The Boggle Date: Part 1

Tales from the life of the Keeper of the Blog

The date I refer to as 'the Boggle date' is memorable for two reasons: one, because we played a terrible game of Boggle (to be detailed in The Boggle Date: Part 2); and two, because it was the first time a boy asked me out in person--as opposed to over the phone--and I did not respond very well.

One weekday afternoon, *David, who lived in an apartment down the hall, knocked on my door.

David was genuinely nice person . . . but he was a little weird. At parties he sometimes sat in the corner of the room and sang tunes from South Pacific to himself. Whenever I passed him in our building hallway, he wished me a 'Happy Birthday.' Sometimes this happened two or three times in a single day. I told him he was making me old.

On this particular day, I did not invite David inside (because the boy I liked was already sitting in my livingroom), so we exchanged 'how are you's' at the door. Then he said, "Do you want to go out with me on Friday?"

But since I was, at that moment, totally focused on other boy, David's question sounded more like, "Fla fla fla fla fla?"

I was so caught off guard, all could do was stare--although it may have looked more like a glare--at this poor boy. About twenty seconds later I responded with, "Wait, what?"

"Do you want to go out with me on Friday?"

This time I heard the words, but it still took another ten or twenty seconds for the question to sink in. In the mean time, I continued to stare, open-mouthed, at David. I had heard of guys asking girls out in person, but it had never happened to me before, and I really just didn't know what to do with myself.

Finally, I answered, "Oh . . . um . . . sure. Yes. Um, yes. That--would be fine."

I'm certain that David felt very reassured and confident at that moment. And I felt like a jerk. For not inviting him in--I made him stand in the hallway outside my door (who does that?). For not paying enough attention to answer the question the first time--I've heard some guys have to work up a lot of courage to ask a girl out, and making him ask the question twice is just mean. And, finally, for not responding more enthusiastically, like I should have acted excited(?), happy (?), or at least nice(?) about the upcoming date--I should have said it would be 'fun,' not 'fine.'

I'm sorry, David. You are a nice person. I am moron.