Never Felt So Alive

Today was white water rafting.  Great time!  We decided each weekend will be a new adventure for us so here was today's:

We drove to Tennessee, about an hour and a half away, to go rafting on the Ocoee River.  Our trip time was 12:15pm and we got there and checked in at about 11:30am.  We knew we were going to be on this river for about 3 hours so we went to get some food since we had time.

We eat some McDonald's and get back to the outpost as a large group is leaving a meeting, boarding a bus.  We hear, "Is Simmons party of 2 here?" and are told that we've been moved up to the 11:45am trip. 

"You'll get the safety speech on the bus," one of the guides tells us so we go to put on our gear. 

Well, we're on the bus and I'm starting to get a little nervous about this whole white water rafting thing, especially when I realized, yeah, no one's coming to give us this speech.  So I start asking the guy in front of us, Gavin, (who has been flirting with us the whole trip to the river and then the whole way back! lol) what to do if I fall out.  He says to just stick your oar out so someone in the raft can grab onto you and pull you in.  I say, "Well what if I lose my oar?  How am I supposed to hold onto my oar if I'm flying out of the raft?  If I don't have my oar, are they even going to let me back in the raft?"  Lol, yeah I was more than a LITTLE nervous.

Then, we drive past this waterfall/dam thing and Gavin says we're going over that.  That really sets me off.  I thought I was having a panic attack because it was STEEP.

I said, "Go over THAT?" 

Gavin says, "Yeah, that's the first one."  At this point, I'm thinking about staying on the bus and going back to the outpost, lol.

Our guide didn't help things any because when I first asked him if we were going over the dam, he said, "Yeah, that's how I make my money!" 

Neither did another guy on the bus who announced to everyone before we left that there was only a 6% casualty rate.  There were probably a hundred people on the bus ... did that mean 6 of us were going to die???

FINALLY, the guide admitted we weren't going over the dam and I relaxed.  It was a great trip.  Didn't get thrown out by the rapids but did get thrown out by the guys in the boat!  Good job Val (or should I say Victoria? lol) for throwing our guide out! 

Can't wait to go again and do the full river trip!

Last night, of course, was Wild Bill's night with Val as nearly every Thursday is.  Megan and Marla didn't end up going with us ... even though the whole reason behind the night out was their 21st birthday! 

Anyway, we got there and spotted Ronnie almost right away ... kinda hard not to in his pink shirt.  We walk by and wave.  Val can't help but to stop and talk to him ... she's got it bad, I think lol.  We also run into Jon a couple of times.  He was being weird at the club all night.  Too much to drink maybe?  He would stop and talk to us for maybe a minute and then run off to who-knows-where ... without Ronnie. 

I was a little annoyed with him.  Val and I hadn't talked to the guys in two or three days, and they showed little interest in hanging out at the club, so naturally, Val and I sought out new guys and were pretty successful!  Met lots of really great guys and only a few not-so-great guys ... all in clear vision of Ronnie and Jon.  Intentional?  Maybe a little, but the honest truth is that the guys made it so easy!  It seemed that we would finish talking to one guy and another would come up right after he left.  And the dancing!  Lol, at one point, Val and I were being passed from one friend to another in a big circle.

Ronnie and Jon danced with us only a couple of times, preferring their relatively unattractive friends to us.  We left the club at closing with about 6 new numbers each in our cell phone, said goodbye to Ronnie and Jon, and went on our way.  We were a few miles away on the freeway when Ronnie called to see if we would meet them at their hotel room.  We had discussed meeting up at the hotel room earlier, but we hadn't planned on being so dissed by these guys!  I was reluctant but Val wanted to see Ronnie and deep down, I still wanted to spend time with Jon. 

Talk about two guys who are hard to read!  Ignoring us, almost jerks, in the club but just the sweetest things in private--arm around us, kissing, hugging, etc.  Jon even dropped THE three words but we will discredit that to too much alcohol ... I kept my mouth shut on that one, mostly to see if he dared repeat it again ...

So we spent the rest of the evening with our favorite boys.  They really have been quite entertaining ... Val and I love to sit around and talk about what a great couple of weeks it has been ... common denominator:  Ronnie and Jon?? 

Tomorrow ... white water rafting!

These past couple of days have been really awesome. 

Sunday was basketball with Ronnie and Jon.  Val and I didn't end up playing since Val was too sore from jetskiing the day before, but I think we had more fun sitting on the sidelines!  Everytime the boys would take a break from the game, they would come sit down with us.  We would try to make conversation with them, but they were too distracted by the game so we decided to sneak out for ice cream while they were at the other end of the court ... they wouldn't notice we were gone anyway! 

