Wow, it’s been more than two weeks since I updated. I’ve been spending most of my words continuing to give internet dating a try. It takes a lot of words, but not so much that I can’t hit an every other week target for the blog. Anyways, today’s story starts on the most recent first date I went on as a result of all the words spent on internet dating. The plan was to go to dinner followed by ice skating with an option for coffee afterward. Coffee, of course, means hot chocolate for me, cause I don’t drink anything else served at a coffee shop.
I met the girl after walking to the T. I was, of course, sporting my nice coat and my one pair of dressy-ish leather (or faux leather) warm gloves. She was late so I had to wait inside for a while, and so I took the gloves off and shoved them in my kind of small coat pocket. That was the last time I remember having the right handed one. When we got off the T I went to put them on and it was missing. By the time I was sure I didn’t have it the train was gone and any chance to go back was lost, so I didn’t mention it.
I did alright without gloves until it was time to ice skate; most of that time was at dinner anyways. And, actually, I did well at ice skating without them as well. My date suggested that I could improve my technique my making less use of my arms, and keeping them in my pockets was a good way to remember not to use them. My ice skating technique is most akin to how I ski when I need to pick up speed on flat ground, it takes wide strokes and a lot of energy. Not using the arms did help; although, I feel square on my ass once this time, an increase from my previous attempts of one. While skating I noticed that I was not the only one without gloves, my date was also gloveless having forgotten. Apparently, that’s part of a pattern for her.
That was Friday; on the following Sunday I went in search of replacement gloves, since getting a back a glove lost somewhere on the Red Line is clearly a crapshoot. As much as I enjoy all the neat little one of restaurants and such that populate Boston’s commercial districts, when I need something quickly, and have strict, known requirments for it, I like to go to the kind of shops I used to from the Midwest. I feel like I’ll be able to get in, get what I need, get out, and pay a fair price more easily with the familiar box stores. I went to Khols. I sent about 20 minutes roving the store in search of winter accessories, eventually finding a clearance rack that looked like the huns had sacked it for months. Sadly after much inspection there were no suitable gloves. The was a Marshalls in the same strip, so I checked it out; having never been there but understanding it to be a closeout kind of place. Also no dice, err gloves.
I considered going to Target, but time was short so I just went to the closest real mall I could think of, the Cambridgeside Galleria. There was a Macys there, jackpot, they will surely… well that had non-lined, women gloves that from the outside kind of looked like what I was looking for, but lets go with no dice. I checked all the other mens’ clothing stores there, all with spring fashions. So, I realize that the clothes come out a season early so people can buy looking forward. But it is literally the dead of winter, and gloves are lost on the T every day. Really, it is to the point that I saw a news story about it. It should not be this hard to find a damn pair of warm dress gloves! So I went home and turned to the internet. After some searching I settled on a good look pair of gloves only to realize they were being sold by Target through Amazon.com. In need of gloves quickly, before a possible second date, I went to a Target, but alas they only had the gloves online.
So I looked more on-line and I got the gloves pictured. They came in a package that advertised police gear such as Kevlar vests and other types of badass clothing for police. I think they look pretty damn sharp, especially when I make a fist. They are not as soft and padded inside as the old ones, but they might be warmer since they use some space age insulating material. They fit great, and I have them now, although waiting a week for them was not what I wanted. Sadly a lack of gloves was on the short list of things I had in common with my date, so there will not be another.