Too Many Rings, Too Many Tigers, Too Many Cats

Day: 7
Dates Remaining: 41

Starbucks is really quite the place. Somehow, I have become a junkie. I'm currently planted in one of their big cushy chairs, watching people come in and out of the door and reflecting on the past week. What a wild seven days filled with interesting people and experiences. It's hard to describe all of the emotions, frustrations, amazement and excitement brought on by this project.

Going on seven dates and a night of speed dating all in one week is definitely a first for me. And I can't say it's going to be the last week of its sort since I have six more weeks to go for 50 Dates in 50 Days.

On another note, a handsome, tall, attractive guy just walked in the door. It was nice when he noticed me and smiled. He went to get a drink but kept looking back in my direction. How flattering. On his way out, his eyes met mine and he smiled again. Then, SMACK! He wasn't watching where he was going and he walked right into the door. It was priceless! Everyone at the shop turned around to see what had caused such a ruckus. We both laughed but he looked so embarrassed as he scurried out of the coffee shop.

Unfortunately, my date this morning was not as cute and comical as Mr. Walk Into the Door.

Today's date, Too Many Rings, was an interesting character. Though he didn't blow me away, he definitely knew the meaning of chivalry. He picked me up this morning, opened the car door for me (this is all new to me!), and took me out to a brilliant, stuff your face, all you can eat brunch. Since I have the appetite of a pregnant cow, it was fantastic. Hopefully I didn't turn him off by eating three times as much as he did.

On the car ride to brunch, I noticed that Too Many Rings really wore too many rings. It was tough to count how many fingers didn't have rings on them since there were rings everywhere! And these weren't just any rings but large, bulky silver rings that clinked together as he moved his hands around the steering wheel.

Even more intriguing than these rings were the little stuffed tigers on his dash. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt but when he went on about his tiger fetish and started petting the little toys, I began to wonder...

But brunch was fine. The conversation was good, but not great. The connection was okay, but not fantastic. Good thing the food was marvelous. Over course of the the meal, Too Many Rings became more interesting as he talked about his great ambitions to travel and mountain bike. Nonetheless, I was eager to get on my mountain bike so I wanted to talk, eat and get the show on the road.

I became a little more eager to get going when Too Many Rings somehow got the idea that telling me the following story was okay: "When I was young, we had a couple of stray cats that my parents would feed. One of them got pregnant and had a big litter of kittens. One day the kittens were there and the next day they were gone. When I asked my Mom what had happened to them she said, 'There were too many cats so your father put them in a plastic bag and drowned them.'"

Yikes. Not really a story for a first date. I was trying to hide my discomfort as he went on to talk about how sad he was about the kittens and how his Dad was tired of feeding all the cats.

We wrapped up with bit more chatting about traveling before Too Many Rings drove me home so I could get out on the bike for the afternoon.

It was a well needed bike ride to relieve a bit of stress before the upcoming week of complete mayhem that starts with a radio interview tomorrow morning on Jack FM and another on AMP Radio.