We came back with banana splits and Ronnie immediately says, "Where's my ice cream?"  Oh, so you have to be holding food for men to pay attention to you over a sporting event, eh?  One of these days, I'll have men completely figured out ...

After the game, we went to Jon's.  Everyone else watched the basketball game and a movie while I passed out on the couch after one drink!  I woke up the next morning in bed with no idea how or when I got there.  The next day when Jon called me, I asked him what I missed while I was passed out.

He said, "You!  You were the entertainment!" 

I remember feeling really sick before I passed out so I asked, "Did I puke anywhere???"  He said no.  He told me I couldn't stop laughing because the announcer on TV was named "Hubie," and when I fell into bed, I laid diagonally across it so that he could barely get in, lol.  Ohhh, so embarrassing.  I never get that drunk and I will probably never drink again after that! lol

Monday night, Jon called and I talked Val into going to Dahlonega again to see the boys even though she was tired.  We walked into Jon's apartment and didn't even get a "hello" because they were playing Halo!  I guess I shouldn't have expected a greeting since we weren't holding food, lol.

We ate some Mexican food and watched a really crappy movie--Wild Hot American Summer, or something like that.  It was Jon's turn to get really wasted. 

He's gotten progressively different since I met him.  And it's probably not that he's changing ... it's probably that I'm getting to know the real him more and more.  We had this really great conversation Friday night and the way he talked he seemed really religious and really sensitive.  He was telling me about how he believes that our purpose in life is to find that one person we are supposed to be with and to make each other happy and on and on with the mushy stuff.  He was telling me about his recent baptism.  He was telling me about how meeting us was so great the other night because we weren't fake with them (he said he goes and hangs out with a girl all night, asks for her number, and when he calls her it's a wrong number or something).  I was starting to think maybe he was a little of a loser (because as we know, nice decent guys are losers, right?) but I forced myself not to think that way because he WAS a nice, decent guy (can't let ANOTHER of those slip by).  Now, I'm not really seeing anything of what I heard in him Friday night and I really can't explain how but now I wish he would act how he talked on Friday. 

I have a hard time believing what he said Friday was a ploy to "get some."  He tried unsuccessfully Saturday night, so I would think if it was a ploy, he would continue with the mushy stuff until he succeeded ... 

But of course, I am TOTALLY overanalyzing the situation, like I do with everything!  And to overanalyze a week-old "relationship" with a guy who is leaving for Kyrgystan for a month in a couple of weeks is ridiculous! 

But anyway, coming up this week ... Wild Bill's again on Thursday for Megan and Marla's 21st, white water rafting on Saturday and Chattanooga Aquarium on Sunday.  Gotta make the most of a rare occasion ... Val is off work!  Yay!

Had a great time last night on my first official date with Jon!  I wanted so bad to cancel on him because my face was all broken out ... but I just couldn't do it.  When I called him, he had almost completed the hour-long drive to my place to pick me up on his motorcycle. 

When I opened the door, I would have like to have invited him in, but it looks like a tornado tore through here. 

So, I walk outside and lock the door, and he says to me, "You're going to wear THAT on the bike??" 

I look at my tank top, almost nonexistant shorts and my flip-flops and say, "Yeah, what's wrong with this?"

He says, "Don't you have some jeans you can put on?"

So I go put on some jeans, come back out and get, "Do you have some boots you can wear?"

My response is:  "Boots?  I'm not a dude."  lol, I'm beginning to see why I have never been called "prissy" in my entire life but hear it quite often now that I've moved to Georgia.

So I put on some tennis shoes, come back out and say, "Anything else you want to change before we go? ... anything at all?"

"Are you really going to take your purse with you?"  LOL

So, after three trips back in the house, we were FINALLY ready to go.  It was a great ride ... except for the part where we were on the freeway.  The wind ... and the bugs ... hurt! 

We got to his mom and stepdad's house.  Talk about a lot of pressure--first date and first time meeting the parents all at once!  But it went well.  His whole family was really sweet. 

His stepdad, Mike, had said, "Jon, weren't you and Ronnie supposed to go on some double date tonight?"

Jon said, "Yeah, but Michelle's sister backed out."  One of Val's really good friends from Ohio was in town this weekend ... and she totally forgot!  And then, just this morning, we were talking about going to Savannah this weekend and she had already forgotten 5 minutes later!  Someone get this girl some ginseng ... or at least a notepad!

Mike said, "Oh, so she's the smart one?  She probably took one look at Ronnie and was like, 'Boy, you need to eat something!  You're too scrawny!' "  lol, SOMEONE has to bring up the s-word now that Val has learned her lesson about calling a guy "scrawny."

