Hula Hoop Girl--The Journey Continues

So, today, I did it! I broke the ice with Hula Hoop Girl!!

After a week-long absence, Hula Hoop Girl made a welcome return to the gym, this afternoon. I have to be honest, I was really afraid that my mom had actually frightened the poor girl away indefinitely!! Hey, you know me: Always thinkin' the good thought.

Anyway, I got to the gym with my dad around 6:05 and there she was, hula hooping her heart out (wow! nice alliteration!). My heart started to race, my mind blanked. All the ideas I had regarding what I wanted say to her just vanished inside my head.

So, for the majority of the time, I did what I normally do: watch her from afar with puppy dog eyes and looks of longing. But then something happened toward the end of my work-out routine. Something that had never happened. She stopped hula hooping, looked at me and smiled. I proceeded to melt for a good 30 seconds or so.

Apparently, she was done hula hooping for the day and, as luck would have it, I was about 15 feet away. From behind me, I could hear my dad whispering, "Go! Now! Talk to her now!!"

So, I did.

I quickly--a little too quickly, if you really wanna know--approached her and asked, "hey...how do you do that?!" She pulled one of her ear buds out and pointed to her eyes, which have sort of like a butterfly design on the sides (hot!) and said, "Oh, you mean these?" Now, the smart man would have said, "why yes! That design really brings out your eyes!" Perhaps it would have made her blush and it would have launched us into a flirtatious back-and-forth.

But nooooo...!!

I pointed to her damn hula hoop and said, "No. How do you do, um, that. You know...hula hoop for hours on end. How do you do that?" She answered back with a single word and smiled: "Practice."

I quickly threw out my hand and introduced myself. I told her she had met my mom the other day (WHY, G-D, WHY?!?!). She then gave me her name and we shook hands. All the while, I could feel my face and my ears start to turn a bright tomato shade of red. Before I walked off, I let out a little nervous chuckle, looked at her hula hoop again and heard myself say "so, wow...craziness!!"

WHO SAYS THAT?!?!

I walked back over to my dad, pissed with myself for coming across like such a freak. Apparently, my dad had pretty much heard everything. He he had this look on his face that was a mixture of bemusement and pride. He said to me, "hey...ya broke the ice. Good for you. Ya did it." I went on one of my little self-bashing rants about how I probably came off looking like a date rapist or a mentally-challenged man. He finally was like, "Hal. Stop it. Give yourself some credit. You made a first step and now she knows who you are. You did good!"

I wanted to continue being angry with myself. I wanted to continue calling myself names and knock my head up against a wall, but I couldn't. My dad was right. While it may not have been the introduction I'd been exactly dreaming about, it was still an introduction. People are always saying that you should pick your battles. What they fail to mention is that you should also pick your victories.

Like my dad said, now Hula Hoop Girl knows who I am. And yeah, now I know who she is.

She's Beth.