too much time in huntington beach

in the last month, i have put 840 miles on my car and spent 18 hours driving to and from the huntington beach area. to see a cute guy. yeah.

i went to a lds mid-singles conference in huntington beach back in april. (mid-singles are the ones too old for the singles ward, but too young to spend their nights hanging out with the widows in the family ward ... ages 27 to 42.) the conference was so much fun! there were over 1,000 people there. so many fun things to do and great people to meet. it was awesome. i roomed with a couple girls from atlanta -- way fun.

one of the first people i met there was cute guy.

it was funny, at first i wasn't super attracted to him or interested in him, but we kept running into each other throughout the conference and we'd stop and talk for a while. we actually talked quite a bit. he was easy to talk to and fun to be with. and he was cute. ... :)

so yeah. the conference ended on sunday and we "exchanged cards". -- ha! always wanted to say that ... but, we really did. anyway, and so then that was that.

the following few days i found myself wanting to talk to him. but i wasn't sure if i should just call him. see? -- normally, i really don't mind being the cad that makes the first move. because, well, i know that we all know that making the first move can be scary or whatever, but i also know that when people go out with me, they have a good time ... so ... i usually just ask the boy out and then we go out and have fun and then he can take it from there. but, on wednesday after the conference, i was talking to a friend of mine about the conference and mentioned that i was planning to call cute guy and her reaction was a quick "no, wait for him to call". so then, because we were at a relief society pot-luck dinner thing, we ended up opening the issue up for discussion. some sisters said i should call, others said he needs to, others said just wait a bit ... so finally, the negotiated conclusion was that i should give it one more day. if he calls, great. if not, i can call him. okay!

so i went home from the r.s. dinner thing and turned on the tube. and promptly fell asleep! when i woke up sometime in the middle of the night, i looked at my phone and saw that *he had called!* !! *and i missed it!* grrr!

so i called him back the next night. we talked for probably about an hour. just about all kinds of random things. we talked again a couple days later. i think that one was about 3 hours, actually. and again the next wednesday. then on saturday. then sunday ...

and, like seriously, since then we have been talking just about everyday for at least an hour, usually more -- one night it was more than 6 hours! yeah. obviously i like talking to the kid. :P

we went out about two weeks after the singles conference. it was so last minute. my younger sister and her husband were in town for a couple days before going on a trip back to her husband's mission in cambodia. i called cute guy in the afternoon on the monday and just asked him if he wanted to come up that evening. he was kinda quiet and hemming and hawing a bit -- i got a bit nervous and wondered if i had crossed some unseen line -- but then he was just like, "well, i am just trying to figure out what time i would need to leave here." :) so we talked about that. and then he was like, "oh, but aren't your sister and her husband in town? don't you want to hang out with them?" and i responded that, yes, i did, but they would be here for a couple days so it didn't matter that much. and he said, "well, we could just all go out to dinner together ..." so we did! it was kinda awkward: our first date was a double with my recently-married sister and her husband. ... hmmm.

we survived the awkward dinner, went back to my house to watch a movie, then my sister and her husband left. and we made out.

since then, i've been doing the driving down to huntington beach. it's easier to be able to hang out down there and spend time at his house. because, honestly, as much as i love my 70-year-old roommate, i don't really always feel that comfortable having people over to visit my grandma-house. :S

we make out a lot. i sometimes wonder if we have anything else in common. i mean, i realize that i am not exactly being very fair in making this comment, but i do wonder. especially because conversation seems kinda forced whenever we are hanging out in person. we are able to talk for hours on the phone, but when we are together, it's kinda awkward. like last night, for example: awkward.

hmmm.