Dear DDS,

For our second date, I came up to Richmond (my mom lives there and I was in town for her birthday anyway. No, I did not drive 3 hours just for a date).  But, of course, I had to have some sort of emergency.

The emergency this time: makeup.  I was shopping with my mom, and they were doing some makeovers at Lancome. I was in the market for some new makeup so I let the lady do my eye makeup, and I pre-ordered some neat summer shimmer eye shadow.  We head to some other stores and my eyes are itching like crazy and turning all bloodshot. Holy crap. I'm having an allergic reaction to the eye shadow.

So I hustle back to the department store. The Clinique counter has the best eye makeup remover, so I get that done.  Only now my eyes are red and puffy.  And without makeup. Crap. So I had her cancel the Lancome order.  Turns out they have a lot of perfume in their products.  Clinique doesn't.  Stick with what you know.  So I had to get a complete makeover at the Clinique counter, because the eye makeup removal process messed up the foundation, etc.  So that set me back by about 1 hour.

So basically, I ran home, changed clothes and then headed back out the door to drive the 40 minutes to Richmond.  I get to his apt, and have to parallel park.  I don't parallel park.  So he had to come down and get in my car and help me, but from there, the date goes smoothly.

He takes me on a driving tour of Richmond.  We go people watching and for a walk along the river at Belle Island.  Then we head for drinks and appetizers at Legend Brewery.  The place has a large deck and a great view of the skyline.  Since I'm not a beer drinker, I got a coke and tater tots.  Classy, I know. We watched the sun setting over the city before heading out to our next stop.

After that we head to a wine tasting at C'est Le Vin.  Turns out DDS is friends with the owners.  And they love him and are super sweet and generous.  So our wine glasses were filled and refilled.  With really really delicious wine.  And by tasting, they apparently meant, drink an entire glass for a taste.  I was pretty buzzed by the time we left there to go to dinner.

We had dinner at Tobacco Company. I loved it.  It was delicious food, and a really nice atmosphere.   Very Richmond.  After that, we headed back to the wine bar to complete our tasting.  While the food helped sober me up, the several more glasses of wine completely reversed that course.  And so I finished off the night way too inebriated to drive back to my mom's house.  So I go with him back to his apartment to sober up.

His apartment is downtown, and on the top floor, it has a great view of the skyline.  So we people watched and ate the delicious cupcakes he had bought me.  They were delicious.  He remembered that Frostings is my favorite Richmond bakery, and he had got one of each of my favorites.  Mucho brownie points there.  And so our first kiss was in front of the Richmond sky line.  A much more romantic scene than the guy puking his guts out in Raleigh.

After a while, we fell asleep.  But for the dirty-minded among you, no nothing happened. In fact, he said he didn't want to mess up anything because he really liked me. I know. Aww.

-W