Well, the wait is over. For me at least.
After nearly four months in Dallas - a record-breaking span of time in which I have been as celibate as a nun - I finally got some. This may not seem like a huge deal to many of you, so let me take a few moments of your time to point out the hurdles involved. Following the hurdles part, I'll share some details about the lovely (and lucky!) lady. Welcome aboard!!
Part 1: The Dallas scene.
As any regular reader knows, Dallas is very different from San Diego. The same goes for Dallas girls. While both cities have the same proportion of drop-dead gorgeous girls, the Dallas lifestyle (as exemplified by the term "The Beverly Hills of Texas") means more pretentiousness than this SD boy is used to. The guys are trying REALLY hard to appear wealthy (They're called "Thirty-thousand-dollar millionaires"), and the girls are used to the dividends that this kind of macho one-upsmanship pays. Well, I don't play that game. Just because a girl grabs my butt and smiles at me doesn't mean I'm buying her next round, especially because it is expected. Take for example, the folllowing exchange that happened two weeks ago, at an uptown club. The girl in question had been smiling flirtatiously at me me from across the room for a couple of minutes. I had turned my back to her to order another round for myself and a friend. Here we go:
GIRL: (Tapping NIK'S shoulder) Hey!
NIK: (Turning, surprised to see that GIRL had crossed the room so quickly) Hi!
GIRL: (Holds empty glass up) You got my next round?
NIK: (Smiling, nodding) Not at all.
See? This is the kinda thing that makes me want to drink at home (if, of course, I didn't live in a dry county and I could get booze in my area). There's this bizarre kind of qualification process that the girls have which involves What You Do, Where Else You Hang Out, and Whether Or Not You Got The Next Round. So I lie. But in a bad way. I'm: a postal carrier, a busboy, a maintenence man, an out-of-work writer, a boy scout troop leader, a forklift operator. She's: just on the way out of here, looking for the girl's room, not interested, glad to meet me and sure she'll see me around. It's my only form of entertainment some nights. I finally found some cooler places to hang out, so those kind of evenings are coming to an end.
Part 2: My personal struggle
First and foremost, I am not established here in Dallas. I came here with a carload of shit, and that's all I got. No apartment, no furniture, just a bunch of books and a bike. While to me this is the most free I've ever felt, others see this as "he doesn't have any stuff."
Also, my living situation is hard to explain: "Where do you live?" Up in Allen. "Why so far away?" Because the rent is free. "Why is the rent free?" I live with a family. "Your family?" No, A family. "Oh."
Another big deal for the Dallas girls is that I am poor right now and will not pretend otherwise. The whole point of coming here was to pay off debt, not live an extravagant lifestyle buying drinks for any girl who cares to wink at me. When I go out drinking here, it is a treat, as opposed to San Diego, where it was a habit.
Plus, I don't know where shit is. I have not heard of all the hip lounges and swanky bars where cool people go to see the Mavericks getting drunk. I know of maybe five places to get a drink, and I don't really like three of them. My ignorance is apparent to any Dallas local.
So any girl that I hook up with has to accept the fact that I own nothing more than books and DVDs and clothes and a beat-up car, that I live far away and with a family that is not mine, that I don't have any money in the bank, and that I have no idea about what is and isn't cool in this crazy city. I bring exactly me to the table. That always seemed to do me fine in San Diego.
It finally worked out for me in Dallas.
There's a bar called Vickery Park, which is as close to my kind of bar as is possible. Pubby, not Clubby, and the music is always great because the bartenders take turns playing their iPods. The girl in question is a friend of a friend. She reads the same books I do, likes the same movies, rides bikes, can hold a conversation and her liquor, and has an artsy streak (fashion design major). She also has her own place. Hooray!! Oh yeah, she's hot, too! Plus, it wasn't a one-time deal. So I'm pretty stoked. Now that I know there's cool girls out there, and I know where to find them, Dallas is looking a lot better.
San Diego still makes Dallas look like shit, though.
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