July 28th, 2006 11:50 pm |
Can you believe it? I went on a date last nite. I asked to leave work a little early so I could start my trek up to Grenada Hills. Grenada Hills you ask? Yes..its far away…about 71 miles from Irvine. I met this person on a local chat site and we’ve been chatting online for awhile. We decided that we wanted to get together for dinner and finally say hello in person. I was a bit discouraged yesterday as when I left work, it took me over an hour to get out of Orange County. Traffic was moving around 15-25 miles per hour and it was taking forever. Now…don’t get me wrong, I luv to drive, but driving in traffic is not my idea of fun. We talked on the phone a few time during my “trek” and I kept on driving. It took me about 2.5 hours to get to Grenada Hills. I got to his place and was introduced to Spencer and Niko, his two cats. We sat down and said hello and then off to dinner we went.
We both decided we wanted something sit down but not fancy. We opted for Claim Jumper. We went to the one near the Northridge Mall (for history buffs, this is the same mall where the Macy’s completed collapsed after the Northridge Quake way back when. I remember seeing pictures of the rubble in the dark and seeing a mountain silhouette.) We got there and there was a line, but we had reserations for 7:15. While waiting for our seats we talked a bit more. I was nervous. I don’t know, he’s a nice guy and wasn’t pushy or arrogant in any way. I stared over at the dessert case and noticed the extra tall cakes and saw a slice of cake on a plate. Have you ever eaten at a Claim Jumper? These frickin cakes are 8 layers tall and a slice of cake is about $9.95. I’m not a chocolate lover, but there are times in my life where I need a nice moist chocolate cake with a tall glass of milk. I was feeling like one of those moments was coming! [smile]
Our table was ready and sat down. We looked at the menus and it was time for appetizers. We were down to calamari breaded steaks or the spinach artichoke dip. We went with the dip. For drinks I had a club soda with a twist of lime and he had an iced tea. The dip showed up in a bread bowl with tortilla strips and parmesan crusted bread chips. We drove right in. So as for the meal he had a doulbe chicken breast with potatoes and roasted vegetables. As for me, I had my favorite (where I go not just here) but I had the 16oz Rib Eye Steak, medium rare with roasted asparagus and sauteed mushrooms.
While we were waiting for the meal, there were weird awkward silence periods, mainly to my nervousness. I started twisting the drink coaster with the glass on it. He noticed me twisting the coaster and spinning my glass and he smiled at me. I looked back puzzled. He said he was watching me spin my glass. I said I was nervous and he asked why. I wasn’t sure. I told him I was out of practice on the dating thing.
Our meals finally arrived and my god, I forgot how large the portions were here. The dessert case should have been the clue. My steak showed up and there was literally about 25 asparagus speaks and three onion rings. Next to that was a perfectly grilled medium rare rib eye with a dollop of herb-butter. In a seperate bowl were the sauteed mushrooms. Now, I didn’t care for how the mushrooms were prepared. There were sauteed in a white wine sauce with red onions. This is a rib eye. They should have been sauteed over high head to created some caraelizaiton and with RED wine, not wite. I would have appreciated a nice red wine sauce for my rib-eye. Oh god..that would have been perfect.
My date had an equally large plate. Two large breasts of lightly breaded chicken with a huge mound of potatoes and assorted roasted vegetables. The potatoes alone must have weiged a pound!
We both got thru about 50-60% of our meals. We both sat back and I wished I had on something other than jeans on. I was fuckin full! So was he. We then decided to pass on desert. We both had our hearts set on dessert, but when it came down to it, we couldn’t fit another bite in. We got our left overs to go and we headed back to his place.
When we got there, we went out back to sit by his pool. He was having a cigarette while I was absorbing the night air and the quietness of living up in the hills. I kept staring at the pool and wanted to just jump in there. But I’m still very body conscious and didn’t want my date to think there was a beached whale in his pool. [snicker - hehe]
We wnet inside and watched an episode of seinfeld and it was time for him to get to bed. I myself was tired form all the food. It was around 10pm. He gave me the tighted bear hug I have had in a long time and we said good night. I got a second hug and a kiss.
On the way home I thought how nice it was to have a date that had no pressure. He’s a nice guy and hope we get to see each other again soon.
The commute home was WAY faster. I got home in 1.5 hours. It would have been faster, but the 405 Southbound had a 3 lane closure at Magnolia in HB. This dwindled available lanes to two. Once home I came in, stripped down to my boxers, white socks and a t and prepared for two hours of SciFi friday with Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
I had a good day.
Filed under:
Food, Just Too Gay!, Personal Log, Stargate
As the winner of the challenge, Virginia was guaratneed a seat in the final three, meaning she had immunity. In addition, she got a $1,000 shopping spree at Sur La Table at The Grove. Virginia is so about wanting to get into Chef Ramsay’s bed. She’s so … blech. She bought the other three “gifts”. Meanwhile back at the kitchen, the remaining three chefs had to shuck 6 bushels of crab. That’s alot of crab. So Virginia comes in with bags of new stuff. She gives Sara a white cow diary creamer. The gag being that Chef Ramsey calls her a fat cow when he gets upset at Sara. For Heather, she bought a Sili glove. This is the glove where you can immerse your hand in boiling water. Then it comes to Keith, she got him a pair of crab crackers – but get this…he already has one for the last 6 hours they have been shucking crab. To say the least, none of them were happy with their gifts. 
Temps today were almost back to normal. NO more 100+ degree days in the valley’s, no more upper 80s at the beach. Temps today were back in the low to mid 70s in Orange County and tmeps i nthe lower 90s in the Valleys.
