Dating or not dating.

[NikF]

Update:
As far as I'm concerned the dancer is long gone.
I forgot to message the pharmacist about old times, but I'll do so the moment I finish posting this.
Had a cup of coffee this afternoon with the woman who gave me her number in the supermarket. Meh.
My new friend and I hung out over the weekend. We've both signed up for classes (aerial silks for her, trapeze for me) at one of the local circus skills places in a couple of weeks. We'll continue hanging out until then.

[NikF]

I don't know if anyone remembers me saying how I went to do some (fashion) work in Russia, that while I was there I met an ex Soviet Union gymnast, started dating her and as a result moved there to live with her and work - despite her not speaking any English and me speaking no Russian. This was at the end of our first year and we had both learned a few words. It's a 90 second, low res video, shot on a - I kid ye not - Fisher Price kid's camcorder using a sports finder. (my work cameras during that era were the Nikon D2X - that's how long ago this is from). As ever, it'll only be online for a short time.

I don't want to embed it, so - https://youtu.be/9os_Vsnl8WA

The concert hall a few seconds into the video is where I heard my first Prokofiev, Shosty, and opera - magical years, for a number of reasons. 

[Ghost Sonata]

I don't know if anyone remembers me saying how I went to do some (fashion) work in Russia, that while I was there I met an ex Soviet Union gymnast, started dating her and as a result moved there to live with her and work - despite her not speaking any English and me speaking no Russian. This was at the end of our first year and we had both learned a few words. It's a 90 second, low res video, shot on a - I kid ye not - Fisher Price kid's camcorder using a sports finder. (my work cameras during that era were the Nikon D2X - that's how long ago this is from). As ever, it'll only be online for a short time.

I don't want to embed it, so - http://www.youtube.com/v/9os_Vsnl8WA

The concert hall a few seconds into the video is where I heard my first Prokofiev, Shosty, and opera - magical years, for a number of reasons. 

A very short time...

[Artem]

I don't know if anyone remembers me saying how I went to do some (fashion) work in Russia, that while I was there I met an ex Soviet Union gymnast, started dating her and as a result moved there to live with her and work - despite her not speaking any English and me speaking no Russian. This was at the end of our first year and we had both learned a few words. It's a 90 second, low res video, shot on a - I kid ye not - Fisher Price kid's camcorder using a sports finder. (my work cameras during that era were the Nikon D2X - that's how long ago this is from). As ever, it'll only be online for a short time.

I don't want to embed it, so - https://youtu.be/9os_Vsnl8WA

The concert hall a few seconds into the video is where I heard my first Prokofiev, Shosty, and opera - magical years, for a number of reasons. 

What year was it?

[NikF]

In the past two weeks, there's this girl 

I will elaborate 

Good stuff.

[NikF]

What year was it?

It might be 2005. Or 2004.

[NikF]

I want to explode but mental diarrhea might be too incomprehensible tonight, I'll see where my adventure takes me tomorrow.

There have been three girls I have been "eyeing" and I happened to see one at choir tonight, I'll be making my grand entrance when I see her tomorrow. In classic TFA style, if I make a fool of myself: I'll bloody own it then and there (completely self-aware)    

This will be my official attempt #1 for 2017  0:)

Don't explode.

I repeat, good stuff.

[NikF]

What year was it?

I've thought about it further and I'm almost certain that was from 2005. The reason being, it was around the first time I used a cameraphone to take a photo - this one https://youtu.be/HsNusksYph4

[Artem]

It looked like the 90s to me. Although, Russia looks like the 90s most of the time to me. That must have been quite an experience to live in Russia, Nikf.

[Sergeant Rock]

I've thought about it further and I'm almost certain that was from 2005. The reason being, it was around the first time I used a cameraphone to take a photo - this one https://youtu.be/HsNusksYph4

You posted that photo in the Photography thread...memorable. First time seeing the video though. Lovely woman.

Sarge

[NikF]

It looked like the 90s to me. Although, Russia looks like the 90s most of the time to me. That must have been quite an experience to live in Russia, Nikf.

Yeah, it was an incredibly interesting and formative experience and one I appreciate having.

[NikF]

You posted that photo in the Photography thread...memorable. First time seeing the video though. Lovely woman.

Sarge

She was something else. Womanly as hell. And I mean that in the most positive and broad sense. 

