"I'm gonna take my time...

...I have all the time in the world."

Last night was utterly fantastic. The Prototype called me at work; she was fortunate to get off early (and get paid for a whole day!) so she had been walking around Covent Garden taking it easy. We talked for a few minutes, made plans to meet up at a posh pub called Slug and Lettuce, at which point she stated that she was "excited to see" me. I was pleased.

I showed up at the pub, which happens to be near where she lives, and of course because I'm blind even with glasses, didn't see her. She saw me, though, so it worked out. The conversation was typically intense and intellectual. I gave her Noam Chomsky's latest book for Christmas (my one and only Christmas gift to anyone this year), which she loved. She had mentioned last Saturday that she really wanted to read it and I filed that away (I have amazing drunk memory).

As is typical in this country, our evening would not have been complete without two anecdotes. First, out of the blue, two lads just have at it - grabbing each other, punching each other in the face, headlocks - the whole enchilada. Now, the Prototype is very sensible in a crisis and immediately grabbed me and took me outside (we were sitting by the door). After a minute or two, the bartenders finally broke it up and roughly tossed one dude out. In short, that's a snapshot of Britain. I can count on one finger the number of times I've seen that in the US and it happens on a nightly basis in this country. Maybe it's alcoholism or maybe, as my neighbor put it, some people just schedule a bout of fisticuffs on a routine basis for no reason at all.

The other anecdote was emminently more peaceful and more amusing. As I said, we were sitting by the door. At one point, this total gnome walked in - he was short, balding, old, and just had that crazed British look going (a little like the "freak" in Goonies - bad teeth and all). He sees the Prototype, walks over, and asks, "are you married yet?" I'm like, uh, give us some time, you know? He turns to me and says, "Don't delay, you don't want this one to get away." Later, when I went to the toilet, I come back and that same old dude is now back talking to the Prototype. When I get back to my seat, he says, "See what happens when you go away? I'm chattin up your lady." With a cackle, he was off. Gotta love the crazed Brits.

At any rate, aside from the fact that the evening was just a great, great time, I got some answers that I had been needing. I expressed that I was confused and just needed to know where I stood - knowing my status is important to me. She stated that she "loved hanging out with me" and that wants to see me regularly, but that because of her unstable situation, she just wants to take things slow. I'm totally down with that. It is not without a sense of irony that the woman I'm totally mad about wants to slow things down given my penchant to recklessly look before I leap. I don't know what the future holds, but my sense is that slowing things down is a good idea for me personally. When I like someone as much as I like this woman, I think I have a tendency to rush things, maybe we all do. But rushing things is the wrong idea because it makes you more vulnerable emotionally than a fragile (new) relationship is able to handle. To me, she's the hummingbird (a familiar theme in the sordid history of women I've dated). I have to walk a fine line because I don't want to scare her off, but I also have to express enough interest to keep her interested (ok - I think I've handled that particular task).

Finally, I stopped off at my neighbors' last night to wish them a Merry Christmas. We ended up getting into an intense political discussion which lasted almost three hours. So, I rolled to sleep at 3 AM, only to wake at 530 to call the Prototype and make sure she was awake so that she could catch her train to Paris, only to go back to sleep until 8, so that I could get up and go to work. Yes, sleep deprivation is an artform. All in all, the sleep deprivation that I'm currently enjoying was well worth it.