My Blog For You

After that date and the wonderful time, we watched Neil Diamond perform, Tammy and I talked on the phone every day after work of course.  Our relationship continued to grow.  Word got out that Tammy was dating this guy.  I had not told anyone of my kids, friends, no one.  Nobody had met me yet, her kids, her mom, her sister, her brother, none of them.  She had told some of her friends, I found out later.  They all wanted to meet me and check me out.  It felt like an inquisition.  Not really, but it was like an important interview.  Being that we were one hundred and twenty plus miles apart from each other the only time to have this “interview” was on the weekend.  In our conversations Tammy would tell me bits and pieces about what she had told others, her mom, her daughter Christina, her associate Cecily at her office.  I don’t remember sending Tammy any pics but there must have been something she got off E Harmony and printed to show any of them.  Apparently, she got positive vibes or reviews about my picture, enough that they all told her which she told me later, “they all wanted to meet me”.  I drove down Friday after leaving work a bit early to surprise her at her massage room office.  Getting there was quite an experience.  Getting down the I5 freeway to near Kelso/Longview I checked off in my mind the Tacoma area, the Olympia area, the mile marker for 27 miles to Castle Rock, the signage to Kelso, then Longview.  I was now in the zone, and I was fine.  It was once I got off the freeway that things began to get interesting.  The GPS said do this but that was like going the wrong way on a one-way street.  I knew better so I would not go that way and it would “recalculate”.  I finally was able to get off the I5 freeway and on to the city streets of Kelso then thru to Longview, had a bit of trouble navigating for the first time my way thru Kelso and Longview but finally arrived at Tammy’s office address on the far end of Longview.  I parked out on the street.  I walked into the clinic entry, door on the left.   I said, “Could you direct me to Tammy’s office”.  I did not tell anyone that I was coming but I got the strange feeling that she had shown whatever picture she got of me to everyone in that office.  “Oh…they said, do you have an appointment”?  I said…No.  The receptionist said bravely, “Is your name Rob”? Guardedly I said, “Yes”.  Oh good”, she said, “I will let her know you are here”.  She directed me to the other entry point, the door on the right.  I walked out the door and into the door on the right, sat down in one of the seats in the waiting area waiting for her to come out.  She came out to meet me ike she was in with a client and said in a rush, “Hey, I didn’t expect you, what are you doing here”?  I said, “That is kinda what a surprise is. I came down to surprise you and take you to dinner”.  Is that OK or do you have plans?  She said, no that is not a problem, but she acted like it was an issue.  “Do you want me to leave?”.  “Oh no, she said, just wait here I am almost done for the day”.  Somehow, I started thinking in my mind I had made an error, a mistake in coming all the way down here on a Saturday.  We had not talked about any of this.  In my mind that was the best reason for the surprise.  I began speaking under my breath and then out loud. “It was not the right time for a surprise. Too early man, way too early”.  That is when she came back out and said to me, “Too early for what”?  “Too early for me to surprise you”.  Were barely dating and there I go to being spontaneous”.  “I like that about you”, she said.  Don’t change a thing”.  Wow, she was using my language on me.  We left her clinic and went and had a nice dinner.  During dinner she asked, “Where do you plan to stay tonight”?  I replied “You know, I didn’t even think about that at all” I was all into the surprise that I did not plan out anything else.  “I am glad you drove all the way down here; you can stay at my house”.  I have a back bedroom at the opposite end of the house where you can sleep. “We will get up; I will make us some breakfast and then we can take it from there. Sunday morning, you can take me to church, and you can meet everyone there.  Did you have any other plans”?  I replied, “no, just to be with you”.   She said, “Oh, that was nice to say”.  We did just that.  She showed me around town, taking me to the park, the lake, those were the places I remember.  I think we had dinner at the Mexican place in town.  A place called El Compadre.  She had told her daughter Christina to meet us there.  Christina and her daughter Cloie, were already there when we walked in.  Cloie ran to put her arms around her grandma.  The two of them held each other for a great big hug.  It was very nice to see that Cloie really loved her grandma.  We walked up to the table Christina had got for us, Cloie and Tammy hand in hand and I trailed behind.  The two of them sat down, I momentarily stood at the end of the table, reached out my hand to Christina and said, “Hey, my name is Rob, Rob Wasson”.  She reached out her hand and introduced herself to me.  I sat down and said, “what is really good here”, I am famished. We proceeded to tell Christina all the places we had been that day.  We sat in the booth so the three of them were on one side and I was on the other. I don’t know if that was planned but I think Cloie wanted to be in the middle between her mom and her grandma so as for protection against this stranger.  I know it was NOT that way but, on the outside looking in it could have been.  Cloie never took her eyes off me.  I saw that and started to play with her to give her some assurance that I was not a fire breathing dragon or monster but a big guy in a kid suit.

 ‍ ‍

• • More next week…