Dana
02-11-02 10:02 pm

I met Dana at Crossroads. Loree and I had taken to attending the weekly poly get
together there, and she showed up a couple times. Initially, I was superficially
interested; she was cute. But she had Problems. Plus, I'm /still/ not capable of
initiating anything so intimate as a conversation with a girl I find interesting
(horror!). So my interest waned and faded. She didn't show up at crossroads for
a while and I forgot about her. Then, some time later, she started appearing
again. And I'd forgotten my previous opinions, and she didn't seem so
Problematic anymore, so I was again interested. At Catherine's Yule party in
2001, she seemed... somewhat friendly. Being high on the list of Oblivious
People, it's hard to say. But I was doing my best to be friendly to her, in my
best public-flirting-with-a-stranger way (which is pretty pathetic, I think all
will agree). Some time after that party, Loree tells me Dana has expressed
interest. So I invite her to new years. And she misses it 'cause she's sick. I
found out the day of the party, as we're prepping. I spent the rest of the prep
time being mildly depressed and probably a bit snippy. I invited her to the
followup party we threw, ClovenFruit 2. She missed it. Sick again. Hard not to
start getting paranoid about this, you know. This time, she calls during the
party. Fortunately, I'm already drinking at this point. I hang up the phone,
scream loudly, then go back to the party. /Finally/, I get her to come over. We
arrange to go to a movie on sunday. At the last minute, it's decided to do
brunch at nerdvana, so she comes to that. By the time we're done talking, she
has to leave to go gaming. But, see http://martian.at/blog?entry=36 for the
aftermath. There are a lot of entries about her from that time period. Anyway..
during the post-brunch conversation, she tells me I'm 'fucked in the head'..
accurate enough. That evening, loree and I decide to go out to dinner. We end up
inviting dustin and dana out, and we go to Claimjumper. After that, back to
dustin&dana's for a couple hours, and dana and I engage in some negotiations,
then loree wants to go home. Thus ends our first date.