A Year Ago

CB and I met face to face a year ago May 10. We had been talking on the phone a lot, and about a month into it, he asked if I would be interested in going to a concert with him. The catch: it was in Los Angeles. I did say yes, and as I thought about it that night, it seemed like the idea should be fraught with red flags, but try as I might, I couldn't find any, which I took as a very good sign.

So I did it, I flew to Phoenix, and we had lunch, where I (mostly) jokingly said something like that was my chance/ our chance to size each other up and decide if we wanted to spend the next eight hours in the car together. Again, no red flags, so off we went. We talked and talked, and drove through the desert, and past those huge wind farms as you get into CA.

We spent a night (two nights?) in Santa Barbara, where we went whale watching and also to their fabulous Botanic Garden. Colorado's got great weather, but growing up in Ohio, I appreciate really nice weather. It's no wonder people want to live out there. The concert was good, loud. CB provided these very effective ear plugs that saved my bacon. We could still sort of shout at each other and understand what each other was saying, but the volume of the music didn't bother me (and it was crazy loud without the earplugs). It was all wonderful and went so fast.

On the day we were to head back, we went to the La Brea tar pits. Very cool, but I, um, how to say this delicately, needed a bathroom as we were walking around outside. To put it into context, it was a pretty stressful few days (all the good kind of stress, but stress nonetheless), so I guess I'm not surprised that the need arose. Anyway, we're back in the building, I feel funny, and I end up fainting. Indeed, not only fainting, but falling into a display case, giving myself a cut over my eye, upsetting some magnets that were for sale and scaring the hell out of CB. I remember him saying, "what's my name?" Of course, as soon as I hit the ground, everything cleared and I felt much better, so I looked at him like he was asking a silly question.

I was fine after that, but it was more drama than I wanted to introduce to the situation. But it makes for a good story, and I am now ever-wary of magnet displays. It was the beginning of a grand adventure that I'm excited to be part of.