Tver Trek - Episode XII - Saving Silverman
Today was, as I already said earlier, a light day on my schedule. It was also my 9th day in Tver, so my trip was already half over. My rescheduled meeting from Thursday DNP, and my evening date had rescheduled, so that left me with 3 first meetings. I tried getting a hold of RW#8, with no success.
The second of these meetings brought RW#9. At this point, with time running out on me, I had become even more serious about scheduling dates. I attempted to tell these ladies, in every way possible, that they would be doing me a huge favor in not scheduling a second date unless they were seriously interested in pursuit of a relationship. RW#9 said she was, so we set an evening date for Tuesday. (We later called and confirmed the date, and she was happy and said she liked that the date was later in the evening, because she was going to have her hair done.
RW#10 also came out of todays meetings. She lived outside of Tver, and was only available on weekends. We had a small lunch, but I liked her, so I asked if she would like to continue the meeting by seeing a movie. She agreed, and we went to see “*itch”.
Now “*itch” was the Russian Title for Saving Silverman. How this occurred, I have no idea. So, you never know what you are going to see when you go to the movies in Russia. My interpreter, despite the harsh looks, was willing to translate the movie for me, but I finally convinced her that I had “seen it”, and could follow along by myself. For those who care, the Russian version had deleted scenes and far more nudity than the U.S. version.
We had a great time, and it was unfortunate that I could not see her again. Tomorrow was already taken, and I would leave the following Saturday, so this was our only date. We stayed together until we dropped her off to catch the 7:00 train to her city, and she said I could write her. My interpreter and had dinner and a piva, to end the evening.
I had 5 scheduled first meetings tomorrow, plus dinner with RW#6. With all the reschedules and other things going on, RW#6 was the only “known” potential interest at this point. I had both good and bad signs from her, and we were struggling to figure out just where she stood. Had she been more “forceful” in her interest up to this point, things may have developed differently than they did. For, as I said, there was no serious competition yet. Of those who could have challenged her, most I was fated never to see again.
But, would the same hold true after tomorrow
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode XIII - Sue My Lawyer
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“We won a ball game yesterday. If we win one today, that’s two in a row. That’s called a winning streak. It has happened before.”
Major League
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Five new first meetings were scheduled for today. By now, your probably expecting me to say that I had 2 reschedules and one DNP, leaving me in another bad mood. I can’t blame you for thinking this either, cause in part, you’d be right again.
One of my dates did DNP, although this was not your typical DNP. In fact, the way it was conducted showed a total lack of courtesy, and had I not already become nearly immune to the DNP’s by now, would have royally pissed me off.
My date was for 3:00. The potential RW showed up at 2:10 or so. I immediately recognized her, and asked, since she was already here, whether we could meet now. She explained, rather cooly, that “3:00 was better.” She then left, and I would have bet every dollar I had that she was not going to show at 3:00. I mean every single dollar, plus the house and car.
I had the same typr of premonition once. I was at one of the local hotels, walking past the sports book. There was a horse race about to start, and although I am not into the smaller races (this was one of those usual Santa Anita races), I half-listened to the lineup. When I got as far away as possible from the betting window, yet still in range of the loud “tv”, one of the last horses to be announced was “Sue my lawyer”. At that point, I KNEW that stupid f’n horse was going to win. No doubts. The race started, and, lo and behold, “Suey” slowly moved up in the pack, eventually taking the lead position, and finally the race. I could only smile to myself.
This premonition was like that. I KNEW she would not show. Nevertheless, I did wait until 3:20. She never made it. No phone call either.
Although by this time it angered me little, it is still the most unexcusable DNP that there is. I think it is horrible of someone to act this way, and shows a lack of class. Despite this, I will not give her name, although I was, due to the extreme lack of courtesy, considering it.
The rest of my day, however, was much better.
Three out of the next four ladies became potentials. I would agree to write one, and I would have second dates with the other two. Thus was born RW#10 and RW#11.
RW#10 was thought by some to not be in the program any longer. Her profile had been removed, and had it not been for circumstances created by another AM while I was there, I would never have met her. (For those who are wondering, this AM actually convinced me to set up the date with her, so I had his support and blessing, for whatever that was worth.) Tuesday night was already taken (and we will get to that in due time too), so we scheduled a Tuesday day date.
