About a month ago, I found myself in an email-based conversation with a girl named Heather. She went to DU, I sort of knew of her from an ex-boyfriend of hers, and we semi-randomly became friends on Facebook. Anyway, we discovered that we both did graphic design, and she said that her dad’s new aviation company needed a logo; we could design it together and split the money. Sounds great.
So she came over to my place a few days later, we literally introduced ourselves at my front door, having never formally met or even spoken. We worked on the logo for maybe a half hour before becoming sidetracked and began talking about music, college, pranks, friends, confidence, self-awareness… jumping from topic to topic and seeing eye to eye on everything. I got incredibly strong vibes from her; the way she reacted to certain things I said, the way I found myself being 100% honest with her right from the start, I saw how special she was immediately.
She’s lived in places like Bosnia and Africa. She’s had her pilot’s license since she was 19. She speaks German and some Arabic. She isn’t afraid to challenge my way of thinking or opinion on anything we talked about, and her confidence sent a spark through me. She can have intelligent 
conversations with me about quantum physics, alternative instant messaging clients, and serialized dramedy television and film… all with fantastic grammar. She’s only doing modeling right now so she can fund her skydiving habit.
She’s only doing modeling right now so she can fund her skydiving habit.
Our initial meeting to spend a few hours working on logos turned into an exhilarating, seemingly endless conversation about anything and everything until what far-too-quickly became 3:30 in the morning.
From that night on, I found it difficult to think of much else.
Soon after we had our first encounter, she disappeared for several days to Twin Falls, Idaho with 2 people she had never met to photograph her BASE jumping friends throw themselves off a bridge.
For her birthday/graduation last weekend, we went to dinner with two of her friends and then Heather and I, due to our love of adventure, persuaded them to join us in our premeditated ideal activity for the evening – a heist. An urban exploration. At first they were somewhat resistant, but they came around and thanked us later. I drove the 4 of us to the art/industrial district of the city around midnight, and off we went. Sneaking through alleyways, climbing fences, hopping on trucks and scaling walls to reach rooftops. It was one of the most fun nights I’ve had in a long time. Not only was I running around rooftops at 3am, I was doing it with this amazing girl who loved it as much as I did.
Sunday, she came to a standup show that I was hosting. I walked her to her car, we talked, and then when it was time for me to go, she offered to drive me to my car. Which was one block back. We couldn’t walk away from each other, so we found ways to even slightly extend our time together.
Monday night, I had the pleasure of joining her for a late dinner at a Thai restaurant. We stayed talking until the place closed at 10; they’re cleaning empty tables and giving us dirty looks to cut our conversation short and let them close. We walked outside and she said she could hang out til 11; find us a place to hang out and we can talk, she said. I had no idea of where I was going, but I didn’t care; I just wanted to be with her. Anywhere. So I drove a few blocks into a neighborhood, parked on an arbitrary corner, and started walking down the dimly lit sidewalk like I knew where I was 
going. 3 blocks down, we came across a small garden on the corner with 2 chairs facing it under a tree. She had to get to sleep, had to leave at 11. There we sat and talked until 1:30. I started confessing to her how much I had been thinking about her, and she did the same. After literally 2-3 minutes of complete, blissful silence, staring at each other, we drove home with identical smiles on our faces.
She said that if I didn’t give her the pictures I took during our urban adventure, she’d break into my apartment and steal them. So, Tuesday night when I went to go visit my new buddy Erik, I left the keys for her and invited her to my place.
When I got back, there was a note saying that she had stolen my memory card and I had to go on a scavenger hunt to find it. No clues.
And I repeat.
She planned to send me on an elaborate scavenger hunt in order to get back my memory card of pictures of us climbing rooftops that she stole when she was in my apartment alone the night before. After getting the building number wrong and breaking in without my keys.
Ladies, are you taking notes? This is a real woman.
She’s leaving for almost two months next Tuesday, then coming back briefly and moving away somewhere and won’t be available to see me until she gets back. So last night was my chance. I told her I was going to Jake’s place to help him with something, and I showed up at her door.
I was completely honest. I told her I was crazy about her, how I couldn’t stop thinking about her, but also that I didn’t expect or want any of these feelings to show up. I’m busy with standup, I’m moving in a few months, I don’t want to meet anyone that makes me want to change course. I’ve got my own life to make. I’m not even sure what I wanted to come out of our conversation last night, but I couldn’t hide my feelings any longer.
The timing couldn’t work out, and neither of us are in a position in which we can have a worthwhile romantic relationship with anyone right now. We’ve got lofty goals and can’t afford to be distracted or sent off-track by anyone, regardless of how special they may be.
I hope that our paths cross again when the conditions are right, but for now, it’s just nice to know that there are people out there that can really knock my socks off.
