Athena T.

This was the day I decided to use the discovery flight, which came with a Groupon for ground school. Since then, I have logged roughly fourteen hours. I have been busy traveling for over a month, so I am behind hour-wise.

I have barely weighed myself since Christmas time and ever since this year started, due to the family cat, Whitmore, spraying the landing between the first and second floor often. I hate walking over it, so I always wear socks and only go upstairs when necessary. The scale is in the upstairs bathroom and has metal sensors to calculate the muscle, fat, water, caloric percentages. However, it is unable to make those calculations if one is wearing socks. So, I have had my first significant increase in at least the past few years.

It does not help family and friends have been giving and/or wanting me to eat fast food with them. I ate food from Taco Bell, Burger King, In & Out, and Sonic’s this past week. Normally, I only eat fast food maybe once or twice a month during drum corps rehearsals.

It also does not help I have been having some unknown trouble and/or injuries with the left half of my body, primarily including the big toe, foot, ankle, and knee. Still need to get it checked out by a real doctor someday, as people at clinics do not even offer to do an x-ray when I tell them I suspect a fracture.

The current plan is to use various iPad applications on diets, tracking health, and so forth.

1st Date: December 6th, 2011: Originally, we were going to make plans for having tea together. On a whim, I invited David to my stage band’s usual winter concert in San Francisco. So, we met up in the reception room afterwards and went off to Alameda’s Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge for drinks. They closed at midnight, so we sat in my car looking up possible ideas and/or places to go. It was around one in the morning when we settled on IHOP due to being hungry and not much else was open in the East Bay, with the exception of Denny’s. Since home for both of us was south, we drove to the Union City IHOP and had a late night snack. He had the country fried steak? I had strawberry pancakes. We called it a night at about 3:00 AM.

2nd Date: December 9th, 2011: We met up for dinner at Back-A-Yard Caribbean Grill in Menlo Park around 6:15. He had the fried catfish fillet. I had the curry goat and corn festivals. We beat the crowd. Afterwards, we went in my car to a friend’s residential area in South San Francisco? to see their usual display of Christmas lights. We drove one of the blocks and walked the other, getting there before the crowd of cars. Then, we went to San Francisco’s Embarcadero Holiday Ice Rink and skated during the 10:00 session. We left the Tower 2 Parking Garage around 11:40 PM and went towards Crepe Temptations to see if they were open. Unfortunately, they close at 12:00, so we sat in my car looking for other dessert places still open. We tried Na Ya Dessert House. He had a chocolate ice cream cone. I had the Ferrero Crepe, and chose chocolate and green tea for two scoops of ice cream it came with, and a tapioca milk tea drink. I think they gave me the wrong flavor and thought I wanted chocolate flavored milk tea. I don’t think he liked the place. I really enjoyed it, however. We drove back to Menlo Park afterwards, arriving at approximately 2:00 AM.

3rd Date?: December 11th, 2011: I invited him to the Gingerbread House Making and White Elephant Party I was hosting. It started at 7:00, but he, and other guests, did not arrive until about 7:30 PM. He learned to play Mahjong with two of my friends who finished early. We did the White Elephant gifts around 10:45 PM. He picked the Hawai’ian themed present of a lei and two Aloha Bay candles, I mysteriously wrapped in two used paper toilet rolls with bows covering each end and ribbon covering the tape joining the sections. Afterwards, we went to In-n-Out with three of my friends, two were the ones he played Mahjong with, before giving those same two rides home. Then, we went back to my place and I fell asleep against his lap while we watched “Futurama” and “Family Guy”? on television for about an hour before he had to go.

4th Date: December 21st, 2011: After all-day assemblies with my band kids, I went home to wash up before meeting him at his place in San Jose. We left my car in his garage and left for the gas station and Gilroy at about 4:15. We got to Gilroy Gardens around 5:25 for their holiday lights. We left about ten minutes? before the closing time of 9:00 PM and headed back towards San Jose. We were hungry, went to the San Jose BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, and were seated around 11:45 PM. We finished eating before 1:00 AM and went back to his place. Dinner did not go so well and I was ready to go home and sleep, after having been up all day on about two to three hours of sleep. He said I could spend the night and sleep on his couch, but told him it was okay and I would just pull over if tired. We exchanged hugs, as usual, and he asked if we would be dating when he returned from his trip to Italy. I told him if he would like to, then I would like that. He then asked if he could kiss me. I told him I felt bad because we just ate and I didn’t have a chance to brush my teeth or eat a mint. But I still let him anyway. It felt uber awkward, so we tried again and it still felt weird. He asked me if I wanted to come in and I told him I did not want to distract him from packing for his flight. He said it wouldn’t, so I told him I would only go in if he promised he would not miss his flight. We went inside and took a look at some his things, including books, sitting out. I picked up one on road trips to take in California and sat down on his couch to look at it. We cuddled while looking at the book. I was sleepy and so, we cuddled longer, but made sure he set an alarm to ensure he would still be able to pack. We left his place at about 5:00 AM because he had to be at the airport around 6:00-6:15 for his 9:00 AM flight.