Lonely hearts club = Sunday brunch date

Well, it turns out that having a GNO on Valentine's Day is actually pretty fun. The girls and I had a tasty dinner at Light Bistro (although our server had about as much personality as your keyboard) and followed that up with some cocktails at Bier Markt.

I thought it might be an interesting nite when we walked into Bier Markt and it appeared to be Sausage Fest '09. As in, I literally thought it might be gay nite there. But it wasn't. Yeah for us!

After we were at the bar for about an hour, I locked eyes with a guy across the bar, and he immediately came over to talk to us. Enter our newest blog fodder: Val. (See what I did there? For Valentin... oh, forget it.)

Anyhow, Val and I chatted for the rest of the nite. He was funny, cute, charming and confident. Score! (I even looked past the fact that he wasn't wearing a watch.) About halfway through our conversation, he asked if he could see me on Sunday because he was having such a good time.

Old AAB probably would have played coy so as to make it seem she wasn't so available. But *new* AAB said that sounded fun. (See? I told you I have turned over a new dating leaf this year.)

(Sidenote: I was apparently so caught up in my conversation with Val that I entirely missed the scene of my friend helping some woman who had puked on herself in the bar. Like, ALL OVER herself. On the couches in the front of the bar, not in the bathroom. Now that's what I call "love sick.")

But back to the story. Since I had lots going on later in the day on Sunday, Val and I met for brunch at Touch Supper Club. I walked in to find him sitting at the bar with a mimosa, and he looked just as cute in his Under Armour zip-up as he did in his button down and blazer the nite before.

We chatted, ate and shared embarrassing drinking stories for a couple of hours before I had to leave. I genuinely enjoyed our conversation, though I was a bit taken aback that both the bartender and the DJ knew Val by name. Party much? I actually called him out on it after a third person came in and knew him. He told me he just knows a lot of people. Hmmm...

(Another sidenote: Val took out his iPhone and Facebook friended me while we were at brunch, so now that I've been able to look at his profile... he does have quite a few bar pics in there. OK, a LOT of bar pics.)

Beyond the whole question of whether he parties too much, my only other hesitation with Val is that he just got divorced. (I swear, I have a knack for finding guys who are either in the middle of or just out of a divorce. Awesome timing, AAB.) She cheated and he kicked her out.

(Though this is now the third recently divorced guy who has given me this story... is that how they teach guys to get back into the dating scene in Divorce School?)

But I also learned that Val likes to cook, owns his own business (and works A LOT), likes to travel and has the same birthday as blogdad. (I found that last tidbit somewhat creepy.)

After a couple of hours, Val walked me to my car (I ALWAYS drive myself to a first date as an insurance policy/get-away plan), gave me a peck on the lips and referenced taking me out again this coming weekend.

So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

But at least now I can say I had a date over Valentine's weekend. :)