Pick Out the Seeds and Stems

It's strange how immediately comfortable I feel around certain people.

I became friends with Lindsey a few months after I started working at Chili's, but it was just six months ago that we really started hanging out and doing things outside of work.

Eventually Albert, Lindsey and I began spending time together on a regular basis, and shortly after that I went to Albert's house, and there I met his dad.

Al is a unique man. He's been smoking pot daily for nearly 30 years, his best friend just died at the age of 38, and Al quit his job two days ago on a whim and decided, essentially, to take an early retirement.

There are some people I will never feel comfortable around, even if I want to.

Initially I thought Al might be one of these people, because my friends' parents aren't normally in the habit of conspicuous daily long term illegal drug use, but the better I get to know him, the more he becomes almost like one of my friends in personality.

Yesterday Linds and I went to Albert's to bring him some yummy chocolate chip cookies we baked earlier in the evening, but we ended up staying quite some time.

Lindsey and Albert watched a show in Albert's room, while Al and I sat in the living room watching Psych and then Scrubs. As soon as I walked in, Al said, "Hey Sarah, what's up? I rolled us two joints." So I parked, smoked, watched some shows, then ate a piece of apple pie with black walnut ice cream Al offered me.

In no way, shape, or form am I at all attracted to this man (I feel this requires a preface) but if I dated someone who gets along with me in much the same way that Al does, and is just as laid back, he would melt my heart.

I guess this is a good place to segue into my recent (kind-of) dating adventures.

Ken has been talking to me more since we last saw each other at his and Justin's joint birthday (or was it after Divebar Disco III? sometimes these outings seem to blend into one another).

He told me earlier in the week I should go to Pulp this past Friday. Although clubbing isn't really my scene (or rather the location of the club), I had thought about going anyway because Jeff's birthday was Friday and he had asked me to come out.

I got out of work relatively early for a Friday night, took my bank and headed uptown to party. As usual, Pulp is much more entertaining when you aren't sober, and I was.

I talked to John for a little while, he asked me where I wanted to go on our date. Then Justin (whom I'm assuming was playing wing man for Ken) forcefully thrust himself directly (and literally) into the middle of our conversation and prevented me from talking to John. Later, John was found gettin' down on the dance floor with a blonde girl that he would later take home, along with her dark-haired friend that Justin was trying to have sex with.

We closed down the place. There was some talk about an after-party as John's. We walked to his house, three blocks away, to discover that he was in fact not home and also that he had left his loft apartment totally unlocked and unsecured. He didn't make an appearance, so we adjusted the plans to move the green party to our own town, except we split off; two-thirds ventured for falafel, while the other third (Ken and I) made our way back to Justin's where we would kick off more drinking (or any drinking, for me) and wait for the hunger fiends to satiate their longings.

We waited, the two of us, for an hour and a half and the others didn't reappear. We jumped on the trampoline for a while, and that's where Ken kissed me. On the trampoline. It was kind of fun.

After nearly two hours of waiting, we decided to leave. I took Ken home, since he left his keys in Justin's car which was apparently still an hour out of town and had no intention of departing until the following noon. It was so early in the morning it was late, and he asked me to come in with him. So I did. And I slept there. But I did not sleep with him.

I don't necessarily think I want to see him again, as more than a friend.

There's something brewing in my head, I just need to crack it open and figure it out.