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Still Catching Up
Jul. 9th, 2015 12:06 pmSo much to talk about!
After the ceremony, our friend Mik stayed with us through Tuesday. He flew in from Tortuga.
Mik is one of those people who travels so much (he's originally Dutch, mostly lived in Australia, and has spent time on every continent but Antarctica) that we were not surprised to hear that he'd be flying in from the Caribbean. However, I'd thought from following him on Facebook that he was in California. Danae tried to figure out what flight he was going to be on, but couldn't find anything coming from airports around the island. When he arrived, we asked about our confusion. Turns out that Tortuga is also an intentional community in the San Francisco Bay area. Oh, ok!
It was wonderful spending time with Mik and Danae together. We introduced him to new board games, spent a while snuggled on the couch with a movie, and had some really good conversations. He and I have some similar (though not identical) baggage from past relationships that I think it was good for both of us to talk about. He's also a map geek, he loves exploring cities, and is deeply concerned with social justice issues. I really wish he wasn't so far away; I'd like to spend more time with him. He does do a lot of traveling though; maybe I can lure him out to New York State some time....
On Tuesday, I got to spend some time with another guy I'm enjoying being around lately when I drove out to Erik's new place in Carpentersville. I helped him get a couple more dressers moved from his old place (good thing I had Danae's car!), then we took his dog to the nearby dog park.
He's near what may be the world's best dog park! It's huge, and in two sections: there's an open grassy area for dogs to run around and play in, and there's a wooded area in back with winding paths through underbrush and tall trees which all feels very wildernessy. The whole area is fenced in, so dogs can go explore to their heart's content. I loved it. And Erik's dog is, in temperament, so much like Doug from Up. He's pretty mellow most of the time and lives to just be around his people. I think more dog-time might be on the menu for future dates.
We were both pretty exhausted; he from moving and and starting a new job and me from ceremony prep and crazy hours. At his place, we snuggled on the couch in front of a musical, the 1960 movie version of Can Can, each of us intermittently napping as the film progressed. When it was done and we were both feeling a little refreshed from our nap, we drove out to Darien for pizza.
I had a Groupon for Jet's pizza in Darien. It's an hour away from Erik's place, and even further from mine. This is what happens when you buy a Groupon without carefully looking at the description. The time passed so quickly in good company on the way there, though, that when I noticed we were only ten minutes away I honestly though I must have misprogrammed the GPS. It felt like fifteen minutes had gone by instead of fifty!
The two of us took our pizza to a nearby park for an impromptu picnic in the beautiful golden light of approaching dusk. Finally, after a nice ride back to Carpentersville full of conversation about things like photography (where else but with a professional photographer will you ever hear a phrase like "Corporate sent someone to the branch to show us how to shoot babies"?) I dropped him off at his place about nine and headed home. I wish I could have taken him up on his offer to come in and stay longer, but I had to meet up with Lisa to get her belt back to her (I've had it for about two weeks now) and start catching up on other real-life stuff.
After the ceremony, our friend Mik stayed with us through Tuesday. He flew in from Tortuga.
Mik is one of those people who travels so much (he's originally Dutch, mostly lived in Australia, and has spent time on every continent but Antarctica) that we were not surprised to hear that he'd be flying in from the Caribbean. However, I'd thought from following him on Facebook that he was in California. Danae tried to figure out what flight he was going to be on, but couldn't find anything coming from airports around the island. When he arrived, we asked about our confusion. Turns out that Tortuga is also an intentional community in the San Francisco Bay area. Oh, ok!
It was wonderful spending time with Mik and Danae together. We introduced him to new board games, spent a while snuggled on the couch with a movie, and had some really good conversations. He and I have some similar (though not identical) baggage from past relationships that I think it was good for both of us to talk about. He's also a map geek, he loves exploring cities, and is deeply concerned with social justice issues. I really wish he wasn't so far away; I'd like to spend more time with him. He does do a lot of traveling though; maybe I can lure him out to New York State some time....
On Tuesday, I got to spend some time with another guy I'm enjoying being around lately when I drove out to Erik's new place in Carpentersville. I helped him get a couple more dressers moved from his old place (good thing I had Danae's car!), then we took his dog to the nearby dog park.
He's near what may be the world's best dog park! It's huge, and in two sections: there's an open grassy area for dogs to run around and play in, and there's a wooded area in back with winding paths through underbrush and tall trees which all feels very wildernessy. The whole area is fenced in, so dogs can go explore to their heart's content. I loved it. And Erik's dog is, in temperament, so much like Doug from Up. He's pretty mellow most of the time and lives to just be around his people. I think more dog-time might be on the menu for future dates.
We were both pretty exhausted; he from moving and and starting a new job and me from ceremony prep and crazy hours. At his place, we snuggled on the couch in front of a musical, the 1960 movie version of Can Can, each of us intermittently napping as the film progressed. When it was done and we were both feeling a little refreshed from our nap, we drove out to Darien for pizza.
I had a Groupon for Jet's pizza in Darien. It's an hour away from Erik's place, and even further from mine. This is what happens when you buy a Groupon without carefully looking at the description. The time passed so quickly in good company on the way there, though, that when I noticed we were only ten minutes away I honestly though I must have misprogrammed the GPS. It felt like fifteen minutes had gone by instead of fifty!
The two of us took our pizza to a nearby park for an impromptu picnic in the beautiful golden light of approaching dusk. Finally, after a nice ride back to Carpentersville full of conversation about things like photography (where else but with a professional photographer will you ever hear a phrase like "Corporate sent someone to the branch to show us how to shoot babies"?) I dropped him off at his place about nine and headed home. I wish I could have taken him up on his offer to come in and stay longer, but I had to meet up with Lisa to get her belt back to her (I've had it for about two weeks now) and start catching up on other real-life stuff.
