Just Chillin’ It

Way back in January 2010 I got a friend request on Facebook from a girl that I didn’t recognize. Usually such a request is a spam bot, but after looking at her profile, I realized that we went to the same high school, so I accepted her request, even though I couldn’t remember her at all. As the years went on we would occasionally comment on each other’s posts, but there wasn’t very much communication. On July 18^th of this year, I had gone to see Mile… Mile and a Half at the Athen’s Theatre in Deland and had been so impressed by it, that I made a post on Facebook. I got a comment from her stating that two of the people in the film were her family friends, that she had seen the movie as well, and that she was planning a hike on the John Muir Trail.

Now I can be pretty oblivious to a lot of things, like being friends with a very cute girl for three and a half years and not truly realizing it, but a cute girl-next-door type who’s into hiking – sign me up! Since that day, I’ve communicated with her much more and really took a liking to her, but since she lives in Los Angeles, I just chalked it up to another long-distance infatuation filled with could-have-beens.

She came back to Florida for a week for Thanksgiving, but since I didn’t know she was coming and I already had a busy weekend with the holiday, scuba diving at Devil’s Den, hang gliding, going to the gun range, and running a marathon, I never got a chance to meet up with her. Of course, I didn’t even realize she was in town until the day before she left, so there wasn’t much opportunity there. We continued chatting on Facebook and one day she posted a motivational video, tagging a couple of her friends. I commented that I had used that video as an alarm clock in the past and a couple hours later I got a message from her.

Apparently one of the people she had tagged in the post was the CEO of her company and he saw my comment, my profile picture of me scuba diving, and my cover photo of me hang gliding. He had thought their company could use more people like me. I’m not sure the people at my company would say the same thing – but ignorance is bliss I guess. We talked for a couple hours about the company, which does a lot of things that I have no experience in, so the discussion kind of fizzled. I had been to Los Angeles once before and did not care for it at all, so moving there for a job that I knew nothing about wasn’t appealing, though the thought of working with her certainly intrigued me. The logical part of my brain kept telling me that was a stupid reason for taking a job and moving across the country, though the emotional part of my brain didn’t think it was the worst idea.

She came to Florida once again for Christmas break, staying in town until the Saturday after Christmas, when she would leave that night to road-trip to Arizona for the UCF game at the Fiesta Bowl. After diving at Blue Grotto with a buddy, we had stopped at Sonny’s for lunch and I pulled out my phone and contemplated sending her a message. I wasn’t sure at that point how long she was in town for, but I knew I’d regret not asking, so I sent her a message just asking how long she was in town and if she had any time to hang out.

She didn’t have any plans that day until seven, but doing the math in my head of how long it would take me to get back to Lake Mary, I realized that it wouldn’t be until after six. She replied that she was available the following morning, so I agreed and we exchanged phone numbers – much easier than Facebook chat. That night I lay awake, anxious thoughts running through my head and preventing sweet slumber from taking me in its embrace for several hours, but eventually I did doze off. I awoke at six the next morning and decided to wait until closer to eight before texting her, especially since she’s used to being on the west coast.

Around seven-thirty I happened to check Facebook chat and saw that she had been active recently, so I sent her a text and we agreed to meet for breakfast. She said she needed to take a shower and then she’d be ready. After a half-hour of waiting I got restless and decided to wait by my car and get some fresh air. It was raining, so I kept mostly to the edge of my garage while waiting for her to text me back. Finally she said she would be ready around nine – I’ll never get used to how long it takes girls to get ready.

I got in my car and drove as slow as I could, willing each light to turn red so I could turn my ten-minute trip into a fifteen-minute trip. Once I got to the development where her brother lives and she was staying, I drove past it and wasted a few more minutes driving to the end of the road and back. I turned into her development and got lost looking for the address she gave me, but eventually found it. There were at least three apartments in the building and I had no idea which one it was, but she said she would come out and find my car.

I stood by my car, bopping away to some music while I waited and eventually she came walking out and greeted me with a hug. We got in the car and headed off to IHOP for breakfast. She asked me several questions about my “favorite” things, most of which I couldn’t come up with a single answer for. She said she hated “favorite” questions because it always depended on her mood, so I asked her why she kept asking those questions.

If I hadn’t fallen for her before, the next couple hours would certainly had done it. While talking about places we would want to live, I rattled of several states and countries and she seconded the nomadic lifestyle. When I told her I hadn’t seen any movies all year other than the new Die Hard, she said she always preferred to read than go to the movies. She prefers going hiking over going downtown and she’s a complete geek when it comes to space. She had a shower curtain with a map of the world and every day she’ll pick a letter, find a country that starts with that letter and research it.

When we finished eating and got back in the car, I asked her what she wanted to do. She said she needed to throw her clothes in the dryer, but after that she was up for anything. We agreed on going to Seminole State Forest – a nearby frequent hiking and camping spot of mine. As we pulled back into her brother’s apartment complex, I scanned the radio and asked her what she liked. She said she liked any type of music and was fine with country music. I parked and we got out and headed to her brother’s apartment where he and his buddy were moving his stuff out since he was moving to Maryland. I met both of them and waited for her to finish getting her clothes in the dryer and grabbing some shoes for hiking.

