I'm not creating a "Buster" tag just yet.

I have this friend, Buster. He is adorable and I like him, but GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY we are allllll kinds of different and I'm sort of surprised we haven't killed each other yet. I'm not really sure how to date someone who doesn't always cave and give me my way (even though that is actually one of the things I like about him) so the jury is still out on whether we'll settle into a yin and yang thing or if we really will kill each other dead.

For example:

** I like to get up and at 'em and start my day early. By the time my alarm goes off at 5:30, he has only been in bed for a few hours.

(Upside: I can exercise and run errands and do whatever I have to do before the bearded sleeping beauty even wakes up.)

** I like to HUSTLE HUSTLE HUSTLE. He likes to mosey on down to the coffee shop and then go for a stroll around the corner for cigarettes before we can GO, ALREADY.

(Upside: I think we all know I need to learn to chill the hell out.)

** I don't like to play follow-the-leader in full parking lots and would rather just go far and cab back in. He feels committed to the challenge of finding a parking spot.

(Upside: Uh. There isn't one.)

Despite a rocky start (I think we both had our poopy pants on at the beginning and seriously, trying to park amidst regular Saturday afternoon traffic, the wine tasting-goers AND the thousand or so people who turned up for a Matt Damon movie casting call in an adjacent building DID NOT HELP), we ended up having a lovely time at the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers annual tasting bonanza on Saturday.

It was a wine and cheese HOOPLA like I'd never seen before. Wine? EVERYWHERE! Cheese? EVERYWHERE! A tuxedo'd man even gave you your own baguette when you walked in the door! I was starving and gnawed an inch or two off of mine before putting it in my purse and switched to just straight cheese, but industrious event-goers turned theirs into cheese sandwiches, which I'm totally going to remember for next year.

A million thank yous to my dad's friend Karen for A) thinking of me, B) offering me free tickets and C) turning Buster's "I am cranky because it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon and I haven't fully woken up yet and my date is sort of being a high strung bitch" frown upside down by giving him a volunteer badge and apron (which he wore proudly).

And before anyone gets too excited (MOM, I'M LOOKING AT YOU), he's not my boyfriend and I'm only even writing about this because I wanted to say "OMG YOU GUYS WE WERE LATE AND PARKING SUCKED AND I WANTED TO SCREAM BUT I KEPT MY MOUTH SHUT AND NOBODY DIED!

Where's my gold star!?!?!?"