Dinner and Movie

There was a show on cable called 'dinner and a movie' where a couple of journalists go through a recipe during the movie breaks. I did the dinner and a movie tonight. I was a little late, had a hard time finding the restaurant since it was in an unfamiliar town to me. But she's still interested, yay for that. It was tough dealing with the rejections before, knowing any mistake could be fatal. I like having margin for error, but don't care to abuse that privilege either. We ate at a TGI Fridays and was going to see 'Unstoppable' starring Denzel Washington but switched to 'Due Date' starring Robert Downey instead, since it started about 15 minutes later, gave us more time. I'm starting to feel more comfortable now since it's the 3rd date. Maybe she is as well but she was a little shaky tonight, when I asked her about it she said she was nervous.  I noticed it in her hands and she said it was why she got BBQ sauce on her shirt, it was a Winnie the Pooh character shirt, Eeyore the sad donkey.
    I think I'm learning a lot about myself since I started dating much more, like how sometimes one must lie to themselves and act confident until one really does feel confident. I recall a friend from work- sometimes referred to as my 'Ohio friend'- saying what I lacked most at the time was confidence. This was somebody who worked in sales, and being around them I understood the importance of good  salesmanship no matter who you are and what you do. Since sometimes what you need to sell is yourself instead of goods or services. One line I spoke resonated with me tonight, it was how I found out my life became easier to live when I started living it more for me and nobody else. It's the theme of the Alanis Morrissette song 'Perfect', how sometimes parents want the kids to succeed where the parents didn't. Or the Nurse Hathaway character on "ER" explaining her suicide attempt- how it was due to trying to live her life for others. Whatever happens, I know I will be fine now since just showing up and trying is an accomplishment. Having a few successes helps too, knowing what works and what doesn't.
   We did discuss our circles of friends more than before. I felt like I had to after the dust-up surrounding my announcement of the scheduling conflict when unable to attend a friend's comedy show. One of them said she was 'imaginary'. But I did well on defending myself, sharing a few details about the planned evening to satisfy them. I was declared the winner, guess being a dour comic can be effective. She spoke of one of her friends wanting to meet me, unsure why but it is an unusual request. She even said her friend wanted to make sure I wasn't some creepy guy. She told her friend it was still early, and this is true. I don't have any plans yet of when to introduce her to any of my friends, but I think my college roommate who lives in a nearby town is likely a better candidate than most or all of my comedian friends. After the date I went to a Blockbuster video store and found 'Drumline', a movie mentioned after seeing the Grambling band perform at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas during the Texas State Fair. Also picked one up about somebody on an odyssey to see Roberto Clemente's milestone 3,000th hit. There was a Hispanic couple there and it was fun to see how body language crosses language barriers- how the woman playfully hit her man after he said something, seen it before.
   Another notable event today was getting two books at a Barnes and Noble, one about Lincoln and the other about cultural literacy. Both were in the discount section. Saw somebody who commented about my Chicago Blackhawks jersey, for once it wasn't somebody turning their nose up at me. I live in a hockey-mad region so they just liked seeing a hockey jersey. So we spoke about hockey for a while, including how there was a book signing there that day. There was even mention of how both of us have met sports novelist Ross Bernstein, apparently he churns out books at an amazing rate.