paperlantern_p Opened it #1
Posting because this board got me here and the least I can do is report back.
Met someone from the app in person on Saturday. First time ever doing that, and I was nervous about it for a week. We’d chatted for three weeks, did a fifteen minute video call the Sunday before, which this board talked me into and which changed everything. Walking in, I already knew her laugh and the way she interrupts herself.
The meet itself: coffee, daylight, busy place near a park, both arrived on our own steam. All the boring advice, followed to the letter. And the boringness is the point. With the logistics prearranged and safe, the only thing left to do was talk. Coffee ran long, we walked the park loop twice, and the goodbye already had a second date in it.
Nothing dramatic happened, which I now understand is the best possible outcome for a first meet.
For the nervous people lurking like I lurked: the checklist works. It’s not paranoia, it’s scaffolding. You climb it and then you can just be a person up there.
Second date is Thursday. Might report back on that too if the board tolerates victory laps.