We got back in the car and headed to Seminole State Forest, singing along to the radio on the way. They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but a girl singing along with country music (while sober) will always pique my interest. We made it to Seminole State Forest and parked by the lake, then headed into the forest following the Florida Trail. During the hike she battered me with more “favorites” questions, many of which I turned around on her.

She pulled out her phone and checked for geocaches, something I had heard about for the first time on my first trip in this forest. There was a cache at the shelter a mile in, which was our destination, but she needed to find five clues previously in order to locate the cache. We stopped at the shelter and she checked it out – she was impressed by it and thought all trails should have them. I told her about the Appalachian Trail having them every few miles the whole length of it. We moved on up the trail for about another mile before turning back. We both agreed that hiking in Florida wasn’t as nice as hiking in California or Georgia – flat is easy, but it’s also boring.

We kept trading places walking in front or behind each other. When she was in front of me, I tried to focus on just walking, though with her grey painted-on jeans, I couldn’t help but check her out a couple times. I felt a little guilty doing so, but it didn’t help that she kept putting her phone in her back pocket and pulling it out – all that movement is going to make my eyes curious. She kept stopping and making me walk in front of her – though I wasn’t sure why.

On the way back we discussed family – we both have siblings much older than ourselves – we talked about various hardcore activities, which we had also touched on earlier during breakfast such as running marathons – she likes half-marathons, but doesn’t think she’ll ever do a marathon – climbing Everest, and places we’d like to visit – Greece is high on her list of places to visit – and we discussed acting, since she lives in LA and feels like the only person who isn’t trying to make it out there. I revealed to her that I took acting a couple times in college for fun, which she found more interesting than I thought she would.

She wanted to know my favorite thing that I had done in 2013, which I couldn’t decide so I rattled off a few possibilities – scuba diving, hang gliding, hiking on the Appalachian Trail, or driving to the Outer Banks to meet my sister, niece, and nephews. She said that every day she writes down her favorite moment of that day and then every month she’ll pick her favorite moment of that month, so-on until she has her favorite moment of the year. I thought that was an extremely cool idea. At one point she asked my favorite country song of the week – another “favorite” question, really? After much debating with myself, I chose Drink a Beer by Luke Bryan. She wouldn’t reveal why she was asking me all these questions.

As we exited the forest into the parking lot, we made our way over to the pier that juts out over the lake and as we got there she showed me an app that lets you put music to video. She had been taking video of me walking and put it to Drink a Beer – or at least, two lines of Drink a Beer.  We walked out on the pier and looked out over the water, enjoying the view for a few minutes before heading back to the car.

As we left the forest, I scanned the radio stations and landed on one just starting to play Chillin’ It by Cole Swindell. I started bopping along to it as I usually do and she egged me on to sing along with it and turn it up, so I turned the radio up as long as it would go and completely got into singing and dancing in my seat. “I got my shades on, top back, rollin’ with the music jacked. One on the wheel, one around you, baby!” Once the song ended, I turned the radio down and she said that was her favorite country song of the day.

I scanned the radio again and landed on a classic rock station playing the Eagles, followed by Tainted Love. I took the more scenic route back he her brother’s place and when we got there she said he should only be another five minutes. I offered to wait with her, so we chilled in the car waiting. She pulled out a pair of glasses from her purse and gave them to me to try on – they had mirrors, so you could lay down and read a book without having to crane your neck. She also showed me a book that a homeless man had stolen from a library and given her after a two hour conversation. The book was about fractals and how the universe is made of up them – she said it was mind-blowing. I recalled a book I had read in the summer about the origins of the universe including string theory and M theory, as well as videos I’d seen online that were mind-blowing, such as VSauce’s Is Your Red the Same as My Red? video.

She also pulled out a geocache kit that she had bought and showed me all the little geocache boxes, plugs, etc. There were some so small, the tip of my finger was bigger – it’s no wonder you would need clues to find the exact coordinates. She showed me more apps on her phone, including one that she works on. She mentioned that the next place she thinks she wants to live is in Colorado, even though she had already mentioned that she hates the cold. She quizzed me on my Advanced Open Water Diving Course book, which I hadn’t even read a single word of yet.

We discussed science and religion – we both love science and find religion to be pretty inane. She’s a huge fan of Niel deGrasse Tyson; I’ve watched a few internet videos of his and I like the guy, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a fan. It took almost an hour before her brother showed up, so we killed most of the time singing along to the radio and talking about random things. Once her brother arrived, we said our goodbyes and parted ways.

I had a few errands to run, so I went and did those and while driving around, Drink a Beer came on the radio. The next day while driving to and from Manatee Springs State Park for diving, Chillin’ It came on the radio a few times. Now I have one more reason to like both of those songs.

It’s hard to pick one thing as my favorite thing about Saturday – in general, I’d say just hanging out with her was my favorite thing. We were just chillin’ it.