...our first dates

Our first date was about... 14 or 15 hours long I think. We originally planned to just drive up and try this new coffee house in East Nashville which dared to call itself Portland Brew Coffee, and then maybe head over to REI and the Fresh Market next door, and then come back down to Bell Buckle.

Our journey to Nashville began with me tying the bumper up onto Doug's Rav4 with a piece of nylon cord. One side of it had somehow become disconnected from the rest of the car and had a tendency to flap wildly at 80-mph speeds. At least, that's what I envisioned happening; it was quite saggy and mobile and floppy when tugged upon. Doug was completely unperturbed. That same knot is still holding that bumper steadily in place, more than 2 years later. My farm-girl skillz come in handy that way.

So we drove up to Nashville, got coffee (which Doug declared to be adequate), and while we drank it we picked up a Nashville Scene and discovered that the independent film festival was happening right that very minute. We decided that we should see a real movie in a real theatre! We bought tickets to a late afternoon movie and since it was only noonish headed over to REI. Then we got hungry and decided to have a picnic. So we picked up some wine and cheeses and prosciutto and crusty bread and headed over to my favorite park, Percy Warner, to have our picnic on the stairs.

It was pretty sweet and romantic in a wonderful high-school sort of way. Only with wine.

We went to see our movie, Hipsters, a Russian film. It was perfect. There were awkward and hilarious Kama Sutra scenes! Like, actual illustrations from the Kama Sutra laid over during some of the love scenes. Hilarious.

After our movie we still weren't tired of each other's company, so we decided to go back to Bell Buckle and walk. We meandered around the town and wound up sitting on a blanket on the soccer field until the wee hours, watching fireflies and feeling like mischievous kids.

Our next date was a couple of weeks later, it lasted even longer, and we had an amazing time with each other and saw another wonderful film, The Secret of Kells. This date was slightly more remarkable because we somehow managed to drive all over Nashville blissfully unaware of (and barely escaping) the horrendous flood of 2010. We were literally driving and walking around in places that, just a few hours later, were many feet under floodwater.


But we survived. And we never stopped talking.

Once we got started, it wasn't long at all before we fell into a wonderful and natural rhythm of deepening friendship and sweetness.