Finally

So, a month after I got Katie Joy's phone number, I went on a date with her last night. I was starting to wonder if it ever was going to happen.

We went to dinner at Jade Palace, a Chinese place here in town. I've only been there once before, but have wanted an excuse to go back. Katie Joy told me she really liked Chinese food, so this was a perfect opportunity. I picked her up shortly after 6p. She lives out of town toward Roundup. It's about 16 miles from my house (where's the transporter?). I was very excited and a bit nervous driving out there.

I met her parents, and her younger brother and sister. They all seemed nice. Mom was holding a knife when I met her; she was preparing dinner or something. Someone made a crack about her sending me a message. They laughed and so did I. It did seem straight out of a movie.

She looked very pretty, wearing a nice tank top and khakis. Her hair is dark and just past her shoulder in length. We ate dinner and sat talking for awhile before going to my place and watching a movie. After that, I took her home. She said she had a good time and I did as well. Some observations:

1) She didn't say it in so many words, but I got the impression that the fact that she is eight years younger than me (she is only 20) made her hesitant to go on a date with me. Perhaps being a divorced father of two factored into it, as well, but the age difference did seem to be somewhat of a concern to her. When I first started thinking about asking her out, it was something I thought about, too. Talking to her, though, she seemed quite mature and so I worried about it less.

2) What was more of a concern to me, and I knew this before I asked her out and had it confirmed last night, were her religious beliefs. She goes to Faith Chapel and is very involved in it. I have no problem with that. What does make me nervous is the tendency for those of the evangelical tradition to be intolerant of different beliefs. The sad part is that I believe very strongly in God and Jesus and try to keep that in the forefront of my decision making process as much as possible. It annoys me that so many Christians claim that their branch of Christianity is the one true branch and everyone else is a Hell-bound heathen. I don't know where exactly on this scale Katie Joy is, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about it.

3) Two laugh-at-Shane moments. The first was at the restaurant. After paying the bill, I went back to the table to leave a tip. When I came back, Katie Joy asked, "Did you put the tip on the wrong table?" I looked back and she said, "Yeah, you did. You put it on the table next to ours." I moved the tip to the correct table. She got a big kick out of that. I laughed, too. It's not the first, nor will it be the last time I absent-mindedly do something like that. In fact I had another moment later that evening.

I was driving her home. She made a crack about me driving "crazy" apparently because I take turns quickly. I told her I didn't want her to be scared and slowed down to 15 mph. She laughed a little, but then really started laughing when she had to tell me I was about to turn down a one-way street. I looked at the street sign and sure enough I was. I needed to turn at the next block. She was laughing hysterically and so was the pedestrian who saw it and probably saw her laughing at me.

4) She doesn't like Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Talking earlier, she mentioned loving Monty Python and the Holy Grail. She hadn't seen MoL or Life of Brian, so we decided to watch one of them. She picked MoL, but, as it turns out, she didn't like it. Really didn't like it. She had a big problem with the sex ed skit (which includes the teacher having sex with his wife to demonstrate for the students) and the nudity in the skit in which the man gets to choose his manner of death and has a dozen topless chicks in thongs chase him off of a cliff. The nudity especially bothered her because she said she found it degrading. I told her that I don't like nudity when it's done just for titillation, but that if it has a point as it did in this movie I don't have a problem with that. She wasn't convinced by my argument. I guess I'll try to avoid watching movies with her that have topless girls.

5) I had a really good time. She said she did, too, but she's nice enough to say that even if she didn't. No, I think (hope) she did. I like her. She's smart, pretty, independent, has goals for her life, sarcastic (always a bonus), and funny. I do want to go on some more dates with her. I'll probably call her tomorrow.