Our story, part 1: The thrill of the chase?

These are a little different from the instruments the quartet was playing.

So how did a buxom loudmouth and a skinny, shy guy fall for each other, anyway?

After my move to Boston, I quickly befriended a group of Harvard and Brandeis composition students, joining them on Tuesdays for their "Beer Night" at a Cambridge pub. One of these composers, Ken, had written a piece for a percussion quartet from Yale that was being performed in the middle of March. Before Ken mentioned the concert to me, I actually saw an ad for it in a different concert program and thought to myself, "...hmm... percussionists... maybe there'll be cute boys!" (In my experience, percussionists are often boys and often cute. Broad generalization, perhaps, but it worked for me.)

source

After the concert, a large group of people made its way to the Hong Kong (a dubious Cambridge landmark) for mediocre Chinese food and highly potent "scorpion bowls." Unbeknownst to me, this quiet guy named Tim (a member of the percussion quartet, whom I'd just met) had told the rest of his group that he'd met a tall, dark stranger and would catch a train back to New Haven the next day.

I have to interrupt this story to mention this: knowing Tim as well as I do now, I cannot believe that he was so forward. I'm still very flattered and slightly dumbfounded every time I think about it.

Anyway, over drinks at the Hong Kong and a long date the next day (Tim attended a particularly painful concert of mine), I tried to make it clear to him that I wasn't interested. This, of course, was complicated by the fact that I... um... was. Thus began a difficult month during which Tim spent absurd sums of money on train trips to Boston, initially under the pretense of visiting Ken and another mutual friend - until I caught on. 

The Timmy Train

Unfortunately, his efforts were thwarted by my telling him I didn't think we should get involved. After all, upon moving to Boston, I had signed up for JDate and gone out with (as Tim now refers to them) JLawyer, JDoctor, JArchitect, and JCollegeProfessor. They were all bum dates, but I was still convinced I would meet and fall in love with a Jewish non-musician. Hmm. Obviously, I had a very, very hard time coming to terms with the fact that I really liked this drummer guy.............. despite the fact that we talked on the phone for several hours every night, and there was an obvious connection.

Up next: how I stopped being stupid.

Were you ever in denial about being in love with your mister or missy? Did s/he surprise you with hidden personality traits... like unadulterated brazenness? ;-)