Key Takeaways: “FaceTime and Bake” is a sweet virtual date.
Vitals:
Name: Roger, Round Two!
Length of date: 1 hour 15 mins
How the date was obtained: Asking for a second!
Where: His house in Seattle for him and my neighborhood for me.
After my previous date with Roger, I was really excited about this one – and it sounds like many of you were, too. I’ve talked with friends, and even received messages from readers I haven’t met and heard that Roger is their favorite match for me so far. To those people, I say: thank you for your investment in my love life, I appreciate you, and I like Roger too!
For my second date with Roger, I didn’t want to just sit in my room and talk to him; I sit in my room too much anyway these COVID-19 days. So, I told him that I was going to go on a walk when he called, thinking it might be fun if he went on a walk too. Sounds fun, right? Well, Seattle was experiencing some intermittent showers and frigid winds, so Roger stayed inside. But luckily, Portland weather was on its best behavior! In fact, I checked my phone and the temperature was 91 degrees. Like, okay Portland – I see you being all happy and cute.
This sunny weather also allowed me to take off my high-neck wool sweater and sport a tank top. You heard me right: I wore a tank top. My not-so-pasty (anymore) arms finally got some much-needed Vitamin D. I hope Roger doesn’t expect me to wear a tank top all the time, because this one was my little sister’s and I was given strict instructed to wash it, fold it, and return it to its original drawer.
Anyway, around 2:00 PM I headed out for my walk and FaceTimed Roger, (sans Freddie our little dog who, as you may remember, forced me to use a doggie waste bag on a previous romantic stroll). As I extended my phone out in front of me, I noticed a couple things: 1. When you FaceTime and walk, you look like you’ve got shaky hands. 2. Your arms will start hurting pretty quickly. 3. My new sunglasses were a great purchase.
Roger and I discussed many things: our favorite childhood snacks (mine was ants on a log – * see recipe below, and his was graham crackers.) We talked about some of our favorite Portland restaurants (Gino’s in Sellwood for me, Screen Door for Roger), and our favorite thing to watch on YouTube (Survivor re-runs for both of us).
After an hour and fifteen minutes of walking, talking, and holding my phone at a 90-degree angle, my arm was starting to cramp. To be clear, it was not for lack of interest that I didn't continue the conversation. He's really easy to talk to and I find myself laughing and smiling a lot. I also love to listen to all the things he is doing: He's earning his pilot's license, has done a lot of traveling, and his family is Australian! G'day mate! We also share some interests like skiing and golfing. Overall, I'm getting excited about Roger and Date #23 added to that.
Date #23
Name: (still) Roger
Length of date: 2 hours
How the date was obtained: I asked for a third!
Where: His house for him and mine for me.
I wanted to show Roger that I was fun, adventurous, that I could think outside the box; so, for this third date, I tried to think of an activity that we do together, while 175 miles apart. I suggested baking cookies over FaceTime and Roger agreed. He even picked the recipe, which was one of his family’s favorites: chocolate chip with pecan crumbles. Is your mouth watering yet?
So, Roger and I both gathered the ingredients and arranged a “FaceTime and Bake” which is a virtual quarantine cousin to “Netflix and Chill”. I looked at the recipe and thought it was very manageable except that the ingredients were measured in grams/ounces. I’m used to cups and teaspoons and my family’s measuring scale has a dead battery.
At the scheduled time, I called Roger who had on an adorable William and Sonoma apron. We chatted a little bit about the recipe and then got into baking. It was at this time that I informed Roger that our scale was broken. But Roger is smart and quickly came up with a solution: he would use his functional scale to weigh the ingredients, then put those into cups/tablespoons/teaspoons so that I would be able to measure them without a scale. This did make the baking process a lot longer and more complicated, but it was such a sweet gesture. This showed me a thoughtful and considerate side of Roger that I hadn’t really seen before.
This date was also made more interesting because while I was using the kitchen in my family’s home, my sisters and mother were sitting in the peanut gallery (the other room) adding their two cents. Halfway through, one sister said loudly: “it sounds like you’re struggling in there” while my mom said, “it’s so sweet that he’s converting those measurements!” Then my little sister added, “Roger you should just come down here and make them with Isabel.” I won’t lie; it would've been nice to have a bit more privacy with Roger, but it was entertaining to have live commentary on our date.
Other funny things happened including the fact that Roger added a whole bag of chocolate chips by accident (the recipe called for half a bag), I burned my finger BADLY while pulling the cookies out of the oven and acted like I was totally fine, and Roger somehow ended up with 18 cookies while I ended up with 27.
End results with cookies? They were absolutely delicious (if you want the recipe, please feel free to DM/message/email me and I would be happy to share). End results with Roger? I’m becoming a big fan. Of course, it’s hard to tell if you have chemistry with someone over FaceTime, but we seem to be really compatible. This week especially, I realized that our priorities and values align quite a bit. We have had open conversations about race and have even given each other suggestions about books to read, podcasts to listen to, and movies and series to watch. If you have suggestions of books about black oppression, white privilege, or race relations in general, I would LOVE to hear them. Let’s educate ourselves so we can work together for racial justice and equality.
Overall Experience:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The future for us… Another date!
Next Week: Roger and I are trying to meet up in person. So, I think he might be coming down from Seattle for an in-person, social-distancing date. I know, right? So exciting to meet him in person!
*Ants on a log recipe (or as my grandma would say “colony on a log” because I like this snack to be chocolate-chip forward):
Rinse celery sticks and cut them to the desired length
Spread a thick layer of peanut butter in the crevice of the celery stick
Add as many chocolate chips as you possibly can – this is where the “colony” comes in. If you think that raisins belong on ants on a log then you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself "who did me dirty?" And then contact that person and let them know that you don't trust them anymore.
Special thank you to my mom and grandma for making these for me.