Game On

This is only cursorily related to my interaction with Katie.  I am wondering, when what you have been hoping for is a chance for companionship, and a slight opportunity presents itself for said companionship, how do you keep from getting too carried away by that possibility?

I am a cigar is just a cigar kind of guy.  I am not nuanced.  I pride myself in seeing things as they are, sticking only to the facts, and never donning the rose-colored glasses.  Matters of dating and love and romance are based on projections and perceptions of feelings of one person toward another.  I am adept at neither projecting nor percepting.  I think you can see my dilemma.

Often, when I sense the possibility of romantic possibility, I jump the gun.  I once took a girl to dinner and an outdoor movie in Little Italy, who later told me, I acted too much like I was on a date.  Can you see why this whole dating area of life confuses a "just the facts" kinda guy?   I knew this woman from high school and hadn't seen her in about 18 years, or so.  I found her pleasant in both personality and appearance, so I asked her to dinner and the outdoor movie, which, by the way, was "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando, so she even got the benefit of my recitation of the "I coulda been a contendah..." line.  Still, no dice.  I was not making any kind of play to try to get her into bed, not even going for a kiss, but she still had me pegged as having "acted too much like I was on a date".  I mean, what else do you call it when a single guy and a single gal go out for dinner and some fun at a social venue?  To me its a date, regardless of what happens down the road - to her, not so much. 

That is what gives rise to my notion that I am grotesque and repulsive to women.  Otherwise, what's the harm in calling a night out on the town - platonically, romantically or whatever - a date?  Or, maybe its just all semantics...?

"It's All in the Game", Tommy Edwards.