Monday, March 20, 2006

The Coma Waker

Last Friday I went on a date with Garrin. It was horrible. The date was fine; we just went to dinner then to meet up with some friends. But I thought about Tyler the whole time. So, I went on a date with Tyler on Saturday. It was the best date I've ever had. We went to a hockey game then out do dinner. It sounds so dumb, but I love hockey and he let me pick out our date activity. And it was sweet; he held my hand and kept me warm as we walked through the busy downtown streets.

I have continued talking to Tyler since and have been seeing him regularly.

Garrin... since rolling his truck has had it rough. We didn't have a good time on our date and it has become fairly obvious that he has made his decision to go after me. But I am no longer interested. He and I haven't talked since our date a couple weeks ago. Until this weekend...At church on Sunday, I found out that Garrin was in another accident the day before. He had a horrible crash while racing his dirt bike. Flying over his handlebars at 35 mph, he smashed his right side into a solid dirt hill. Unconscious, he was airlifted to Harborview in Seattle. He has head injuries, a broken pelvis and a broken arm in addition to the badly bruised skin that now covers his helpless body. I visited him in the hospital on Sunday, after church. I went with Tyler and a few other friends. It is an eerie feeling to enter a hospital. None of us were sure of Garrin’s condition upon arrival. All a little nervous but optimistic, we entered his small, dark room in the trauma ward to find him peacefully sleeping.We all stood around in shock for a few minutes, absorbing in the fact that our friend lays there comatose. His dad let us know that he had yet to respond to anything or anyone. I sat next to his bedside and began to speak softly to Garrin as everyone else watched. "Hey Garrin," I said. "We are all here to visit you." I continued to let him know who was there and who was all just staring at him. The nurse was yelling to try to get through to him; like one does to a deaf person, or an Asian. But I spoke in a soft, high-pitched voice. Garrin had been moaning and making slight noises all day, but after I began speaking, he began responding. He suddenly opened his eyes. Almost as if jolted, his body shook and he looked at me. "Melissa?" He asked. And be began, incoherently, speaking to us.

WTF??

Did I just wake a guy from a coma? Is this real? Am I in a movie? He grabbed my hand with his movable one and was talking to me about how he wanted to get up and take his neck brace off. He kept saying my name and reaching for me. My eyes welled up with tears! This is the guy that I just stopped dating and I woke him from a coma!

Tyler put his hand on my shoulder and I flipped. "Don't touch me!" Tyler jumped back and I had to get up and move out of Garrin’s sight. I was pretty quiet during the ride back home; I was slightly traumatized.

The 1st Date Curse

*Name changed to protect identity/pride

I went over 2 years without really dating anyone. That was fine, I had crushes. But I had been through a really tough break up and was on a major self-discovery kick. Well... I have been starting to open up to the whole dating scene over the past 6 months or so. But it has not been coming so easily. There was this guy a few months ago, we'll call him DK* (like Donkey Kong). We had been introduced through mutual friends. He seemed great; a little older, studious, charming. I gave my number and a few weeks later we decided to head off to a show at the theater. Great date idea, might I add. But they were my tickets that I had to...I digress.It had been years since a real date and I was overly excited. To my dismay, DK didn't call as he said he would. Was I mad... a little. But I continued to get ready as if the date was still on. The show began at 7, I believe. I was graced with a phone call by the gentleman caller around 5:30 or so. In my anger, I was very short. Now, in retrospect, I do slightly feel guilty. He gave a long-winded story of his soccer game that day and his friend who was in a car accident. He said he had been in the hospital with his friend all day, and that I was not on the front of his mind. I do not expect to be in his thoughts all the time, but there is a lot of down time in a hospital.

We did not go on the date.

Just a few weeks ago, I was finally asked out by a guy, who we'll call Darrin* that I had been friends with for a long while. I was really exited. We had been hanging out with our group of friends and he was finally ready to have just the two of us go out. I was starting to lose interest in him, but I was still excited. On the day that we were finally supposed to go out, he calls on when he knows that I will be on my way home from work; he is thoughtful that way. But he calls to let me know that there is a good chance that he cannot make it for our date tonight. OK, I think. But "why?" I ask. "Well," he says, "I got in an accident today; rolled and totaled my truck." WHAT!! He was so calm about it all. Who just totals their truck? I don't know, I guess a lot of people do. But it made me very sad for him that he was so apologetic when something so tough just happened to him.

The moral...We did not go on the date.

The next day, I met a guy; we'll call him Tyler*. Tyler was a boy that I had noticed months ago but thought was way too good looking and social and flat out too good for me. He is perfect; the epitome of whom I am looking for. Anyways, Tyler and I met as I was trying to get him and another friend to converse. She thought he was cute, he didn't know who she was, and so on. He began to talk to me a little more than my friend, but I did not notice. He tells the story of our meeting differently than I do.

I digress.

He asked me out for that Friday evening. I accepted and we decided to talk about it later that week. He had made plans for us that I wasn't allowed to know about, so I was pretty excited; more excited than I had been with the other dates over the past while. On Friday, while I was at work Tyler sends me a text message that says, "I might be a little late tonight, I'm at the hospital." My initial thought is that he might be working there; he is studying a medical field. But I respond by questioning whether or not he is all right. All he said was "kinda..." Kinda? What does that even mean? Now I am worried. Not for my own selfish reasons that come into play later, but because I might actually like this guy. He calls me a bit later in the afternoon; still at the hospital, to let me know, from his drug induced state, that he still was not sure if he would be on time this evening. He was at the hospital! He works a bit in construction and was hit in the face by a piece of flooring while working. He had to get stitches just above his lip, left of his nose. Funny... how one guy can think of me while at the hospital with his own injury and I do not even cross the mind of another while there for a friend.

We did not go on the date.

But I suppose I have been on second date with these guys. Well... is it a second date, or another shot at the first? I am dating Tyler now, and loving it. I am having a great time, but with my habit of mishaps and trips up with fate, I don't foresee silly circumstances changing anytime soon. Maybe this is a test so I don't just settle for any guy. I will end up with someone who had to work to be with me. All relationships come with mountains, who knew that all of mine would be cliffs?