Last night: slightly dull
Mar. 30th, 2003 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonI suspect the suggestion that getting to Lexington takes an hour and a half or two hours from Roanoke included plans for pulling off in Fincastle and taking a nap; there's no way that 47 miles on I-81 could require so much time otherwise. It was perhaps a good thing, then, that I (a) left the house late last night, (b) did something strange with my directions--they certainly weren't with me when I got there, and (c) spent a quantity of time verging on the insane driving around the middle of Lexington in the dark and pouring rain--the place couldn't be that difficult to find, right?--hoping for a hint to seep into my directionally-challenged brain, before I finally gave up and stopped at a Subway to ask how to get there. (A customer even volunteered advice on navigating the campus, so that was an extra-good choice.) I began suspecting that some Washington & Lee students hanging around outside a bar were tracking my progress by the sound of the VW's diesel buzz, all the better to burst into laughter the next time I swung by...and it wasn't particularly paranoid.
But, given the combination of those things, I showed up more or less on time. The rain had let up, thank goodness, and Alex was waiting outside the library. He was visibly nervous at first, but handled it like a normal human being (unlike the ex); I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't a third as nervous as I was the last time I met someone--probably another benefit of getting out more. We had to loiter around campus for more than an hour before the last check was run; they were late with it, and he had to go back into barracks a few times to see if the sign-in sheet was up yet. I didn't really mind--it gave us a chance to talk a bit. We walked around some, then ducked into a classroom building when it started raining again. I'm not accustomed to classrooms without automatically-locking doors. For that matter, the whole place was almost preternaturally quiet; at 10:30 on a Saturday night, I'm used to seeing drunken idiots staggering around campus (and nobody would dare leave a cherry-picker truck unattended by the side of the road over the weekend on RU or Virginia Tech campus, I think), but there were only a couple of shouts from the buildings as we passed and few people out. Near-silence and no litter on a Saturday night in town: almost a Twilight Zone moment.
About 11:00, the check was finally called, and after he ducked into one of the buildings to change out of uniform, we climbed in the car and headed off for food. Pizza Hut seemed to be about the best place still open (it also seemed safe; I wasn't sure if mentioning looking for somewhere downtown would embarrass him, since most of what I'd seen looked more like drinks-and-sandwich and he's underage). It was the most deserted Pizza Hut I'd ever seen, to still be open for two hours. I hadn't eaten anything since lunch, so was starving. We demolished most of a large pizza and talked some more; it was a pleasant enough time. Afterward, there really wasn't that much to do, with its being kind of late and the rain and my needing to drive back. I did find his half-hearted suggestion of stopping in at a W&L frat party a bit amusing, particularly as I haven't done that since I was 16; he's not really into that scene, either, but there doesn't seem to be much to keep one occupied in Lexington. I'd imagine with better planning we could have thought of something, though. At any rate, I dropped him off about midnight and gave him a hug, because I could tell he was feeling a bit too awkward to make any move in that direction (kind of cute, and something I'm also unaccustomed to by now). It was actually a good thing I left early, because the sleet started less than an hour after I got home.
In all, it was a pleasant night. I was glad I'd decided to give Alex a chance. We seemed to get along well. He seemed bright, and we did appear to have more in common than I initially suspected. I'm reserving judgment on his sense of humor, because the nerves might have been inhibiting that to some extent. (I know I run into that trouble occasionally.) On a slightly more shallow note, he's not bad-looking at all, which helps too. :) I've always been a sucker for big brown eyes. We'll likely go out again. Maybe we can even develop a better plan for something to do beforehand, next time. *g*
But, given the combination of those things, I showed up more or less on time. The rain had let up, thank goodness, and Alex was waiting outside the library. He was visibly nervous at first, but handled it like a normal human being (unlike the ex); I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't a third as nervous as I was the last time I met someone--probably another benefit of getting out more. We had to loiter around campus for more than an hour before the last check was run; they were late with it, and he had to go back into barracks a few times to see if the sign-in sheet was up yet. I didn't really mind--it gave us a chance to talk a bit. We walked around some, then ducked into a classroom building when it started raining again. I'm not accustomed to classrooms without automatically-locking doors. For that matter, the whole place was almost preternaturally quiet; at 10:30 on a Saturday night, I'm used to seeing drunken idiots staggering around campus (and nobody would dare leave a cherry-picker truck unattended by the side of the road over the weekend on RU or Virginia Tech campus, I think), but there were only a couple of shouts from the buildings as we passed and few people out. Near-silence and no litter on a Saturday night in town: almost a Twilight Zone moment.
About 11:00, the check was finally called, and after he ducked into one of the buildings to change out of uniform, we climbed in the car and headed off for food. Pizza Hut seemed to be about the best place still open (it also seemed safe; I wasn't sure if mentioning looking for somewhere downtown would embarrass him, since most of what I'd seen looked more like drinks-and-sandwich and he's underage). It was the most deserted Pizza Hut I'd ever seen, to still be open for two hours. I hadn't eaten anything since lunch, so was starving. We demolished most of a large pizza and talked some more; it was a pleasant enough time. Afterward, there really wasn't that much to do, with its being kind of late and the rain and my needing to drive back. I did find his half-hearted suggestion of stopping in at a W&L frat party a bit amusing, particularly as I haven't done that since I was 16; he's not really into that scene, either, but there doesn't seem to be much to keep one occupied in Lexington. I'd imagine with better planning we could have thought of something, though. At any rate, I dropped him off about midnight and gave him a hug, because I could tell he was feeling a bit too awkward to make any move in that direction (kind of cute, and something I'm also unaccustomed to by now). It was actually a good thing I left early, because the sleet started less than an hour after I got home.
In all, it was a pleasant night. I was glad I'd decided to give Alex a chance. We seemed to get along well. He seemed bright, and we did appear to have more in common than I initially suspected. I'm reserving judgment on his sense of humor, because the nerves might have been inhibiting that to some extent. (I know I run into that trouble occasionally.) On a slightly more shallow note, he's not bad-looking at all, which helps too. :) I've always been a sucker for big brown eyes. We'll likely go out again. Maybe we can even develop a better plan for something to do beforehand, next time. *g*
