The kiss that wasn't

So my big all afternoon date with Todd started at 2:30.  I met him at Payless in Dyersville.  I thought since he had driven 2 hours to get that far, the least I could do was drive the rest of the way to Dubuque.  He was waiting for me when I got there.  He got in the car and immediately we started laughing.   About what?  I have no idea.   I took that as a good sign right away. 

Now in retrospect, we should have gone somewhere to have a cup of coffee or a beverage and mapped out what we were going to do for the rest of the afternoon.  We didn't.  I just jumped back on the highway and drove to Dubuque.  We chatted about a variety of nonsense the whole way in. Shen I got to the top of the mile hill I told him that I had done some "research" about activities and asked what he wanted to do.   Of course, in true guy fashion, he had no idea.  So I had to call the shots.

Originally, I wanted to go to the River Museum and Aquarium -- but umm, that's a little pricey.  It's $15 a person and if you want to watch the movie it's an additional $6.  I might be willing to pay a little to go into a place like that if it was huge like the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  But I highly doubted that I would be in the Dubuque Aquarium long enough to make it worth $15.  Especially in the winter -- so we decided to table that for another day. 

Instead we went to Fischer Lanes and bowled 3 games. Going to Fischer Lanes was a bit nostalgic for me. I haven't been in the place in nearly 25 years. It still has that cozy warm feeling to it -- even though the scoring thing is computerized and there are large screen TV's all over the place. 

There was about 20 people in there, mostly kids from a birthday party.  The fathers were all sitting at the bar and looked completely bored.  The mom's were sitting in a huddle at the far end of the room. The kids were throwing their balls down the bumper-guarded lanes haphazardly -- and yelling LOUDLY when they didn't hit any pins.  This made Todd and I laugh, clearly at 9 years old, those kids have too much stress in their lives. 

So, some things at Fischer Lanes haven't changed.  Like the ball return for example.  This thing is straight out of the 1940's I'm sure.   The return thing shoots your ball up this little track to the end of the lane -- and when I say "shoot"  I'm not kidding.  There's no waiting for that ball to come back. Its nearly back before the pins reset. 

Here's a picture of it.  I don't know if you can really see it -- but between the brown thingys is this half moon shape gizmo that is supposed to slow the ball down before the end of the track. Yeah, whatever -- that doesn't work. Don't even think about sticking your hand down by the other balls either -- they will surely get smashed when your ball returns.   (Take note of that big screen - I'll discuss that later)

Here's a video of my ball coming back up the shoot: 

Another "cute" thing -- you get a video replay on the scoring board after your throw ... and it tells you the speed of your throw.   Todd consistently threw at 15 mph ... I was always at 8.  And I beat him all 3 games, so that just goes to show that speed doesn't matter in bowling.  (or skill level ---  In real life -- it doesn't matter if you're a pro bowler on Wii)

The scoring boards on the empty lanes were all showing the basketball game. I don't know exactly what they were showing on the big screens. At one point I looked at it and there were chicks jello wrestling.  I'm not even kidding!!!   Clearly not the appropriate entertainment for a 9 year old birthday party.  One of the parents overheard Todd and my comments about it -- and it quickly was switched to boxing. 

So after I kicked Todd's ass in bowling and drank 3 beers, we decided to go get some coffee.  We went to Monk's on Bluff, my favorite coffee shop in Dubuque.  Monk's also has that comfy homey feel -- in an eclectic type environment.  There is always a variety of personalities hanging out there, which makes it that much more inviting -- as opposed to the Starbucks crowd I'm used to from Chicago.  People bring their kids to Starbucks.  I rarely see kids at Monks ... probably because they serve alcohol and to the casual observer, the place is kinda weird.  First of all, it has a "bed" in one of the side rooms.  Not a normal, nighty-night, bed -- but a chaise lounge piece of furniture that is as big as a bed.  I'm not sure what people use it for -- but I can imagine and really don't ever want to sit on the thing.  

We were at Monks long enough for me to drink a vanilla latte and then we went to Mason Dixon Saloon for dinner.  I had heard some good things about the place so I was excited to go there.  It's new and has this weird schlack smell to it.  I'm not so sure on the decor -- I guess it's supposed to be a 1800's type saloon -- and not that I was around back then or anything, there were just some things weird about it.  Like for example the bathroom stall doors reminded me of a cattle wagon gate.

That thing was heavy as hell ... and I could see where a drunk person would have difficulty with the lock... because I did -- and I was nearly sober.   And, it was just the stall door!!!  Geezus, it wasn't like it was a jail cell. 

The menu at Mason Dixon is mostly burgers, chicken and ribs.  There isn't a lot of choices for the non-meat eaters.  They don't even list salads as a meal option on the menu. We ordered chips and cheese as an appetizer and then grilled white fish for dinner.  The chips were great.  The fish, not so much.  It smelled and tasted very fishy and was over-cooked.  (That's what Todd said anyway -- and he cooks for a living so he'd know).  We stayed for a while after dinner to watch the end of the NASCAR race (Kyle Busch won) and then decided to go to a movie. 

We saw Cedar Rapids.  It was funny and a little weird all at once.  It basically reminded me of my former job and how people acted like retards on company sponsored trips.  Like one year, when we went on a company sponsored trip to Marco Island, one of the so-called "senior managers"  mooned some other tourists out the shuttle bus window.  Yeah, that's mature dude.  So, Cedar Rapids is all that crazy stuff mashed around a little story of integrity.   It was definitely a "date" type movie -- not scary and not mushy, just funny and er... safe. 

The movie kinda killed my mojo though.  Maybe it was because I didn't have any soda or popcorn during the entire show -- which was weird because I wanted them, but Todd said he didnt' like popcorn and I didn't want to look like a pig eating more junk in front of him.  So Todd and I, well, mostly me,  decided to call it a night.  It was 10 pm and he had another 2 hour drive home.  So we kinda chatted on the way back to Dyersville.  Mostly about the traffic and how fricken slow they were driving -- the roads weren't even bad. Oh, yeah, we had to make a pitstop at the truck stop on Hwy 20 because I ran out of wiper fluid and I couldn't see out my windshield.   

Anyway,the whole way home, I was thinking about the "kiss" action that was going to happen at the end of our trip.  Actually I had been thinking about it the whole date, because we hadn't kissed at all up to this point and I was trying to decide if I wanted to kiss him or not.  I like hanging out with him, but I guess I'm still on the fence if I want to make out with him.   Anyway, before I knew it, I was parked behind his car and the moment was upon us. 

So, I said all the things I wanted to say ... like, I had fun -- which I really did in our unplanned sort of way.  I hadn't bowled in over a year and hadn't just hung up in a no pressure environment for a long time ... so that was fun.  The food kinda sucked, but the company was great ... and the movie was okay.  So I chalked it up at a good date.   He said the same.  Then I leaned over for the KISS....thinking that it was going to be a long- something.  He pecked me on the lips, gave me a weird half body hug and then bolted from the car. 

The whole thing kinda miffed me.  I sat there in confusion while he walked to his car, got in and started it up.  I kinda felt cheated, but not enough to do anything about it.  Maybe I'm reading too much into it.  Maybe a quick kiss was all it needed to be.   Maybe he was nervous about it too. 

I guess I'll have the rest of the week to think about the kiss that wasn't.  We're going out again on Friday -- so maybe something different will happen then. Maybe he and I can talk about it and laugh some more.