Gushing about a great first date and post-date waiting
I went on a first date Friday night with a guy I met off of Catholic Match (we're both 27), and I just wanted to share my story because I thought it was cute and a lot of posts I've been seeing on here recently have been about struggling with dating or advice regarding breakups (I have posted about those things as well before, so I get it). Also, I want to write this as a reminder to myself that if it doesn't work out with this guy in the future, it doesn't negate the fact that I had a great time with him and felt a genuine connection with someone. It's a very long story-time with many details, and I know that sometimes it's hard to be invested in reading long posts, so there's a tl;dr at the end.
Story time: So, we had been talking for about a week and a half before he asked if I wanted to grab ice cream with him. I honestly was surprised that he had asked me out so soon because some of his messages on Catholic Match made it seem like he wasn't super interested even though we did mutually like each other's profiles (those and matches are good way to avoid the 10-day waiting period if you didn't know about those). For example, it'd be a few days between messages, or he wouldn't ask follow-up questions, so I felt like the effort in the conversations wasn't shared most days. I was the one to give my phone number to get off the app since Catholic Match is buggy with their notifications.
He just moved to the same city as me for a summer job he was assigned to by his work which is about 14 hours away. The Airbnb he's currently at is about an hour away from me. He asked for ice cream shop suggestions, so I sent him two that are relatively close to me. He chose one and we both were saying how we were excited to meet each other the day before and morning of! I got the last parking spot available at the shop and thanked God that I didn't have to try and find street parking lol. He was waiting in his car doing work but got out when he noticed me.
He was wearing a blue button-down shirt and khaki pants, probably what he wore to work, and he looked as handsome as he did in his profile pictures. He apologized for looking scraggly as he woke up at 5am that morning, and I told him, "You look fine." I was so annoyed at myself for saying that instead of "No, you look nice" because he goes on to say how I looked really nice and commented on how my dress was very pretty. He opens up the door for me, and we go inside together to look at all of the different flavors available. The employee looked impatient as we were trying to make up our mind (mind you, it was probably less than 5 minutes total).
He paid for our ice cream, and he suggested we go outside to sit down and eat since it was a really nice evening. We talked about movies, cowboy hats, old-school video games, and his home state before I suggest going for a walk since the chairs were pretty uncomfortable. We walked around for a little while, talking about how the houses all looked so unique in the neighborhood and other random things. It was raining earlier that day, and he was being really considerate by telling me to be careful in some areas with puddles since I was wearing sandals. Probably after 20 minutes or so, around 8:30pm, he says that we should head back and I reluctantly agreed.
By the time we got to my car (only three cars away from his), we continue to chat - this time about nicknames and how you shouldn't give someone a nickname if they don't introduce themselves that way (like someone who introduces themselves as Matthew but people call them Matt instead), how some names are generational, our jobs in Engineering and Accounting, our unique work places, toe socks, and we watched a tow truck almost take away a guy's car that was illegally parked. Periodically, he would say that he should let me go home since it was getting late and that "We'll have plenty of time to talk about stuff later", but we kept on finding new things to talk about. Finally, when we did decide to call it a night it was 11:30pm. Before leaving, he suggested that we do something else sometime soon, maybe like going to a museum or something local to the city.
I felt kind of bad because he had an hour drive back to his place, but also, I felt so happy because we talked for 4 1/2 hours and that was the best first date I've been on in a long time! He told me to text him when I got back home, so I did and asked him to do the same. When he texted me around 12:30am I told him, "I forgot to say it earlier, but thank you for the ice cream!" and he said, "Of course! Thank you for the good company!" I was trying to be cheeky with my response when I replied, "You're welcome! Glad to be of service." and I fell asleep before seeing his reply. I woke up the next morning to "Haha. Good night!". I texted him good morning while mentioning that I was going with my brother to pick up some furniture and hopefully be able to load it into my mom's minivan to take to my new apartment. He told me to let him know how it goes, so I texted him a picture after we finished of how we successfully managed to squeeze both pieces of furniture into the car. He replied with an "Oh my!"
He sent a picture of his view from his front porch when I asked what he was up to, so I decided to call him since I was just eating lunch. We talked for about an hour and a half, this time about weather since it was raining where I was but not in his area, how hurricanes happen a lot in my city while the area he's from there have been more tornadoes in the last decade. We talked about family recipes, when you should put up and take down Christmas trees and decorations, and his woodworking projects he wanted to do this summer but are going to be postponed. I decided we should end the call since he had stuff to do that day, and I needed to take a quick power nap before moving some more furniture.
We both said "Talk to you later" before hanging up, and now it is the day after, Sunday afternoon. He has yet to send any sort of follow up text, and I am impatiently waiting. Although I don't want to jinx it, I'm 99% sure he'll try to set up another date. I can't help feeling very excited for a second date although it's not official yet.
TL;DR: I went on a great first date with this guy Friday! I am very physically attracted to him (I'm assuming it's reciprocated lol), he was a gentleman, was very funny, we have a lot in common, had amazing banter, and the conversation flowed really easily. The date was 4 1/2 hours long, and he mentioned that we should go on another date sometime soon like to a museum or something else local since he's new to the city. His "good night" text turned into a "good morning" text from me since I fell asleep before seeing it, and I decided to call him around lunch where we proceeded to talk for another 1 1/2 hours. Now it's Sunday afternoon, and I'm waiting for him to text me to schedule our next date. I know in reality it's only been two days since our date and we talked quite a bit yesterday, but my anxious self can't help but get inside my head about how he hasn't sent me any texts regarding making plans or just a general "How's your Sunday going?" Hopefully he's in the middle of planning a second date, and it'll be as fantastic as the first 😄