It was a great night.  Had a great time.  Looking forward to playing basketball tonight with him and Ronnie.  That'll be interesting.  It has been a long time since any of us has played so we're sure to be pretty rusty!

Val talked to Dave at work the other day.  He hasn't called he said because I didn't call him back after he invited me to his baseball game.  Umm, hello?  You don't have a phone to call you back on!  And actually, I called his roommate's phone (got his roommate, of course).  Maybe this just can't work!  Argh!

And then, get this!  I was supposed to go out with Brant last week, the week that the receptionist retired and I had to do her job and mine.  Well, it was a really rough week and I got behind on my school assignments and I told him, "I can't go out tonight, I have assignments due at midnight."  And he didn't believe me! 

He was like, "C'mon, you really expect me to believe that?  I have never heard of an assignment due at midnight!"  So, he got all mad even though I explained it's ONLINE classes.  Then, he calls me today, wanting to go out sometime this week!

MEN!

So, I hung out with David again on Friday night.  Had a great time!  When I walked up to his place and knocked ... there was no answer.  So I knocked again and a half-frantic David answered and said, "Come in!  Come in!  I'm probably burning something!" 

He was cooking spaghetti for dinner ... and he has never cooked anything before.  The spaghetti sauce on the stove was boiling and he looked at me and said, "Do you think this is done?" lol  Then, he went to test the noodles to see if they were done and he put his fingers into the pot of boiling water to pull one out!  I let him try that unsuccessfully about four or five times before I finally asked, "Don't you have a fork or something??"  He said yes, pulled a fork out of the drawer and used that fork to fish another fork out of the boiling pot of water, lol.  He also tried to pull the garlic bread pan out of the oven barehanded.  I don't know if he was just being a guy or if he lacks common sense ... either way it was quite entertaining!

While Val and I were hanging out Saturday, "Hammy" text messaged me.  I must be psychic because I TOTALLY saw that one coming.  What I didn't see coming was that he has moved back to Ohio.  Now I'm wondering, Why in the world is he text messaging me if he is in Ohio???  I thought if he was going to contact me again, it would be to hang out (which I would have said no to).  But hey, if he wants to text message me to catch up, that's cool, I guess, but don't guys usually have motives for doing stuff like this?  So now I'm just waiting to find out the motive ...

So, I spent all last week debating what to do with my weekend.  I even had to get the opinion of some of the girls at work. 

My dilemma:  Steve had invited me to spend the whole weekend in Birmingham, but I had made plans to go to NC to see Jason. 

By the end of the week, the girls came up with a solution:  Go to Birmingham Friday night.  Stick around until Steve got home from work Saturday afternoon, have dinner with him, then go on to NC, citing something to do with Val as my reason for needing to leave.  By the end of the week, everyone at work knew and had an opinion on what I should do.  Before he left Friday afternoon, Trent said, "Good luck in your expedition across the Southeast to get a man."  lol

Here's what actually ended up happening:

Went to Birmingham Friday night.  When I pulled up to Steve's frat house and saw him standing out front, I must have been excited because I jumped out of my car and shut my door ... with my keys in the ignition, the car still running, and the lights on!  Rather than wait an hour for Roadside Assistance, Steve called the campus police who took care of it in 10 minutes. 

Friday night did not go so well.  Steve was in a bad mood, I think, and I was tired from staying up most of the night working on a group project for school.  We kinda got on each other a little bit.  He especially got upset about how much my phone was ringing.  I decided that night to skip out when he went to work in the morning. 

Saturday morning, he couldn't have been sweeter.  He let me sleep while he got ready.  He kissed me goodbye before he left.  I told him he smelled good and he said, "Thanks, babe."  It doesn't seem like any big thing, but the way he said it was too cute. 

But I was still a little upset about the night before and left about an hour into his shift, leaving him a message saying I had to get back to Atlanta.

I stopped home to get some rest and to get a shower before heading to NC.  Let's just say that was a bust ... and leave it at that.  BUT we did go to this really cool bar in this really swanky neighborhood so that was fun.

Sunday, Val, Johnson and I went to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Piedmont Park.  So fun but the ground was so wet!  Our butts were soaked and our blanket was literally dripping by the time we left.  Also, I would like to note how depressing it is to see several cute, well-dressed, well-groomed guys who are there in the park on dates with another guy :(

Today at work, I found out Kristin is sleeping with a married man (yes, I've resorted to writing about other people's love lives since they are so much more interesting than my own).  This does affect me, however!  How can I be friends with her when she is doing something sooo horrible?!  I had problems with her sexual promiscuity before, but this is getting ridiculous!  What am I going to do about her?  I asked her what she thinks she is doing but her response is, "I'm in shock.  I can't control it." 

Umm, I don't buy that!