Good Date

Since I tell you about the bad dates and the semi-dates and the boring dates it only seems fair, in the spirit of full disclosure to tell you about the good ones.

Last night I had a good date.

We had dinner, saw some music, talked a lot. I mean a lot. He really seemed to think I was smart and interesting and worth spending time with.

We got introduced by a couple of great musicians and then we headed to a local pizza joint and he immediately launched into conversation, just made it look so easy, and proceeded to tell me everything I need to know about zoning in Sim City. Which would have been a lot less charming if he wasn't 9.

The musicians are his parents and we ended the night seeing them play. Sound check and waiting around can be boring when you're 9 so I got to meet JA and spend some time with it to reduce boredom. I don't know if it reduced his boredom but it sure as shooting reduced mine.

I was tipped off by his mom that he loves pizza so I ruthlessly played the pie card to kick things off. Knowing me less than 3 minutes he heartily agreed to come with me. Which, if you've been paying attention, is pretty unusual. We wandered out of the club and I realized that I had no idea how to start the conversation. Two doors down, just before I start to panic-babble and after all I've had to offer is, "Hey! There's a pizza place!" he just launches in, asks me if I know Sim City, tells me all about it.

Later on I played the Hot Chocolate and Books card and we went to a cafe in a B&N and hung out for a while. I wheedled him into doing his homework and even running through the "Challenge" words for tomorrow's spelling test. (His teacher gave them these great things called a BEAR Book - Being Equipped and Ready - where they can keep assignments and in-class work and everything they need to be able to do their homework, very impressive.) He was really very easy to convince. We also studied for his math test. Did you know they're teaching geometry in 4th grade these days? I broke out in a cold sweat. Turned out to be with good reason since my 9-year-old companion proceeded to break out the term Venn diagram in a sentence while explaining the difference between concentric and...um...some other kind of circles where they touch somewhere like in a Venn diagram.

However, my favorite part was in between the general homework and the studying for today's tests. He said, "We should read now." I eagerly pulled out my book and declared we could read for 15 minutes and then study for the tests.

For anyone out there taking notes, I am convinced that if every date had a short interval where we just sat quietly and read our books and maybe occasionally shared the funny passages they would all end better.