Scallopine, fish and M&Ms

It's amazing when you're running late just how much you can get done in minimal time. I gave myself just under two hours to prepare for Ed's arrival last night. This was going to allow me time to get presentable, clean my house, do the dishes and a load of washing and sit down in the front of the tv like I'd been reclining all day and couldn't care less whether he turned up or not.

Of course that wasn't going to happen. First, the jeans I'd washed the day before and expected to wear, didn't wash properly and came out with powder still on them, so I spent a good 10 minutes scrubbing them till the white marks looked kinda like they were just some cool bleach mark on a trendy, new pair of jeans. No time to iron the 'just out of the machine' look out of them.

Next, my cats wanted to eat a lovely spider I sent to a miserable death with copious amounts of insect spray. I didn't feel the need to pay a vet bill any time soon, so I had to wait till the spider finished shrivelling and guard the damn thing till I could get rid of it. Well, whaddya expect? I'm not about to pick up a spider while it's moving, even if its movements are due to a slow, painful, pitiful death. Die, then I'll bury you.

Then I realised that my house still smelt of car exhaust from the morning. My garage is directly behind my kitchen (don't ask, stupid design!) and the door from the garage opens into the kitchen, so while the car guys were playing with it in the morning, the fumes in my house were slowly building. Maybe that explains my vague state for the rest of the day. Anyway, so it was necessary to find some sort of oil to burn so Ed wouldn't pass out as he stepped in the front door.

Then Stewart rang, all flustered. His housemate gave him 4 weeks notice that she's moving out at the end of their lease (end Oct) and he doesn't know whether to try to get someone in, or move. But he also doesn't have time to really look for somewhere to move, because he has so many work and personal commitments, he doesn't have time.

A while ago, we talked about getting a place to share when I move out in Feb. Currently, I have a spare room because I never found a housemate to move in. Sooo...Stew may move in at the end of next month if he's prepared to move again at the end of Feb. This is not something I want either of us to rush into deciding though. I've offered him the room if he needs it, but we'll have to have some pretty open discussions prior to then if he does.

Anyway, the point of all this blabber is that my two hours suddenly became 25 minutes, but I still managed to have that 'I've been sitting here waiting all day' look when Ed arrived. I am a legend! haha

So he comes in, curls up on my couch, puts his head on my knees and says, "so what are we going to do?". My plan for gold class cinema was dashed when we discovered there were hardly any movies showing there. My back up plan to go to a trendy restaurant on the pier was also dashed, because it was cold, windy and rainy and you just don't wanna be in that part of the city when the weather is like that. Too cold!

In the end, I rang one of my favourite local restaurants to see if they were open and we went there. It's a little Italian restaurant called Gippi's and it's been there longer than I've been alive. There's not been one night when I've been there and haven't seen the owner, Emmanuel. He's just always there. My ex and I used to go there all the time. I'm sure Emmanuel remembers me from then. (Funnily, I still live only 5 minutes from my ex and I haven't seen him in over two years now.)

We agreed to go see a movie at the cinema near my place, but the boy specifically wanted "the good cinemas on the right, not the ones on the left". Ok, that means, he wanted cinemax - bigger chairs, wider screen, better sound. I rang to find out what was screening in those cinemas and it was all kids movies! Well, we're big kids, so we went to see Shark Story. Funny movie, with lots of 'big' actors - Wil Smith, Robert DeNiro, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellwegger, Jack Black, amongst others.

I liked the message in it - whether you're at the top of the food chain, or the bottom, you're not a nobody if you think you're somebody.

Obviously, pasta, pancakes (yes, more pancakes!) and beer were not enough sustenance for the boy, because I ended up getting us a huge packet of M&Ms, which he proceeded to stuff in my mouth during the entire movie. He has a strange habit of not allowing me the blue ones though. This is the second time he's fed me M&Ms and the second time I've not been allowed the blue ones. It's a kooky little thing of his, but kinda endearing as well - something to do with 'blue is for boys only'. lol

I'm almost at a level of acceptance where I'm comfortable enough to spend time with the guy and detached enough to not care so much who he's talking to or what other plans he's making. He lets his guard down sometimes and I can see the interest. I'm just gonna let it play out and see what happens. Something's gotta give eventually.

In an odd way, I feel the need to rescue him from himself, but I know that's dangerous territory to tread, so I'm doing my best to just sit back and let him work stuff out for himself. I know I can't fix him. If I did, he would no longer be him anyway, and I wouldn't want that.

I'm not his girlfriend. I'm not sure I want to be. I like it, for the most part, how things are now.

He spent the night again.....'nuff said. ;-)