Special #11

I promised a good story when it came to #11. The thing is, I was kind of being judgmental and rude. Let me tell you why though. There is a lady that I work with all day every day. She is pretty much the only adult that I see consistently every day. Lucky me. Okay, there I go again…sorry. Anyway, she is pretty nice and definitely has good intentions, even though they are not always apparent. So, there is this guy that she goes to church with. She secretly has a crush on him but is 35 years older than him. Since he is off the market for her, she felt that she should set him up. Her first choice was another girl who is much cooler than me but doesn’t work with us every day. We only have the privilege of her company about once a month. Since I was the next available single female within reach, she decided to do me the honors instead.


After committing me to go out with said co-worker’s eye candy, she proceeds to describe him to me in this fashion. She says, “He is a little bit socially awkward. I think he is just really shy. He rides his bike everywhere because he went to get his driver’s license once and the lady yelled at him so he has never tried again. He lives at home with his parents, didn’t go on a mission but he is a really good guy!” So, that was my first impression of him. Well, that and that fact that he shares his name with my grandma…a deal breaker in itself! Seriously though, what was I supposed to think of this guy? Immediately I began to regret committing to give just anyone a chance at least once.

Since the guy was supposedly socially awkward, I had high hopes that maybe he wouldn’t call. When asked if he had a few days later, I reported to my co-worker that he had not. She began to imitate a conversation between him and their bishop and herself. When she imitated him saying, “I’m gonna call…” in a very whiny sort of voice, sounding perfectly like someone who is a little bit slow, I began to be a bit suspicious. When he did call me and in the same voice really quickly, and without pause said, “Hi this is #11, co-workers friend, she said you would go out with me?!” I definitely knew that things were not altogether right. She may not know it but I think that he is a little more than just socially awkward.

Mentally handicap or not, he was very friendly on the phone but seemed like he wanted me to call the shots. I told him I would get back to him at the beginning of the next week when I was less busy. We set the date for Tuesday though. That’s when I asked him if I could ride on his handle bars and he said, “well, I don’t know how good I am but I have a rack on the back you can ride on.” Haha…sweet! What a gentleman!

Sunday rolled around and he called to confirm our date and this time he had a plan. He was told by his buddies that we should go to the Spaghetti Factory. Mmmm, I’m a fan so I agreed. Plus, it’s close enough to my house that I knew I wouldn’t have to go too out of my way. We planned to meet there at 6:30. Tuesday came along and by the time 6:30 finally arrived, I was starving!! On Sunday I told him that I would call him when I got there and he said, “or I will just call you when I get there.” So, I figured I would just let him call since he would be riding his bike and all.

I got there close to on time and waited until 6:35 before I finally called him out of sheer hunger and near starvation!! As it turned out, he had been sitting out front the whole time. He said he arrived quite early, having really over estimated the bike time. It only took him 40 minutes. At that point I felt pretty bad for not picking him up. I didn’t think about offering until after we hung up on Sunday. What a horrible person! He seemed completely okay with it though, as if it is the most normal thing in the world. It is good exercise I guess.

Okay, when I first saw him I must say I was pleasantly surprised. He really wasn’t bad looking. He was better looking than #10. He had cute dimples anyway. Still, when he spoke, it seemed overly loud and definitely somewhat abnormal. I decided to do my best to be a good date for him. Upon further communications previously with my co-worker, I found out that he doesn’t talk to girls or date much. After the date she said that it was probably his first date so she hoped that I showed him how it was done. Great. Anyway, we got a table in the back corner which was good for my prideful self.

Our conversation mostly centered around him. Good. I just tried to keep him talking which really wasn’t hard at all. He likes to talk. I think that the highlight of our conversation was really a toss-up between him converting fractions to decimals for me, and him telling me on and on about how his co-worker keeps trying to get him to go to the nudie bar across the street from where he works. He told me all about what such a place would be like. Awwwwkkkkwarrrrd! I tried not to notice however and to steer the convo elsewhere.

All in all, he really is a good guy, which is why in the end, I can’t really make fun of him or be demeaning in any way. He works 12 hours a day and then helps neighbors with things they need fixing. In the winter he shovels about 10 driveways and 25 sidewalks a day…before his 12 hour work shift. When his family is out of town he remodels one of their rooms for them. He is the elder’s quorum president in his ward and seems like he really takes that seriously. He was named after their neighbor who died while snow blowing his driveway. My date inherited his name and the snow blower. Now, every time he uses it he thinks of that man. It’s kind of a creepy story but I felt a little sad for him when he was telling it to me. He said the guy was like a grandpa to him. Anyway, it was at that point that I realized I really couldn’t say anything bad about him. He is a very nice, very good guy…I am not. First of all, I am a girl. Secondly, I just don’t think I am good enough to accept him in a relationship kind of way.

As we left the restaurant, we were getting ready to part ways; me to my car, he to his bike, when he pulled out his old school walkman/tape recorder and got all set to continue his book on tape for the long journey home. I like listening to books on CD as well…only in my car. He seemed happy to be biking back home in the dark but still, I felt bad once again. I hope he made it okay. I wish him the best…bicycle and all.