Yesterday I was engaged in a long conversation with an old friend (who JUST emailed me right now, how weird!) on the drive home from work, and the conversation continued as I plopped sideways onto my chenille La-Z-Boy recliner, which ended all hopes of making it to jujitsu last nite for me. I decided to at least go for a run and try to prepare somewhat for the Disneyland half-marathon coming up in a couple of months, and I changed into my running clothes. Before I even got off the phone with the first friend, Dwaine called me. Turned out he had a hard month at work and was looking for a drinking buddy. So off came the workout clothes, on came the casual going-out clothes, Dwaine stopped by to pick me up in his new ’68 restored Camaro, and we were off.

Dwaine in his slick new/old Camaro in a parking garage in Brea

Actually, it didn’t work like that. After first showing off his car, Dwaine came inside where I showed off my chair. He’d heard about it, but never seen it. True to its reputation, the La-Z-Boy sucked in the bachelor and it took some time and convincing to get Dwaine out of that chair so we could go out. He really enjoyed the motors.

nice dash, on the way to Brea

Anyway, Dwaine felt like Italian food so we attempted to go to Market City Caffe in Brea, but it was just closing at 9pm. So we skidaddled over to the Cheesecake Factory near the Brea Mall. The food was wonderful, Dwaine introduced me to a refreshing drink made with Absolut Citron, tonic water, and a slice of lemon, but I ordered a yummy mojito. When the bread came, we found that the foil-wrapped pats of butter were cold, which made them unspreadable. We lamented on this simultaneously and each warmed a pat of butter in our hands. Here’s where Dwaine gets mega brownie points… We were just sitting there, laughing and munching, and I reached for another piece of bread. I scooped up the sliver of butter I had left on my foil and spread it on the bread, which wasn’t nearly enough, but before I could reach for another packet of butter, Dwaine tossed a pre-warmed pat in front of me on the table. He had stopped eating bread long ago. I looked up at him in surprise. “I saw that you were running out of butter and I thought, ‘She’s gonna need more butter!’, so I already warmed this up for you.” How considerate, observant, and gentlemanly! We joked about how a slick a guy would be if he carried around foil packs of butter in his wallet, how one day when it’d come in handy, it’d be more effective than condoms stored in a wallet on winning a girl’s affection, and if you get stuck in a doorway, you can grease yourself out of the situation. I dunno, it made sense when we were drinking. BTW, Dwaine titled this blog post.

He also took the following shot with my camera WHILE driving, with his arm out the window pointing the camera at us. “One of the few benefits to having long arms,” he demonstrated. I was just relieved he didn’t drop my camera on the street, or have a passing car take his arm out.
you're right, his car doesn't have seat belts installed yet. I also couldn't see over the dash in his bucket seats. he thought that was endearing. go figure.