The Piano Lounge

I was planning to write mostly about how beautiful it was yesterday. It got to over seventy degrees! I loved it. I don’t normally try very hard with my appearance on Thursdays because its lab day and I don’t want to wear anything that is possibly going to be destroyed but I decided to try and I’m glad I did. I met Caitlin for coffee at 4 and we chatted for an hour while sitting in the sunshine. It was really pleasant to not have to do anything but talk and listen. I needed the little break because I’d been feeling really overwhelmed still from previous events of the week.

At 6pm I get a phone call from Lori. My immediate thought was that she had some Matt information to impart but we just chatted for awhile. Then she says, right towards the end of the conversation, that Matt is going to the Piano Lounge (a bar) to celebrate his last day of teaching at Nixon and if I wanted to, I could go.

Hello! Of course I want to go. Never mind that I have bible study at 8, because he won’t be there til 9:30. True, it’s almost my bedtime by the time we’d get started but I can stay up a few extra hours. Spring break is next week. I can sleep then. Besides, if I don’t make the effort than its my fault if something doesn’t happen that might have if I’d gone. As it was, I still left before everyone else.

Okay, so I shared with my bible study group and they were really supportive and excited for me. They made me feel less nervous about going by myself. If I’d still been dating Alex (never mind that I wouldn’t be meeting a guy if I was) he’d freak out about me being in downtown Cedar Rapids at night without someone to take care of me. I did just fine by myself and will continue to do just fine by myself.

So I get there and I’m driving around trying to find a parking place when Lori texts me saying Matt is going to be late and doesn’t want me to think he stood me up. Those were her exact words and I’m sure they were his words too. So, if you don’t want someone to think you stood them up, it’s a date, right? Right. So, I got the impression from her that he was looking at it as a date. I knew there were going to be other people there, because it was a party. It was Matt, Tom from Coe, and another guy and girl. So, a small party, but it was fun. I was nervous that it would be awkward because I didn’t really know anybody that well but it wasn’t that bad. There were a few moments of silence but they weren’t terribly disconcerting.

The Piano Lounge is really classy, with great lighting and live music and has an extensive martini list so we all had fun picking out different martinis to try. I had a Quad Four, which had kahlua, irish crème, and some other stuff that made it taste like alcoholic chocolate ice cream. Then I had a Sexual Trance which had most of the same ingredients as a Sexy Alligator, a shot I discovered in St. Louis. Matt thought it tasted like a tootsie roll but I thought it was too fruity to taste like chocolate. It was really funny, the waitress brought Matt’s and my drinks and mixed them up every time. Matt got a Cool Caribbean the first time and then a Caramel Apple. It amused me that she thought his drinks were mine. We didn’t spend the whole time talking to each other but I think for a group date get-together thing it went really well. We did spend some time talking about stuff like music and movies and books, the usual first date stuff. He didn’t ask me a lot of questions though, which caught my attention after a while because I felt like I’d been doing all of the conversation starting. I don’t think I was talking too much because there were many points where I was just listening to the conversation between all of them about teaching and job fairs and stuff.

We still didn’t exchange phone numbers when I left (before everyone else), so I guess Lori will still have to be the intermediary. I’m trying to decide if I should be the one to approach him again of if I should wait; its his turn because while he invited me to the party, I’m the one who asked him for his number. Maybe I’ll talk to Lori about it since she knows more about him than I do right now, having worked with him for half a semester. I did invite him to come to my apartment for dinner, since I’m cooking for my brother and his girlfriend tonight but he said he was busy. Who knows if it’s true? I’m going to assume it is. Why would he lie? If he is, then that’s the end. If there’s anything I can’t stand, its not being forthcoming about your feelings. If he’s not interested then he should tell me. I suppose most guys are fairly nice and don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings so they don’t immediately say, “I’m sorry, but I’m not interested at the moment” or something like that. Which might be painful to hear at first, but at least it’s honest. Honesty is absolutely the best policy when it comes to relationships. Absolutely, hands down, don’t ever lie to me or you’re in big trouble. I’d much rather know the truth and deal with it than piddle around trying to pull petals off a flower.

I left early, and by early I mean before everyone else. It was almost 12:30 when I left. I’d meant to leave at 11 but I must have been having a good time because I had to force myself to leave. I’m assuming they stayed until closing time. The guy who was playing the guitar was pretty decent and so we sang along to one of his songs. We saw him putting on a harmonica and I said I’d laugh really hard if he played Piano Man on the guitar. Then he broke into Piano Man. I really did laugh pretty heartily. It was too ironic. Piano Man being played on the guitar in a bar called Piano Lounge? I loved it!

Mom was kind of annoying. I made the mistake of telling her that I was going to go out and planning on coming home around eleven. She said she’d text me at 11 so I’d know when to leave. She then texted me when I got there, asking questions, texted me at 11 and threatened to come to Cedar Rapids if I didn’t return her text by 11:20. It was pretty loud in there, as it usually is in a bar that plays live music and I didn’t get her text message until it was almost 11:20. I texted her in time but she wanted me to text her when I got back to my apartment. I swear she is so paranoid and the worst part is, it made me look like I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. I told the truth, that it was my mom and I don’t think they cared but still, it was embarrassing. Now I’ll have to tell her exactly what happened and etc when I talk to her next. I’m not telling her when I go out again until after I go out if she’s going to pester me like this. I don’t mind her knowing, I mind the pestering. Maybe I just won’t tell her times next time.