Lucky #7?

Hometown Hottie
Height: 6'0ish
Age: 34
Met: At an outdoor concert
Boyish good looks with strong shoulders and a perfect profile nose (I love this)

As I've mentioned before, I am originally from the Heartland. I recently spent a week back visiting my family. I know a lot of people who go back to their hometowns and spend time running around with old friends and going out. I do plenty of the running around when I'm in NYC, so I generally play it low key back home. Occasionally I will go out with my sister and her friends. Saturday was one of those occasions.

Once a girl with her sights set on Nashville, I loved country music back in the day but haven't listened to it in over a decade. When my sister asked if I wanted to go to this country music fest I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but the headliner was an old school 90s artist. John Michael Montgomery? Hells yes! Give me some "Grundy County Auction"! Not to mention a night out with my older sister and her best friends from college always promises to be, at the least, entertaining if not outright, crazy fun.

It must be said, that though I will proudly say "I am a Midwesterner" when someone tries to label me a New Yorker, there are several things I've never done to be a true Midwesterner. Though I drove a tractor at age 4, I've never had sex in a car. I've never detasselled. And I have never had beer from a can. Though I've yet to make the first two happen I had my first beer from a can on Saturday night. Though Natty Light it was not, a pale colored beer I'd never drink out East it was. And I even put the can in a koozie! I officially felt like a Midwesterner! To boot, beer tickets were only 7 for $20 when we got to the empty field where this shindig was! You've got to be kidding! Something I had also never done is start drinking in the afternoon and continue into the late hours. All of this is good to know.

For those of you who have never been to the Midwest, it really is a whole different world. And the inhibitions and expectations that come with being in a New York City bar or lounge do not apply to an outdoor country music fest. The shoes and shirt required rule? Not necessary. If you are a size 24 and you want to wear a belly shirt, it won't be a shock to those around. You can be getting hammered and still dance around to a song featuring both a steel guitar and a supreme love for Jesus Christ. Lawn chairs, cowboy hats, and ripped t-shirts with pictures of tractors are aplenty. Needless to say, this is not the setting in which a big city girl expects to meet someone even remotely appealing. This girl would be really surprised to meet a man from her home town who makes her question her Ramone.

Towards the end of John Michael's set we were all feeling pretty damn good. Thank you beer tix! Our original group of 4 had been joined by several others my sister went to college with and we were all having a blast and not ready to go home. So when JMM said the after party was at a re-opened bar downtown, we were all in! As things were wrapping up I noticed a couple of guys standing near the end of our "row". It was my assumption that they were friends of someone who had joined us. So I went to introduce myself and invite them to join us for the after party. Yes, they would. Fantastic! I'm really just thinking "the more the merrier".

After bar hopping a few times it became clear that I had paired off with one of the two guys from the concert. I don't know exactly what we talked about that night. I was pretty well schnockered. But I was definitely into him and the fact that my big sister, who would normally threaten castration to any of her friends who would dare flirt with me, approved of this guy wholeheartedly was very telling. I will be the first to admit that I broke one of my early rules and did kiss the guy. I know, I know. But I don't think through my boozy fuzz I thought I'd ever see him again.

When I got home early Sunday morning I realized that though I told the Hometown Hottie I would talk to him later we never exchanged numbers. Was this intentional? Was it just a random run-in enabled by cheap liquor? Or was it a sleepy over site on both our parts? My sister informed me I could find him on Facebook and even helped me out with the spelling of his last name. Though I wasn't certain at the time I would try to contact him, it was good to know that the line wasn't completely severed.

I did decide to shoot him a message. I let him know that I was in town until Tuesday and would definitely see him again but understood if that wasn't in the cards. We were in touch a lot in the next 24 hours after that and immediately decided to get together, one on one, Monday night after I spent some more Q.T. with the fam. I moved to NYC at 18, so it has been ages since I have gone on a "car date". We meet people at a predetermined location in the city. So the simple fact that I had to be ready at a certain point and that this H.H. was going to be sitting in a car watching me approach made me nervous. Also making me nervous was the possibility that once together on our own without lubrication we'd have nothing to say. Even more nerve-wracking was the possibility that there was a real connection with this guy and I'd be leaving in 12 hours.

So he picks me up and we head to a place by the movie theatre I had been with my sister a few times. As soon as we enter my first task is to see if I know anyone. Nope, not that I can see. So we sit at the bar and it turns out Hometown knows the two guys next to us. Drunk and tooly, these guys do break the ice for us. When they leave a half hour later, we are left to our own devices. That is when I notice that the one guy I dated in my hometown during a teaching stint is there. If he noticed me he never approached, so we dodged that bullet. We end up shutting the place down and though he didn't ask if I was ready to go home or wanted to go somewhere else, he must have sensed I wasn't ready for the night to be over.

In his backyard, with the rustle of the corn field in the breeze and the sound of water in the pond he built/installed (I don't know what you do with a pond), we sit under a blanket of stars you can only see out in the country and talk. Easy conversation. Though there are moments of silence I think it is more an appreciation of the present company and comfort. Though our likes and dislikes, our areas of interest, and our hobbies differ drastically there is a strong connection. We have both been through the ringer medically which gives us a bond of strength. Though I'd never imagine falling for someone from my hometown, it is kind of nice to not have to explain things to him. We laugh about how differing our high school experiences were even though we went to the same school. By the time he takes me back to my parents' house (surreal in and of itself, I think) I don't want to leave him. I mention that I will probably be back in a couple of months for my cousin's wedding and we leave it at that.

I spent yesterday traveling and can honestly say that I spent the majority of the day thinking about this Hometown Hottie who unexpectedly came into my life. The rest of the day I spend questioning the circumstances? Why did I meet this guy now? I have spent a great deal of time in my hometown this year and just as I am about to wrap it up, I meet this incredible guy. I, as to be expected, compare H.H. to my Ramone incessantly. I think about how I've been saying I'm done with NYC for years. The last 48 hours have been filled with questions that I can't answer. The person who can answer them? The Ramone. Only time will tell. I am 1,000 miles away from home now and I have a life here. A life in which The Ramone fits perfectly. A life in which Hometown Hottie will never fit into.

For now I sit with all of these questions and a sense of guilt. I continue on my quest. A quest that early into I am already exploring myself, my life, and the life I want. Was this what I had hoped would happen? Yes. But like all of the plans I've ever made I didn't expect it to follow the path I initially laid. I'm making plans for the next several dates in my Quest and I look forward to them all. Right now, though, the thing I look forward to most is my cousin's wedding.

Bonus Features:
*a considerate gentleman
*understands where I'm coming from, literally
*an amazing smile that makes me melt a little each time I see it
*strong family connections

As-Is Defaults:
*lives 1,000 miles away
*very little in common beyond our backgrounds