NSFW but tame nonetheless http://i.imgur.com/KlMGfc8l.png  NSFW
Taken with the same old cellphone.

About ten years ago I took my website offline. It had existed in some form since February of 1994. Then five or six years ago we bought new domain names (using a surname I haven't worked under) with the plan to archive my work on one and have a compedium of my photo blog posts (including behind the scenes video clips and even some old Super 8 footage) on the other. But my heart wasn't in it and the domains still point to a holding page at blogger or wordpress. However I've always photographed the women I've dated and/or had relationships with and so maybe I'll post one every now and then along with the accompanying dating story. Perhaps people can learn from my numerous and huge mistakes.


e: https://youtu.be/G5fhWO3yw8E 

[greg]

I've broke a little ice with another girl but I'll lay off updates (and from the girl last night) for a few days, sorry Nik.

It's too soon to say anything except there are two specific girls I really like and I'm going to take it slowly and see which one budges 

Very nice. That's two more girls than how many I've liked in the past several years.

[greg]

Serious? 

I'm so tired right now I am struggling to type, but I don't think polygamy will work for me or not 

It'll work if many things go right 

Maybe a slight exaggeration, since I do have a friend I used to consider dating (about 2 years ago). Other than her, it's been about 5 years since I liked anyone.

I guess because I enjoy more spending my time alone and don't want to commit time to any scheduled/recurring social groups/activities. Pretty sure I've never made any friends outside of school/work/internet, let alone met any girls.

Back in November, there was a group that I hung out with on Saturday (they hang out every Saturday). They're fine, but I just couldn't commit 4-5 hours every Saturday to doing only social activities. Routine and social gatherings just don't do much for me. It would feel like a sacrifice in order to make friends/social connections that could lead to meeting girls, and I already sacrifice 40-50 hours of my week for money, so no thanks. 

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Someone amazing whom I admire a lot has decided to buy herself tickets for a flight to Melbourne this year. I might post here how everything goes because she has told me she is keen to go out. ^_^

[Sergeant Rock]

She was something else. Womanly as hell. And I mean that in the most positive and broad sense. 

NSFW but tame nonetheless http://i.imgur.com/KlMGfc8l.png  NSFW
Taken with the same old cellphone.

Beautiful! the image and the woman.

I've always photographed the women I've dated and/or had relationships with and so maybe I'll post one every now and then along with the accompanying dating story.

Yes, please.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

A date that literally changed my life completely. (A version of this story was posted five years ago in my Leap Day thread but this seems like a logical place for it.)

Folks often criticize novels and films for having seemingly unbelievable coincidences that set the plot in motion or wrap things up neatly. What I find fascinating, though, is how often life really can be novelistic.

It is wrong, then, to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty. --Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being


In 1968 I was 19 and a student at Ohio University in Athens Ohio, a town surrounded by Appalachian wilderness. I had recently broken up with the woman I thought I'd marry. We'd been together two years. The last time I saw her she went suddenly silent in the middle of a conversation and literally walked out of my life forever with no explanation other than a short letter a few weeks later, saying she couldn't make me happy. On Leap Day my best friend drove down to Athens for a visit, and to commiserate.

That evening we were in my dorm room, preparing to go out to a bar, when the phone rang. It was a woman I didn't know; a woman who didn't know me. She and her roommate were bored and wanting male company. Tradition says the female can make the first move in a Leap Year. So she'd randomly dialed a men's dorm room and got me. At first the four of us took turns talking but after a few minutes Marlene and I were in our own world, hogging the conversation, laughing, discussing film, classical music, Shakespeare and my Sophia Loren poster. She was incredibly attractive to me intellectually, and she had a humorous personality. I begged her to meet me at the bar but she refused. She also wouldn't give me her last name, her dorm, or her major. After an hour the conversation ended with her wishing us a good evening. Several days later I got a Peanuts card from her:



Other than that I never heard from her again. A complete mystery woman.

The depression continued for several months, not helped by the death of my German-born grandfather. I stopped going to classes. I dated four women that spring and early summer but each relationship came to a dead end for different reasons. Eventually I pulled myself together. I decided to go to the second summer term to make up for the failed courses. The first three weeks were hell. None of my friends were in town. I was alone and had no luck meeting anyone new.