RW#11 lived in Moscow, but her parents lived in Tver, so she traveled to Tver often. Today was Sunday, so she was headed back to Moscow tonight. She also spoke pretty good english, so I did not have an interpreter with me. Through a later phone call, we scheduled a date for Wednesday night. It would be independence day in Russia, so she would be in town for that holiday.
BTW, during our second meeting, there was an interpreter present. Despite her knowledge of english, I wanted another person to help me gage her interest in me, as well as to make sure there was better translation of our conversation. She was comfortable with this too.
Evening left me with my dinner date with RW#6. As I noted in my last report, RW#6 had no real competition prior to today. I was eager to see if she would step up her signs of interest in me. Also, the date was with a different interpreter than the first two, so a third opinion could be added to the mix.
As I sort of gave this away earlier, I left the date still confused. We again had a good time, but despite our time together, we could not get a direct answer as to her interest, nor an indirect answer through body language. As I said then, my interpreter tonight was less enthusiastic about RW#6's feelings than my other interpreter.
We had dinner at the German Hotel, the Ostenbrook, soon to be known in this trip report as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”. But, I am getting ahead of myself. The conversation was good, and I learned a lot about her. I wondered if the age difference (she was 20) was having an impact, but she denied that. We took her home by taxi, and I was soon left to ponder what had occurred. Though I still sensed chemistry, there were now other potential RW’s for me to actively consider. For better or worse, the days when RW#6 was alone on the horizon was over. The chemistry/interest question would arise again, especially after the events of the next few days.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode XIV - OPERAtion Overlord
Today was Monday, which had 4 scheduled first meetings, one thrice scheduled second meeting, and my next date with RW #6 for an opera performance. Now, this was not a true opera. It was just a collection of opera songs performed by a famous Russian opera singer. But more on that in a moment.
Two of the first meetings rescheduled for tomorrow. I was interested in one of the other two, and she seemed interested in writing me, but my interpreter felt we were “two different people”. I was happy for her feedback, and since I had not scheduled a second date (I already had ones scheduled for tonight through Wednesday) I figured I always could write her later on.
For me at least, time had run out. My flight left early Saturday, so I only had the five days remaining in Tver. At this point, I was not sure how many RW “contenders” I actually had. Prior “experts” have stated there are two key points in time in the RW search. The first is within the first few minutes of your first meeting. The second, is the second (or lack thereof) date.
Whether or not this is true for everyone, it was becoming true for me. Sometimes, I did not get to the second date point. Sometimes it was cancelled. And others, I had a second date, but decided not to go forward. I had four scheduled second dates over the next three days (one today, two tomorrow, one Wednesday, along with RW#6 my 4th date). These three days, I thought, should determine whether I had anyone I could “someday “match with. Though I would have a few first meetings left, reality would preclude matching with any of them on this trip. At this point, reality would preclude matching with anyone, but as I said earlier, if it were to happen, it would be with one of these RW’s.
RW#4 did make our scheduled date. We had lunch, and took a walk by the Volga and through the park. The park had a few amusement rides, so we took a ride on the ferris wheel. In Tver, you pay by the spin, not by minutes. One ticket = one spin on the wheel.
We did some shopping, as I wanted to buy some cd’s on the cheap. (You do get what you pay for. I later discovered one of the cd’s I bought “skips”. A lot. And it develops MORE skips; i.e. songs that never skipped before now suddenly do. Anyone going to Tver soon and is willing to exchange my cd?? Didn’t think so I bought her a cd she liked. Not sure whether that one skips or not.
Lunch was at “Up and Down”. This place was usually pretty quiet, and the food was ok. The ice cream was better. If you want decent food and a real quiet place to talk, this is it, unlike Fortuna which can be very busy and noisy.
We had a good conversation, and I was glad that I got to meet her again. I was about to give up on her, had she called to reschedule or no showed this date, but she did make it. We made a third date for the movie theatre Thursday afternoon.
Nighttime was my fourth date with RW#6, and the opera. We had a drink before our walk to the opera house, which coincidentally was in the movie theatre I saw Saving Silverman in. I thought maybe it would have been where the ballet had been, but it wasn’t.
The inner doors opened late. People were not allowed to take their seats during this time, so everyone was stuck in the lobby. An incredibly hot lobby. I bought some water, but it was so hot that we ended up waiting outside to cool down.
Even after we took our seats, the performance was still 20 minutes from starting. And unfortunately, someone was sitting right in front of me who, well, was not as fragrantly smelling as he could have been. And yes, I know about the water turnoffs and all that. I had been here for 10 days already. This was not the normal “bad smell”. It was much worse. I leaned back in my chair as far as I could, and prayed the performance would start. Soon.
