our first date
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In this post, I’m going to tell you about what happened on the day of our first date - one year ago - March 25th, 2019. This is OUR LOVE STORY, PART 2.
(read PART 1 of our love story: how we connected // click for info on MAP above)
Our first date was on a Monday night. That day my class had a field trip to the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing. I remember loading the kids on the bus that morning telling my para, Miss E, about the date I was going to go on that night and how weird it was that the guy and I already knew each other from ‘the neighborhood’ and went to the same school, albeit different grades.
The trip was cold and silly. The Botanical Garden looked more like a Botanical Graveyard! The day was stressful with wind-pierced faces looking at me the entire time like “When are we going to leave?” - from both students and their chaperones alike. But the kids got to plant something in a tiny pot they were allowed to take home, and at least we were out of the classroom most of the day.
We were BACK in the classroom earlier than I had anticipated (teachers, don’tcha hate that?) but I put on the movie Penguins of Madagascar for them to chill out to and watch. This was not a random movie selection. I chose it with Tom in mind, since we had a cute exchange over text a couple days before.
I accidentally called him ‘Kowalski’ instead of ‘Rowinski’ (his last name) and we had ourselves a good LOL over it. I told him I had no idea where I got Kowalski from, but found out when I looked it up that one of the penguins in the movie is named Kowalski. Haa haa!
I then proceeded to be so funny and cute (‘cuz I’m a really flirty, witty texter) and did a thing with him: I texted him all the -SKI names I knew until I got his right. Something like: “penguin KOWALSKI, Wayne SALINSKI, Kelly KAPOWSKI, and you’re Tom ROWINSKI. Got it! I won’t mess it up again.”
The end of the school day came and I dismissed the kids. I was excited to finish with extended day and go home to get ready for the date. // By the day of this date, I had been on dating apps for two whole months and been on six decent dates. What had been really scary and intimidating to me in the beginning, started to become adventurous little excursions that I welcomed. This evening was no different, except that Tom wasn’t a complete stranger. I remember his cute little boy face passing me in the halls of school, and knew he came from a good family. I tell you - this point of reference kind of made all the difference.
I contemplated taking a shower and getting freshly dolled up, but (sorry, baby) I ended up deciding to throw the day’s hair back into a high ponytail and don my classic date uniform: head-to-toe black, big hoop earrings, my double necklace, & matte lips. I was gong to meet him at Waterzooi for mussels & that’s what I did.
I walked in feeling nervous but excited, through the back entrance to the dimly lit entryway, and sort of scanned my surroundings a bit until - to my left - I saw the back of him standing at the corner of the bar. (I marked the very spot on the photograph below.) Tall (taller than I imagined) with a peacoat on, he grabbed his glass of red wine and turned to greet me. We said hello with a kiss on the cheek and made our way to the hostess stand.
(He tells the story later of how he’s never early to anything, but was a half hour early to Waterzooi for our date that day because he was so nervous. I think he was on his second or third glass of wine when I walked in.)
He told the hostess I had arrived, and when I went to follow her to our table, a couple of old women were walking towards us. Because I had the urge to be right behind our hostess, I almost plowed passed the old ladies and knocked them down! I turned to Tom and said, “I almost tackled those two women to the floor like a football player,” He smiled, and we made our way to the long, too-big-for-us booth, and got settled in.
When I know I’m going to eat somewhere, I usually look up the restaurant and its menu before hand. I had never been to Waterzooi before, and when I did my research on it, the image below came up. When the waiter asked us what we wanted to drink, I showed him the photo below and pointed to the curvy, fancy beer on the right. “I want whatever that is!” I told the waiter. Tom seemed amused and said, “I’ll have the same.”
I ordered classic mussels with white wine sauce. Tom ordered the pappardelle. Smooth, good conversation was had. We talked the whole night, and got along great. I told him about the kids and our field trip earlier that day. We talked about being on dating apps, and what that was like. We chatted a bit about past relationships and what had gone wrong in them. I thought it peculiar that he and I both had two long-term relationships for around the same amount of time: one that lasted 7/8 years, and our most recent one that lasted about 3 years. We found lots of parallels in each other right from the start.
The food came to to the table, and I was most excited about the mussels. Our conversation continued, and the food diminished and I was innocently just listening and going to town on these mussels. After a while, we both looked at each other and realized I pretty much devoured the entire pot myself! Tom asked the waiter to approximate how many he thought came in an order, and joked that since he ate about 10, I probably consumed over 75 mussels myself! He loves telling that story.
The date was literally just what the doctor ordered at the end of that long, stressful Monday. I had such a great time with him and the food and the laughter and the conversation and the company. Tom made sure to lock down a second date right there at the table, and we scheduled it for the approaching Saturday.
We walked out of the doorway you see above, to the cold back parking lot all dark from the night. He walked me out to my car and when I turned to say goodbye and thank him, he kissed me right on the lips! It was a very sweet first kiss, and he bit my bottom lip at the end.
He texted me when I got home and apologized. He said he never usually kisses on the first date, and he wasn’t going to do it, but then decided to go for it. I reassured him that he had read the signs correctly, and that I was into him to. <3 We said goodnight and I went to bed. It was a magical, memorable first date.
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HIM RECOUNTING THE DATE LATER ON: I was so nervous about our first date. You were so pretty in the pictures. When you showed up at Waterzooi, you took my breath away. I couldn’t believe I was eating dinner with the most beautiful girl. You also took my breath away when you ate all those mussels.
HIM, IN MY BIRTHDAY CARD: During our first date, I knew that at some point, I would be writing you a birthday card. I’m so happy that OLS/Hinge/the Universe brought us together.
