Saturday, December 12, 2009

We met over liver, no onions

It was a super slow day at work and I sat at the touch booth reading Eight Weeks to Optimum Health (I highly recommend it). A few people filtered through to pick up a kidney or poke at the liver while I described its functions and answered the usual questions about gallstones and the falciform ligament...and then he appeared.

At first he was just another guy in a hoody. He had just picked up his jacket out of coat check and stuck the ear buds to his iPod back in his ears when he approached the booth. I asked if he was interested in touching a specimen, (there really is no way to say that without sounding kinky) and the conversation took off from there. It was a little strange that the ear buds never left his ears, but it was intriguing conversation anyway. We talked about the chiropractic program he had just graduated from, his recently celebrated birthday and of course the liver, while other guests filtered through to touch an organ and ask about their various health concerns as if I was actually a nurse in a walk-in clinic. Twenty minutes later he was writing his name and number on a organ donation card and handing it to me.

Yes, that's right! I successfully landed a date while at work, in a lab coat, while fondling preserved organs!

We settled on lunch the next day, but there was one catch. He was leaving to go back to his hometown and then taking an amazing job in a faraway land. The truth is I don't think I would have agreed to a date like this had I not been writing a blog. It was fun to go to lunch with him, but I don't think I was feeling the connection he felt with me. During lunch he talked about how lucky he was to have met me and how he wished we had met at the beginning of his stay. Although I enjoyed his company and we had good conversation, I just wasn't blown over by the whole thing like he was - he was so nervous he couldn't even eat! How is that even possible?!

As the date came to a close we exchanged e-mails and said our goodbyes. There have been some text exchanges since, and it makes me wonder what exactly he's thinking is going to come of this. When is a date just a fun outing between two people that enjoy each other's company and when does it become something more...especially when those two people happen to live really really far away from each other?!

1 comment:

  1. I've been wondering how this date went! Thanks for updating your blog...

    Sam

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