Like most cultural performances in Russia, this one delivered. She, for I cannot remember her name, was wonderful. The performance was in two parts, part one by Russian composers, part 2 with foreigners. And for those who wondered, it included selections from West Side Story and Chicago.
While listening to the music, I had some time to sit and think. And right around the time our esteemed performer started into her rendition of “I Feel Pretty”, I made the decision to begin D-Day, and send in the troops. Despite the fact that things had gone somewhat wrong over the past week, I was going to try and see if one of these RW might be the one. These next two days would be critical. I had the potential of five or six “beaches”, but as Doc would say, I only needed “one”.
I did not look at it as winning the war (i.e. matching) during this time. My goal was much more modest. I just wanted to see if there was one or two that I could actually make some progress with. By deciding to try with one of these RW, I would forego any other opportunities to schedule first meetings, to leave open times for longer second/third dates. So, I was taking a risk. Either I “land” on a beach or two , or D-Day goes horribly wrong.
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An operation of the nature and. size of operation OVERLORD has never previously been attempted in history. It is fraught with hazards, both in nature and magnitude which [d]o not obtain in any other theater of the present world war. In order that the operation may have a reasonable prospect of success, it is assumed that certain conditions must exist concerning the major obstacles. It is these early days of the operation that will spell success or failure...
Historical Section of the G-4 of the Communications Zone, European Theater of Operations (COMZ, ETOUSA); volume seven
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Beach #6 was inconclusive. After the Opera, we headed to dinner, and another good conversation. But she was still reserved. I would have thought that she would be more “open”, being that this was our fourth date, but my interpreters and I were still unsure of her interest. She had some more exams, so I would not see her again until Friday. So, within the first few hours of D-Day, Beach #6 is inconclusive. But, at least I’m out of the water.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode XV - Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Yesterday, one of my fellow Americans was making plans to move into the Ostenbrook hotel for the next few days. Things were not working out at his flat, and he decided that the hotel would be better for him. He was telling us about the hotel, and the breakfast (ham and eggs) that he had that morning. I was missing breakfast myself, so three of us agreed to meet Tuesday morning for breakfast at the Ostenbrook. I would meet one of the guys at the office first, and then we would meet him outside the hotel.
For those who like breakfast, I heard that the Oasis has a good breakfast, but it was closed while I was in Tver. The Ostenbrook was the only other option. No interpreter met us. It was just us three guys, which made it more fun and a lot more interesting.
They have english menu’s at the hotel, so when we sat down it was easy to order. Breakfast was pretty good, probably because this was my first breakfast in nearly 2 weeks. But much more fun was the attempted communication with the hotel staff.
While we were finishing breakfast, one of the guys liked one of our waitresses. She only spoke a few of the necessary english words (coffee, tea, ect), so we were struggling to communicate with her. He wanted to find out if she was available, so I pulled out my pocket dictonary, and it had a translation for “Are you free tonight?” I pointed at him, pointed at the sentence, and we awaited her answer. She laughed and smiled, and came closer to the table, so apparently it had worked. She also spoke some German (It is a German hotel after all), and the other guy had learned German some 20 years ago. So he started asking her questions in German. I thought it was quite amazing, what he could remember from 20 years ago. It was also very fun, being independent (sort of) and not relying on personal translators. The two of them met twice later on that day, so our breakfast was an initial success for at least one of us. It was so much fun, and the food was good too, that we met there the next two mornings.
I had a second date with RW#10 today. I had good luck with Up and Down yesterday, so I went back there with her today. I would have scheduled an evening date with her, but my evening was already taken with RW#9. RW#9 sounded really excited at meeting me again (she was having her hair done for the occasion she said).
Lunch with RW#10 went well, so we scheduled a date for Thursday evening. She also had family which lived in my city, and I was thinking that this would make it a lot easier for her to adjust to life in America, should things ever get that far. She seemed a lot more open and interested in me than RW#6 had been. Because of this, I was wondering whether RW#6 was interested in me at all.
I had had a good day up until the evening, but there was one more bump in the road. Dinner with RW#9 never happened, as she did not show up. We waited at the office for a while, but after conferring with my interpreter, we decided we had waited long enough (the office had long since closed), and we headed out for pizza. As fate would have it, we ran into one of the U.S. guys there, and we ended up going to the Zebra for a while.
Squirecam
