{ DATE #12: Kyle Teichert }

Three out-of-towners in a row?  How flattered am I?  Monday night's date, Kyle "the flight attendant" Teichert, flew in all the way from Denver, Colorado to take me on Date #12.  During his first few hours in Huntington, one of our Staffers let him into my room so he could shower the floor with rose petals leading up to a beautiful bouquet of roses and a hand-written note which read: "Aubrey, Welcome home from a long, stressful, and arduous day of work.  This is a reminder to "Stop and smell the ROSES." :) Can't wait for tonight! Sincerely, Kyle"

This 29 year old Alpine, Utah native really is about as cute as they come. And a little quirky too!  As we walked out the door, there in the street was a bicycle built for two!  I adored his idea of riding tandem to the beach to watch the sunset.  I've never ridden one before, so I was elated at the opportunity to share this first together.

As we rode along the sand we spent some time getting to know each other.  I learned that Kyle is the youngest of four and claims that he suffers from the "youngest child syndrome."  I assured him I'm the complete opposite! Other observations from the night: we're the same height, we've both visited the Parliament Building in Regina Saskatchewan, and he's really good at backflips!

The sunset was absolutely breathtaking.  It would have been a shame to have been indoors somewhere and missed it!  We spent some time walking along the sand, cooling our toes in the ocean, and just goofing around.  Before Kyle would take me to dinner he had me sit and answer a series of questions he'd put together.  While I thought it was a cute idea I realized I much more prefer to be the one asking the questions!

The ride to dinner was an experience in and of itself.  Instead of using the time to talk, he told me that we would be riding in silence (no talking!) and holding our breath at every red light.  Different? Yes.  Fun?  Maybe.  I found it difficult at times to help him navigate us to the restaurant, but in the end, I realized his silly little games made me laugh, which I really liked.

Dinner was pretty good.  He took me to a place recommended by a mutual friend in Costa Mesa called Anjin.  Not the best Japanese BBQ I've ever had, but certainly the wonderful company made up for it.  After teaching him how to properly use the chopsticks (he never really did quite catch the hang of it), we spent the rest of our time together delving into relationship questions and learning more about each other's experiences with love.  Or lack thereof.  ;)

Overall, it was a great date.  Fun, quirky, creativity the whole night through.  Even up to the last minute when he whipped out a bag of jelly bellies and told me to close my eyes and guess which flavor he dropped into my mouth.  We only played for about 5 minutes, and neither of us ever guessed the right flavor, but we sure had fun trying!  It's seriously so much harder than it looks!  Maybe if I give Kyle a chance at a second date, we can polish off the rest of that little bag...

{ Thank you again to Larry for following me around all night with a video camera and putting together this video montage of our fantastic date! }