I had a really fun date tonight! It's weird to knowingly declare that I went on a date, but well, that's what it was, I suppose. Feels alien, this concept of going on dates, but apparently that's a thing I do now.

We met up around 6 PM and got dinner at an Indian restaurant, and both of us got dosas that were suuuuuper spicy. Like, so-hot-it-makes-you-cry spicy. My eyes were watering that entire meal, and I kept having to wipe them so I could see. It was enjoyable though, and we were both laughing a lot about it. I think it was a great way to get comfortable with each other! We talked for awhile at the restaurant about a lot of things, and he disclosed some stuff about himself and his history that he thought I should know. I really appreciated his honesty. I don't think anything was necessarily a dealbreaker, but we'll see how things look as we get to know each other better.

After dinner, he drove us to mini golf. Both of us were bad, but I was clearly worse, haha. We just stopped trying to keep score eventually, because it took so many tries to get the ball into the hole that we lost count. I joked that my ball wouldn't stop coming back to me because it loved me. He thought that was a sweet way to look at it. It felt very easy to talk to him, and the conversation flowed well. I'm sure it helped that we had an activity to take up some of our attention, though.

He asked if I'd be down to go to a park afterwards, and I said yeah. It was a bit cold outside at that point, so he gave me his jacket to wear. We walked to a nearby grocery store first and got a couple things to drink and a pack of gum. I told him I liked folding things out of gum wrappers, and he gave me his to fold, so I folded into a heart (the only thing I really ever make). He put it in the front pocket of his shirt. I'm guessing he won't remember it's there, haha. After looking up nearby parks on his phone, we decided to walk to one that was about 20 minutes away. He seemed happy that I said I'd rather walk there than drive.

The park was pretty well-lit, though the lights themselves were that soft sodium yellow that lets the night retain some mystery. I saw a big fake rock on the playground and went straight for it, climbing up to sit on top, and he followed me. We sat there for a good chunk of time just chatting about stuff-- past experiences, the value of suffering, growth, philosophy-- and I felt like we'd thought about a number of things in similar ways, but had reached different conclusions. It was very interesting. At some point he said he'd like to sit against a tree to have some back support, so we got down off the rock and went to a tree. He asked if I was okay sitting on the ground, and I said no, because you can't see what's on the ground and there could be bugs. I was semi-kidding, but I was like "what if I get bugs in my pants? I don't want bugs in my pants!" and he laughed and asked why not. Funnily enough, after we'd been sitting there for a bit, he was like "...I think we're on an ant hill or something, because I'm pretty sure that there are ants on me right now. It feels like they're in my pants." I felt so vindicated. We ended up moving to a different tree, and he put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. :3

I don't think I've ever cuddled on a first date before. I felt really comfortable with him though, so I didn't mind. It was nice. The cuddling was also somewhat motivated by the cold on his part, haha. I had his jacket on, so I wasn't too cold, but he was, and he was holding onto me because I was warm. XD I ended up sitting on his lap because my feet were falling asleep from the position I was in (kind of crouching but leaning against the tree), and I mentioned that and he pulled me onto his lap so that I could actually sit down. I'm surprised by how relaxed I was about it. It didn't feel weird or anything, even though I haven't known him that long.

Even though I enjoyed the cuddling, eventually I wanted to get up and go back to the playground, and we ended up sitting on the swings briefly. He said he had to go to the bathroom though, so he got up and tried the door of the park restroom, which was, predictably given the time of night, closed. I was like "I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE LOCKED" and he said he'd have to go find a tree to go behind, and asked if I would be weirded out by that. I said I wouldn't be, so he went off somewhere to do it, and I climbed around on the playground equipment. I love being on playgrounds, and I wish it didn't feel taboo to do it as an adult.

I was jumping on the bridge when he got back. It was made of some kind of flexible suspended material, so I invited him to jump on it with me, and we bounced each other up a few times by jumping on it. He said it felt silly but he was clearly enjoying it from the way he was smiling. I ran around on the equipment some more, then asked what time it was, and he pulled out his phone and said it was around 1 AM. That was pretty surprising to me, as I thought it'd be closer to 10 PM. It felt like the evening had gone by so quickly. We hung around the park a little longer, then walked back to the mini golf course and took his car back to the restaurant, where my car was. Chatted a bit in the car, and I told him about how energy drinks can affect me. Illustrated my point by mimicking some of my hyper behaviors in the past, which he thought was cute. Around 2 AM though, it was time to part ways, because neither of us wanted to be too tired to drive home safely. We briefly discussed when we might be able to hang out next, but didn't make concrete plans.

Hanging out with him was really nice and I feel excited about doing it again. The stuff we talked about made me feel connected to him, and I'm very keen on exploring that connection.

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