Three times a week I would climb the hill to the music building for a theory class. Almost from the first day, I noticed an attractive woman who came out of the music building as I was going in or was walking down the hill as I was going up. She was slender, very short, dark hair, with a face resembling Joan Baez. She carried a French horn case....my favorite instrument! But she never noticed me; our eyes never met. She seemed lost to the world, and infinitely sad. I was utterly intrigued (What do I care that you are wise? Be beautiful! And be sad!--Baudelaire) but afraid to say anything to her.

Three weeks into the term my best friend once again came to visit. I was outside my dorm, in the early evening, waiting for him to arrive, when I noticed the horn player about 50 yards away. She was talking to a guy, arguing with him, obviously, but too far away to hear what was being said. After a few moments, she left him, walked towards me, and then past me just a few feet away. She was crying. I followed her.

Now, that was so completely unlike me I marvel to this day that I actually did it.

I caught up with her, asked her if I could be any help. She was so startled she didn't scream or slap me    Instead, she confessed her boyfriend had just broken up with her. We continued to walk while I talked. I don't remember what I said but I had her smiling within a few minutes. Then I asked her about her music; she was quite surprised I knew she played horn. (Today she'd probably call campus security to come arrest the stalker  ) She said the school orchestra was rehearsing the Dvorak 8th...which I'd heard the Cleveland Orchestra perform at the university the previous quarter. Within fifteen minutes she'd reluctantly agreed to a date the following monday (a walk to the duck pond on the far side of the campus--I was penniless). By that time we were back at the dorms. My friend pulled up at that very instant. I introduce him to Marlene...my new girlfriend.

No, at that point I didn't know who she was. I didn't make the connection to the phone call. But a week later she left a note in my mailbox; I recognized the tulips and musical notes she always added to her missives. 10, 000 coeds on campus and the woman who had randomly dialed my number turned out to be the horn player I secretly had a crush on. See, Hollywood, and novels, aren't so unrealistic after all   I don't remember much about that first date at the pond but it went well and we spent an exclusive, idyllic, and often pastoral (in the surrounding fields and woods) three weeks together until the end of the summer quarter. She seemed to be my ideal woman in almost every way. She once played Siegfried's horn call from the roof of the music building as I was coming up the hill to class. She knew how to please a Wagnerite 

So five months after our telephonic meeting, I met and dated her in person through sheer coincidence...or, as I like to call it, merciless fate. Because, you see, (this is another novelistic coincidence), she had the same birthday as the woman who'd broken my heart: 25 February. Marlene was another destructive Pisces. Two months after meeting her, I was once again dumped, and I was devastated. I literally gave up. I quit going to class, knowing this time it was terminal. No possibility for probation now if I failed another quarter. One demon Pisces I could handle. Two, though...well, that was just God kicking me in the ass, showing me the way to my true profession    While home during the Christmas holidays, the university sent me a letter, saying I need not bother returning to campus. I enlisted in the army six weeks later...and that led to a career I hadn't expected, and led me eventually to Germany and the girl who would become Mrs. Rock.

Epilogue: Marlene became a professional hornist. She was, is, a member of several east coast orchestras and chamber groups. And she teaches at the university level. I met her once more, by accident, five years later at Severance Hall in Cleveland at a Bruckner concert (Barenboim conducting the Ninth). That's an interesting story too....well, interesting to me.


Sarge

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

That story was certainly interesting and a pleasure to read! Thank you so much for posting that intriguing tale.

[Sergeant Rock]

That story was certainly interesting and a pleasure to read! Thank you so much for posting that intriguing tale.

Thank you for taking the time to read that rather lengthy tale.

Sarge

[NikF]

A date that literally changed my life completely. (A version of this story was posted five years ago in my Leap Day thread but this seems like a logical place for it.)

...


Sarge

Thanks for posting that, Sarge. It's cool and interesting and insightful.  Yeah, sometimes stuff just happens, but it's amazing how often it's started by having a big mouth that'll welcome any opportunity to say "Hello". 
Like I keep saying to people, get out there and live your life, make the most of yourself for yourself and do stuff - and stop to smell the flowers once in a while and you might just end up meeting one. 


"She was slender, very short, dark hair, with a face resembling Joan Baez. She carried a French horn case..."

That's a beautiful picture right there.