standing up mr gay portland

I met a guy online, and we talked on the phone a few times and worked our schedules to hang out on Sunday. Unfortunately, this was the day my phone service was in transition, and my new phone that I got from my roommates didn't have the charger because they were out of town. So when he called me it went straight to voicemail. I was going to send him a myspace message to let him know, and got distracted by checking him out and actually reading some of his profile. Turns out he won some pageant and became Mr Gay Portland, and he works for the government. Uh... no thanks.

dear life, you suck so much sometimes

Last Tuesday night, I was drinking and sent a message to a random hottie on facebook. Two days later, while making bagels at work, he showed up (there's no way he would know where I work) for his first day. He was working in the front cafe part and there was really no reason for me to talk to him, since I work in the back bakery part. But, he's transferring to the bakery starting next week, so I'll end up working with him, possibly training him. I sent him another message saying I hope things don't get awkward. I don't think he's seen either of them, yet.
The funny thing was that my coworker and I spent the whole morning telling stories of past loves and cardinal rules of relationships, such as: Never ever date a coworker! It wasn't until the last hour that I realized what was happening, and then I was pretty hysterical with laughing and making incomprehensible comments about "real life."

garfield

After two solid months of corresponding via email, phone, and having been stood up for a scheduled meeting once (seriously, in the email sent to me afterwards she said that it was great that I met the receptionist, obviously forgetting that she was given my information from the executive director) , I finally met with the volunteer coordinator of a prominent environmental non-profit. The meeting was brief, we set a shift on Monday for me to come in each week and donate my time, and then she toured me around the office and introduced me. "This is Ben, he'll be volunteering with us."
"Oh! You're Dan and Jeanne's son, aren't they just fantastic?"
"Uh, yea they're alright I guess." I'm reasonably apprehensive of this all. To complicate matters, when I came in for my first actual stint, I realized that my time is going to be wasted here. It is not an internship nor an apprenticeship and apart from my initial tour, the only person I will deal with is the volunteer coordinator, so I am not establishing much of a network either. The work that I'm doing, also, is brainless and menial, data entry mostly.
A further annoyance about this was that I missed a shift that I didn't know I was working at the bakery. Upon getting back from my delivery route, I was preparing to bicycle home and they told me I was scheduled to keep working and I had no idea. I got it covered, and now have Mondays off at the bakery as a result. They were pretty understanding, the boss said, "If this is your dream then do not give up. For me, I will have bagel kingdom!"