new message. Not enough memory.

WHAT??!! How could that be? I’d deleted 100 text messages earlier in the week. I rushed to delete anything and everything in my phone, hoping that would make the elusive message appear. After standing there for 5 minutes, staring at my phone and willing the message to come through, I gave up. Nothing was happening. So I went back to my friends and turned my attention back to having a great evening.

Another 15 minutes (or so) later my purse started vibrating again. Woo hoo! This was it! I handed my beer off to my friend and dug through my purse. I was fully expecting to see a text from Ryan telling me he was on his way, or asking me where I was in the bar… but no. When I flipped my phone open I was greeted with the same damn error message. It was like the cell phone memory gods were mocking me and a meeting with Ryan as likely as me finding a winning lottery ticket on the ground.

I deleted a few more messages and realized that this meeting with Ryan wasn’t in the cards. I figured I would just text him later that night or first thing Sunday morning and let him know that I didn’t have a signal and couldn’t get messages. Not a big thing. I went back to my friends and had a great time for the rest of the evening.

As I was driving home, every time I was stopped at a red light I’d delete more stuff from my phone: received texts, sent texts, draft texts, sent photos, received photos. If it wasn’t memorable or special, it was outta there. All of a sudden, the message came through!! Actually, there were two – one from my sister and another from Ryan. I waited to read it until another red light and was pleased to see a note that he was frustrated and still in a different part of town with his friends and that he was hoping to get to where I was.

When I got home, I responded to Ryan’s message, telling him I was sorry that we didn’t meet up, but that I hoped he had a great night. And I suggested that maybe we could get together soon.

When I woke up today, I was greeted with a blinking red light on my phone. Even being blind as a bat without my contacts in, I couldn’t mistake that pulsing red light. I excitedly opened my phone to find a message from Ryan – He was also sorry that we didn’t meet up, but was I interested in hanging out today?

Hell yeah I was interested!! But I played it off much cooler than that and replied that getting together would be fun and that he should call me to set up plans. I’m over this texting business!!

He called a bit later and we’re meeting for dinner tonight at 7. Restaurant TBD, but we both live in the same part of town, so I’m sure it will be close by.

More on that tomorrow!

On an unrelated note, I was surprised this morning to learn that the husband of one of my good friends has been a loyal, but stealth, reader of my adventures. He posted a comment in response to my last post about Casey – expressing displeasure with me and asking me to call him. I called him and also had his wife on the phone. During the conversation, he told me that I was playing games with Casey and my behavior was manipulative and rude. He said I’m punishing this guy for putting his heart out there and showing interest.

This conversation was beyond enlightening. Me and my friend/his wife were on one page, and he was on a totally different page – hell, maybe even a different chapter – in relation to dating.

He raised some good points – the eager/awkward immediate kiss on date two could have just been him making it very clear to me that he doesn’t want to just be my friend, and the rushed awkwardness was because he was nervous (That sounded much more believable when he said it. Typing it now, it doesn’t seem so believable. My dear friend – and loyal commenter “J” made an excellent point that there are other ways for him to express his interest than “jumping [my] bones.” The debate will go on…)

In any case, it was good to get a guy’s perspective. He definitely raised some points that I hadn’t considered, and was positively aghast at the (excessive) amount of analysis that my girlfriends and me have put into this, and all of my (and their), dating situations.

So… ACPee, please keep posting. While I know you can't speak for all men, it’s good to hear a guy’s perspective. And thanks for the tip on telling the Text King to call me. Hopefully we've graduated to the next level of communication for good!