A little over a year ago, I don’t remember if I had written about this… incident… but I had met another girl. The scene was a nightclub. Dark atmosphere, loud music, and a good amount of alcohol. It was an after party for a Deaf Basketball tournament that I volunteered with. After being invited by a very nice (Deaf) Chinese woman named Flo, I embarked on what would be a strange, almost uneventful journey down another path with another girl. Of course, this is the whole purpose of this blog: To detail my many romantic encounters with the fairer sex.
Upon arrival, Flo greeted me with a smile and a handshake and proceeded to introduce me to a few new people as I was fairly unknown to the Deaf community of the area. She instantly introduced me to her sister-in-law, Edith, and Edith’s daughter, Gussie. I was fascinated by her name and shocked at her ability to sign and the passion that went into each sign. Gussie was easily the most beautiful girl in the room and though the venue was fairly empty, it got busy quick. At one point, she was commandeered by her mother and a group of people that she had known before and I was forced to mingle with other people. The crowd seemed pretty uninteresting, just a bunch of people who already knew each other talking amongst themselves leaving me an outsider. I wandered around until I was joined by one of my then classmates, Dani. Dani and I started to work off of each other more and it was simple to talk to her which worked out quite well. The more people that filtered in, the more people there were to try to meet. I tried to chat up a good number of girls as well as a good number of guys, but nothing really caught on. A little bit later into the night, I found a solid group of slightly older guys to talk to about various things in Deaf history or life, etc. But there was a moment that really seemed to slow down time and as much as I try to tell myself that time just doesn’t do that, this memory only plays in half speed. I was talking to a man whose name I don’t recall, but he had a beard and my eyes began to drift as he started to address not only me, but 3 or 4 other people. As my eyes began to wander, keeping his story in my peripheral the whole time, I saw the spinning, flashing lights flash over dark brown hair with blonde streaks. I saw the shimmer of red lipstick, and I saw the flash of her eyes. I took everything in in that moment from her hair down to the bottom of her dress that barely touched the floor. I absentmindedly signed “excuse me” to the group I was involved with and wandered over to Gussie who was standing alone by a pillar. That night, we talked about all sorts of interpreting things but as hard as I tried to steer the conversation to topics of life or phone numbers, it always ended up back at interpreting. I may not have mentioned this, but Gussie is a Coda (Child of Deaf Adult) thus she is hearing while her parents are Deaf making ASL her first language. Time passed much quickly now to make up for the time that I spent oggling her in slow motion and before I knew it, her mom swept her away for the drive back home to Stockton. I was lucky enough to snag her facebook information, though.
For the next year, I would only see Gussie once over skype, talk to her on the phone about 7 times, and sporadically text her about non important things that almost never fully get discussed or resolved. As gorgeous as she was, she was very hard to hold a text conversation with. And one day, it would all cease. I remember calling her and talking to her for an hour before the conversation switched to relationships and I finally discovered that she was single. She told me about what she wanted in a boyfriend and I did my best to steer the conversation to the traits that I have, real or otherwise, that matched what she was looking for. As time rolled on, I had friends to meet up with and I bid her good night with the promise to call her later. Unfortunately this later didn’t come. Despite my texts and calls, she didn’t respond to me anymore. I truly believed that that was the end.
Two months ago, however, something happened. Something quite unexpected. I received a text from Gussie. A simple greeting that turned into some semblance of a conversation. This conversation led to the discovery that we were both available on the upcoming Thursday night.This revelation led to me being invited to her house to hang out with her that Thursday night. Appalled and bewildered, I graciously and eagerly accepted the offer and it was set. On the drive to her house, I received the text “did you eat yet?” Of course I hadn’t, especially not with the goal being to buy her dinner thus tricking her into a date type of situation. Long story short (cuz there’s oh so much more story to tell that will not be done tonight nor in this post) we ended up going to Macaroni Grill. The conversation of the night covered a wide variety of topics that aren’t even worth mentioning here, but the conversation was so fluid and natural with few breaks or pauses longer that a few seconds. We would speak when we weren’t eating and sign when we were. The back and forth of it all was so flawless that I didn’t realize which language I was in that I would flip back and forth between languages within the same sentence. The night was great. I even met her siblings who seemed to like me too. Within 2 weeks, I would be invited back to her house.
The second time I saw Gussie, we had planned to go on a hike on a Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I was to close at work the night before, meaning that I would not get off work until roughly 3 A.M. After saying this to Gussie, she suggested that I stay at her house Friday night/Saturday morning after I finished work. There was much debate about me just sleeping in my car so as to not wake her up and she insisted that I call her to wake her up so I wouldn’t have to sleep in my car. And then there was a problem with her phone and she didn’t receive any of my frantic calls to wake her up resulting in me sleeping in my car. When morning came, she felt so guilty, ambling out of her house in a not designed to be sexy but oh so attractive sleeping dress, I suppose, signing sorry over and over again. As she got closer, I smiled at her through my bleary, sleep deprived eyes and signed “you’re fine.” As I got out of the car, she pulled me close for one of the tightest hugs I’d ever been involved in. This type of hug became our standard greeting and departure. As it turned out, Gussie had tweaked her neck somehow and didn’t feel up to hiking, so we went to lunch instead. And then dessert. And then we watched a movie… And then we hung out with her family more… And before I knew it, I was getting asked to stay a second night so I could take them to Dim Sum and show them some more authentic Chinese food. That night, I drove from Gussie’s house straight to work for another closing shift. For the next two months I would see Gussie on an almost regular weekly basis without fail. I would send and receive texts to and from her for the entirety of the day starting with a “good morning :)” either from her or me. We would talk on the phone at least once every day, and Skype calls would be almost a regular routine as well. Somehow after a year of shoddy attention, I had wormed my way into this girl’s life in a matter of days. But the closer I get to her, the more I get to know about her, the more I am beginning to feel like it’s all a big mistake and that this is all a terrible decision. This, however, is a story for next time; probably tomorrow.
Until then,
Helpless Romanticist
helplessromanticist 