The Return of Purple Panda

   So, I'm sure you are all wondering how my date went with Mr. Match. Well, our original date was re-scheduled due to an unfortunate circumstance, so we ended up seeing Jazz at the James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy in North Side this past Thursday.

  So, somehow when I first got to James Street the topic of the Purple Panda came up. Now, if you don't know anything about the Purple Panda incident, it is a viral You Tube video featuring Mr. McFeely, twenty-five screaming, hysterical children and of course a purple panda. As the story goes, Mr. McFeely and the purple panda visited a day care or preschool a few months ago and had a very bad day. Where is Mr. Rogers when you need him? So, it seems that one particular little girl in attendance was terrified of costumed characters, much like my fear of the furries, so when the purple panda walked in she began to cry and all of the other children in the class got immediately scared and cried as well. Let the chaos begin.

 The reason this story is relevant is because I work at a cartoon art museum at the time we were preparing to bring Mr. McFeely to the Chicago Comic Con as a guest speaker just as the video went viral. Mr. McFeely was mortified over the incident and almost cancelled his trip. So, for a few days, the atmosphere at the museum was full on panic.

  Well it just so happens, that my date, was the one who taped the segment for his newspaper and posted it to the web. It seems that it was the poor guys first week on the job and he never in a million years thought that the video would go viral, but that's I guess why it's called viral in the first place. How ironic is it that only months before this guy I just met had a very strange impact on my work life.

Now back to the date itself. I am all for a swanky, jazz club date. The singer on stage sang breathy versions of everything from Kayne West, to Shade, to Oasis. We talked about his youth as a nerdy orchestra player and I revealed one of my most highly hidden (well not anymore) secrets and that is my passion and adoration for Reba McIntyre. Reba! Yeah, the show too, which admittedly is pretty awful, but I love Reba. We ended up heading out to my favorite pub for a night cap after the show where he sang me bad 80's music, so I consider us even.

1 Week Later

So, Mr. Match and I have been on five dates, well three dates and two hang outs total. I drove to the middle of nowhere for dinner, literally an hour away. Seriously, why do all the guys I date have to live so far away?! But, I was very excited that he decided to cook me dinner and oh what a bachelor pad he has. I say this after I sat on his exercise bike in his kitchen while he cooked. So, dinner was great, other than the caper berry I tried (I like regular capers, but this was disgusting, but that is neither here, nor there). I just was ecstatic that I was being cooked a meal by a guy! How wonderful!

So we watched a movie and after the movie he flipped on comedy central and a show, unfamiliar to myself was on called Metocapolyse, or something like that. The cartoon was about a group of hard core rockers and they play hard rock anytime any one swears...What a guys show. Anyway, in the middle of the show the characters suddenly started screaming in a loud booming voice " MARRIAGE IS AWFUL, DON'T EVER DO IT, 2 YEARS AND YOU WILL BE DIVORCED, WOMEN ARE THE DEVIL....and on and on for at least five minutes. Now, I am not running to the altar. Trust me on that, but geez, it was the most awkward five minutes of my life. I am still shaking my head over that moment. And don't even get me started on the Comedy Central Show that we watched later where babies heads were being eaten.

So, despite the awkwardness of the moment, the date went well and we have hung out a couple times since relishing the fact that we have a similar love for peanut butter and jelly, but peanut butter without jelly or jelly without peanut butter, and peanut butter toast in the morning is the shit! Also, that both our mother's used to swirl a heart on our open-faced peanut butter sandwiches as kids. We also have a passion for turners (sorry to my uncle), but their ice tea is phenomenal. And I won't bore you with more details of our mutual product endorsements.

So, all looks well on the romance end of things. I will try to post again soon. He is out of town for the weekend, so it may not be till next week for an update. : )