It's all about perspective, a positive attitude, and a healthy dose of reality......

So all joking aside about yesterday's date with T, it really was a great day.

Sure, sure, all the things I outlined in last night's entry really DID happen, but none of it took away from the enjoyment of the day.

Oddly enough, some of it actually added to the enjoyment.

So yeah...he was an hour late, due to a nasty nail that punctured one of his tires on the way into the city. I was actually starting to get a little worried...wondering if something bad had happened on the way, maybe he'd gotten lost getting into the city, maybe he was lost inside the market...

It occurred to me that we hadn't done a very good job of planning things. Without a cell phone, I had no way of contacting him. I finally got the idea of borrowing a friend's phone to call him...I was happy and relieved to find out that he was fine, inside the market, and our day could finally begin....

The farmer's market was great. Any of my "regular readers" will know what an important part of my week the market is for me. I love it all - everything from the coffee to the crowds. It was nice to be able to go there with T and share with him some of the reasons why it's so special to me. The best part was that I really had the feeling that he "got it". He had a great time walking along behind me in the crowd, talking quietly in my ear, making me laugh and grin like an idiot....I didn't find out until a little later that he was **totally** keeping a straight face the whole time, making me took like even MORE of a lunatic to the other market-goers. This, of course, made me laugh all the more...

The best part about the market, for me, was how natural it all felt. There was zero "awkwardness" between the two of us. Hanging out with him "in person" was just as comfortable and fun as hanging out with him online.

After the market and dropping off my stuff at home, we had to detour to Canadian Tire. T was completely apologetic and a little embarassed about the whole thing....but honestly, I didn't care. We were having such a good time laughing and chatting away that it totally didn't matter. Lucky for me, he didn't seem to mind (much....heh) at the checkout when I rolled my eyes at him and informed the cashier that no, he didn't need a plastic bag at all, and crammed his purchases into my oversized purse. BAH! He's got a lot to learn about the David Suzuki way....

So he quickly discovered that there was no way he could fix the tire himself, and we were going to have to find a place to get another tire. Again...more apologies by him...which I quickly brushed away...because it really didn't matter. Shit happens, right? All I can say is, thank God for the kind dude who took pity on us and fixed the tire despite the fact that his shop has been closed since February... I love it when I get random surprises by how utterly great people can be sometimes.

After driving all over creation and getting the tire fixed, (T does a much better job of re-capping the whole day on his blog), we were able to continue on with our day. We hit the museum, which was fun despite some of the cheesy exhibits (in fairness to T, we BOTH made fun of some of the exhibits...and we had a blast doing it). We wandered around downtown before the restaurant opened...chatting and laughing and just having a great time. We hit one of the great candy stores we have in the city, my favourite sock store, and just wandered around for a while. I love downtown and doing exactly that...it's one of those things I don't get to do nearly often enough...

Dinner was great. Yeah, I dribbled artichoke dip all over myself. However, as with everything else that had happened during the day, we had a good laugh about it. It was nice to just be with someone and not have to worry about "impressing" them....I just enjoyed being myself, enjoyed him being himself, and relaxed knowing that it was all good.

During the day, not only did we have a lot of laughs together, but we had some good serious conversations as well...everything from our kids, to politics, to the problems with the education system.

It's funny. When I think about the day, I can see all the potential for disaster. Hence last night's blog. I mean, let's face it....with two different people, it could have been a complete and utter disaster. But the thing is, when you're with someone that you really like being around, it's easy to just go with the flow and work with it. It's really easy to have a good time with someone when everything goes as planned. The real challenge comes when things go wrong, and you're able to have fun not just despite it, but because of it. Instead of getting caught up in all the "wrong turns", we just worked with it...and kept smiling the whole time. Whenever I think back to yesterday, I'll remember T standing in that (closed down) tire shop, waiting to see if dude had a tire for him, making silly faces at me through the window as I sat in the car waiting with amusement, to see what was going to happen next. I don't know if I ever smiled as much as I did yesterday.

In fact, I'm still smiling today.

Oh - and PS - I actually LOVED the 80s music. It's one of the many fun things that T and I have in common. I can hardly wait until I feel a little more comfy so he and I can belt 'em out in the car together.....