The Story of Us:Part 3( Gas Problems & Circling Sharks)

I awoke the next morning having already taken care of the 1st major issue. Since I didn't have any wheels of any kind I had asked Jesse to borrow his. He said yes, the only catch was that since he had to work that day I would have to pick him up and drop him off. A little bit after I got back from dropping Jesse off at work Sheena came over. We hung out for awhile , then started out to pick up Jesse. Edwards and Shannon(not the one ya'll met) asked if we could drop them of at the mall.
Through out my life girls have always seemed to come to me in triplicate. I can go forever without a single prospect, but everytime one shows up, at least two more come along causing major headaches for yours truly. This time it wasn't hard to decide, but I still had to deal with the others. Shannon was one of them.
Holt had met Shannon a couple months before at the shopette(like a 7-11, only on base). She called him out of the blue a couple weeks later, and since during the period he had acquired a girlfriend he passed her off to Edwards. After several weeks Edwards was getting tired of her and looking to pass her off. This brings us up to the Thursday night before I met Sheena. Ray, Shannon, and I decided to take a trip to waikiki that night. We didn't hit any bars or clubs, just wandered the streets(it's a fascinating town at night). It ended up being kinda wierd because as the night drew on it became almost a pseudo-date for me and Shannon. We began holding hands as we walked, shooting each other looks, in fact at the end of the night we ended up on the beach and she told me she would have kissed me had it not been for Edwards. I already knew Edwards was looking to pass her off so all I had to do was have a talk with Edwards sometime during the weekend. Of course after Friday night no more thoughts of hooking up with Shannon entered my cranium. Turned out to be dang fine timing to 'cause in the following weeks the true insanity of Shannon was revealed for all(not to mention the revealing of a certain condition that starts with H and stays with you your whole life)
We drop those two off at the mall and start on our way to pick up Jesse. The truck makes it another couple of miles and runs out of gas. CRAP!! I had been so distracted by Sheena that I hadn't even glanced at the gas gauge( for that matter it's pretty surprising that I didn't get into an accident because I was barely paying attention to the road). I'm seriously worried here, I'm on my 1st date with a hot girl and I run out of gas. Not only that but I have no idea where a gas station is located. Luckily we were near the Pearl Harbor gate. We wander up there and ask the gate guard where the nearest gas station is. He informs us that it is at least a mile and a half down. I'm freaking her, there is no way this could get worse. In every story I have ever read, when ever someone says it can't possibly get any worse, it always does, and this one is no exception. The gas station is pumps only, no little convince store from which I could possibly buy something to put the gas in. I have to hussle back a half a mile to the shoppette we passed on the way there. Sheena opts out on the trip. A lone female doesn't stay that way for long on a military base. As I'm jogging to the shoppette Johnny Seaman is running to his car, he smells girl and she's alone. Blood is in the water. The sharks are circling. My time is limited.She may turn down the 1st couple offers for a ride,but eventually she's going to realize that I'm the retard that ran out of gas on our 1st date and accept an offer. I get to the shopette, grab a couple of jugs of O.J. (god couldn't make this easy on me, noooo, they couldn't possibly have actual gas cans), and I'm out the door. In the four years I spent doing twelve mile road marches with 50 pounds on my back or endless marches thru the woods with mind numbingly small amounts of sleep never has half a mile seems longer or more daunting.Every step closer I expected to see the gas station and no Sheena. She was there when I got back, otherwise this would have been a tale of how I lost a hot girl because I'm a retard and ran out of gas on our 1st date. I get back, empty the jugs out, refill them with gas then promptly head out on the wrong foot by going in a different direction(I was really working hard on messing that day completely up). I had spotted a gate that I thought would place us closer to the truck and it would have, had it not been closed for repairs. Fortunately (god was paying me back for the gas can incident) there was a guy there and Sheena used her womanly charms to secure us a ride back to Jesse's truck. We get back, use a coke bottle as a funnel, dump the few gallons of gas in the truck, head back to the gas station, fill up the truck, and start out (again) to pick up Jesse

CONTINUED

The Story of Us : part 2(Mr. Crappy Cowboy Hat & Felt Shirts)

