..was a late night.
Met up with boardgame.girl about 10:45 at a localish coffee place. We played 2 games there, until midnight when it closed. I followed her to her apartment, where we resumed boardgame playing. In total, 3 games of Race, 1 Blue Moon City, 1/3 Galaxy Trucker and 1 Glory to Rome. I left at 4:45am. Like I said, a late night.
T'was a lot of fun! The part I particularly enjoyed was when we stopped playing Galaxy Trucker in the middle. I'd finished explaining the rules (took longer than I expected) when, for some reason, we didn't start playing. Instead, we got to talking - about books/authors, movies, theatre, etc. Learned a bit about each other. That part, which lasted quite a while, felt like a relaxed date. We share the same taste in books and movies, though she's more well-read than I am and I'm more well-watched (movie-wise, probably TV-wise too) than she is. It's fairly well balanced. We have many similar interests, similar tastes. It was pretty cool.
The only downside, and it's a minor one barring repetition, was that she kept receiving and answering texts on her phone. I haven't seen her do that at a boardgame meetup and she professed it was very unusual for her, so a minor thing.
I can also sense a small rift based on income. She's a starving artist, I'm a patent agent. I'll have to watch that - if/when we do go out, I'll have to try not to wine & dine too much. Make it more occasional, more low key. Ditto on purchases, or at least on relating all my procurements (which are more numerous than they should be). More and more, this is making me think that I have it really good with my job and income, much more so than I appreciate.
Quick note. This location seems to be more of a temporary gig for her. She tends to move around a lot, from theatre to theatre, as she has shows to do. This summer, she's going to be in MA. This upcoming week, she's on Long Island. Her current show in Fairfield County is ending at the end of March, which means she'll have more free time coming up, at least in early April (rehearsal schedule instead of show schedule - means free nights instead of free days). This also means I won't see her again until next Friday, boardgaming at ConnCon.
So my current "plan" (as it were) is to send her an e-mail about what movies she'd like to borrow from me and plan on seeing her on Friday night. At that time, ask her if she's coming back to the Con on Sat. or Sun. When I do see her that last day/night (or maybe before), ask her if she'd like to go out for dinner some night in the first week of April (possibly stating "on me" or "my treat" or such). I don't have a restaurant in mind, maybe I'll think about possibilities this week, have some options going in. Hopefully she says yes and we go from there.
Incidentally, haven't told her yet about my living situation. That will come, at some point.
I know what I'm about to write next doesn't really mean anything because until she says yes to a real date there's no hard evidence, but I'm going to write it anyways. Why? Maybe because I'm hopeful. Maybe because I like to remain optimistic. Maybe because.. I really don't know for sure and I want to grasp and hold onto any shreds of alleged evidence, real or imagined. Besides, it keeps with my regular pattern for how these things go.
Good signs: Exchanging phone numbers. Agreeing to meet up (just us) for boardgaming. Meeting up for boardgaming rather spontaneously. Going to her apartment at midnight to continue the games. Talking for a bit without boardgaming. Similar interests and tastes, including sense of humor.
So we'll see what happens. Stay tuned, intrepid readers, when next week we discover if she'll *gasp* go out on a date with me! (Keep your fingers crossed!)