The way the Pearl club is set up as soon as you wander thru the door off to your left is the bar. This is where me and Jesse are,ordering our beer. We order, I turn around to scan the crowd and locate our clan. That's when I spot sheena, she's chatting with another girl that I vaguely know in our group. I ask Jesse if he knows who she is, but he doesn't. Here's my dilemma, while great at conversation in a group where I can wander around and the sole greatness of the conversation rests on various people, I suck at picking up girls in a one on one setting. I begin devising a plan(something I rarely do when it comes to girls, but this was a special circumstance) See, even tho I haven't talked to the girl Sheena's talking to that much, I'm pretty sure she's interested in me. This is key to my plan because every guy knows that if a girl likes you she's more likely to laugh at your jokes. You could be the worst comedian in the world and still get a girl to laugh if she's interested in you. This is key because I'm going to use her like a sitcom laugh track( it doesn't matter how stupid a sitcom is, you still find yourself laughing at the lamest joke at some point because of the laugh track, sorta like the yawning phenomenon). I'm in there, I'm joking, I'm talking, I'm bringing in sheena just enough so she's involved enough not to wander away, but not to much so it's doesn't become a one on one situation, yet anyway. I'm juking, I'm jiving,I'm swinging on the homerun ball... and along comes the curveball, complete with the dorkest cowboy hat ever worn by a man. But I'm on, I'm pulling her in, keeping her there, this moment is mine. I am frigging Michelangelo and this is my Sistine chapel. Mr. Crappy cowboy hat doesn't stand a chance. I am a conversational god at this moment. Every time he comes by I'm reeling her in. Sure, he might say a few things, but mostly he justs stands there in his crappy cowboy hat (looking like a frigging dork) and eventually he wanders off again. As time passes I begin to weave sheena into the conversation more and more, leaving the other girl further and further behind. Then, the masterstroke, the hand of god reaching out to man, the line
"Is that shirt felt?" I causally ask
"No, I think it's cotton or something"she replies
"Do you want it to be?"

At this point I must tell you a few things
1st- I have never, ever, ever, ever used a legitimate line on a girl the first night I met her( there was one time that was close, but that was more of a statement of intent then a pick up line). That's not to say I haven't used them before, I have , but usually with girls that I've known awhile and it's more of a joke then anything else.
2nd- This is the second turning point that night, despite my previous conversational god-likeness this was what it all came down to. That line was what really opened the door for me and slammed the door in Mr. Crappy cowboy hats face(hopefully busting his nose all up to, the bastard). Of course sheena only admitted this a year or so later.
So, now I'm in. Mr. Crappy cowboy hat is no longer in the picture. The previous girl is no long in the picture. It's just me and Sheena. But I'm confident. The conversation wanders here and there, occasionally stopping by someplace for a drink. Eventually it settles on Scooby Doo. Sheena's infatuated with it, and the movie(1st not 2nd) just came out in the theaters. By the end of the night I got her number and set up a date to see Scooby Doo the next day. But the true artistry is yet to come
CONTINUED

The Story of Us (A Blatant Copying of a Movie Title Title)

This story begins several years ago on a little piece of land in the middle of a vast ocean. It begins on a Friday, a rare Friday in that I had the day off. Jesse invited me to a cook-out on the beach with some friends from his old unit. We head down there and it's a total bust( there was one girl,back then parties were judged on the guy to girl ratio, more than the also important alcohol to person ration, but not more important then the me hooking up percentage. The breakdown worked like this, if the guy/girl was high enough the beer/person ratio was almost inconsequential, if the beer/person ratio was 12/1 or higher guy/girl isn't a factor, if the me hook-up percentage even has positive numbers, nothing else matters. That party had almost non-existent guy/girl, low beer/person & 0% of me hooking up). So I head down the beach. By pure chance I hook up with some buddies at Dukes (a beach bar in waikiki that places second in the beach bar category only to The Green Beach,which is in Israel and is literally so close to the surf that if a ten foot wave ever came up, half the bar would have been flooded) . One of them busts out a guitar and everyone starts making a fool of themselves, except me. I start talking to some girls sitting near us. Of course within ten minutes the vultures begin circling and everyone else moves over to the girls table. Somewhere in there Jesse turns up at Dukes also. Anyway, I'm doing good, nice potential, then Jesse drops de bomb. That night was Glens going away party at the Pearl Club(a country bar thats sole redeeming trait is that I met Sheena there) and it was time to go. As I get up the cute one of the girls (who up till that point I really hadn't talked to much) looks at me with eyes pleading me to stay, promising pleasures of the flesh.
"You're leaving?"
I started this story so back in the day because of this moment. This is one of two pivotal moments to arise for me during this adventure. I could have stayed, but then this story would be one of more of many torrid tales I have tell. That's not to say that I didn't regret the decision, I did, all during the car ride to the bar, walking up to and in the bar, all the way up to the point I saw Sheena for the first time. After that, all thoughts of the girl at the beach were forgotten.
CONTINUED