Dating a Greek...DRAMAWell the other day I was THINKING about blogging about something and I ended up not blogging but she did. Her topic was very similar to mine and we hadn't even talked about it. I found it strange. Maybe we are kindred spirits or something. I personally find it freakishly hilarious.
So what was I going to blog about? An ex boyfriend of course!!!! So what brought this one? I don't remember exactly what it was but it was something my co-worker had said. He mentioned something and I started laughing saying, "Oh yeah?" and then I made a mental note to blog about it. I misplaced my mental note until just now.
So without further adieu I bring you "Dating A Greek.....DRAMA".
(Names have been changed to protect the innocent and not so innocent)
When I first moved to Montreal 10 years ago I started hanging out with my God brother Peter since everyone else related to me was much older or they were my age but thought that marriage at 18 was a great idea. Peter and I, along with his brother (my other God brother) Bobby would hang out. They'd take me out and introduce me to people. They introduced me to Peter's friend Billy. Billy was hot. I was told I couldn't date him because he was my God brother's best friend. I understood but I hated it. I hated being told what to do. I got pissed at Billy for following direct orders from Peter. What was he a dog(In hindsight I respect Billy for not dating his best friends godsister)? Needless to say I stopped hanging out with my God brothers. I was upset okay?
Now my two uncles who are about mine and my sisters age (so we actually call them cousins although they are our uncles) decide to take me under their wing. There was a Greek dance party and they invited me to join them and their friend Lazo. I said I'd come just to get out but 1. I don't like Greek music 2. I don't dance to Greek music and 3. I can't freaking dance. They take me anyway because hey, who can resist a good night out meeting new people.
They pick me up and I go to their house to get ready. I meet Lazo and I'm interested. He's cute but a little short for my liking (hey at 5'9" A LOT of guys are short) but cute nonetheless. We get into the car and we go to the club. Everyone is really nice and buying me drinks. Lazo wants to teach me to dance and I tell him that I'm horrible, I have 2 left feet. He teaches me anyway and I start to have a good time (I think the liquor is helping at this point as its the first time I'm drinking anything non beer like, hey legal drinking age in the US is 21. I'm 17 in Montreal and drinking!)
They drop me off that night and I tell them I had a great time and that we should do it again soon. I speak to one of my uncles a few days later and I ask him whats up with Lazo, what the 411 on him. My uncle tells me that he wouldn't dare date me because he's a womanizer and my uncle would break his legs. I am down with that. I don't want my heart broken!
My surgery gets scheduled. I go in. They cut me open. I'm not enjoying life at all. Canada sucks. Cute guys but all non datable and they freaking cut me open? I want a refund. I want to go back to Texas. Guess who visits me at the hospital? LAZO! Yeah, strange eh? He won't date me but he shows up to see me a day after my surgery when I'm in dire pain, hair all messy, and bad breath because the nurses won't let me brush my teeth. Wow, just how every girl wants a cute boy to see her!! He says hi, sticks around for a while while I drift in and out of consciousness. My uncles show up. They talk. And some how I'm hearing the Bible story of Lazarus for the first time..and I wake up thinking Lazo died while I was semi awake. I get over that pretty quickly. End result is after I leave the hospital Lazo and I still aren't heading for datesville and I don't mind. I mean, I have to un-enroll from college, stay home for 6 months while I heal properly, and wallow in self pity being in a country where I know NO ONE!
So being in a new country with people I didn't know and hardly any friends (college hadn't started yet) what was I to do? I had gotten online and installed a nifty little program named ICQ. I added some local people, I added some folks from Texas and blah blah blah. I ended up talking to some dude named FingerElven. My chat name was Prigkipsha (Princess in Greek (horribly misspelled)). We spoke almost every day but we NEVER met up!You know why?! He KNEW my Godbrother! FOR CRYING OUTLOUD!!
Blah blah blah blah blah fast forward to about 3 or 4 years later (my time lines are horrible). I had just broken up with my boyfriend L.C and was just dating people. My mechanics son (John) (yeah from when we were on good terms!) was looking to hook one of his friends up with someone and I was looking to hook up my friend with someone. It sounded perfect. Oh, I should mention here that John had a huge crush on me but I was totally oblivious to this. John and I said that we'd take our respective friends with us for coffee and see if they hit it off. We all meet up and my friend decided to invite someone else, my friend Joe. Blah! 5 people set ups were kind of strange. When you are 4 people you force the two you are trying to hook up to sit next to each other and then you just ignore them...that wasn't going to work now.
Well during conversation I noticed that Costa (John's friend) wasn't interested in my friend. He seemed to be paying more attention to me, talking to me more, and I didn't really mind because like I said, I was dating too! I was single and mingling, going on random dates. I tried to see if my friend was interested in Costa or not but it didn't appear to be the case. (Turns out she invited her BOYFRIEND that she hadn't told me about yet but didn't want to let me down so she still showed up!!!). Anyway, as we are talking John mentioned that I had just moved from Texas a few years ago and then he called me Prigkipsha. Costa's face looked like a light bulb went off. He asked me if I had ICQ and if I used to chat with someone named FingerElven. I was shocked. 3 or 4 years later I end up meeting a dude who wouldn't meet me because of who I was related to. The night ends, we pay our bill (well, the guys paid) and we all said our good byes. No telephone numbers exchanged, no email addresses, nothing.
A few weeks go by and now I'm hanging out with one a guy who ended up not dating me because he was friends with my uncle. (Dude, the Greek community in Montreal is small. You can fart and the whole Greektown will know about it!). After seeing me again after so many years he told me that now that I was older and more settled he didn't mind hanging out with me. He wasn't afraid of my uncles, he just didn't want to be the first Canadian/Greek boy I dated. I thought that was cool and didn't mind hanging out with him. We were hanging out for a while (and by hanging out I mean, like dating and making out. So now Lazo and I had tickets to go see a Tori Amos concert but something happened and I had to go to the hospital. Lazo came with me but somehow my car ended up with John who was on a date. After I got home from the hospital I called John (this is before texting was super popular and people still called one another)to tell him that I was home and he could drop off my truck whenever he was free. John rushed right over thankful to get away from his date that was apparently going crappy. He rings my apartment number, I buzz him in. He asks for me to make him an iced coffee and he and Lazo are sitting at my kitchen table talking. John is going on about how his date sucks and how she was a crazy chick and she asks Lazo "Do you have a girlfriend" and he answers, "yeah shes making you coffee right now." I almost dropped the glass because at that point I didn't know that Lazo and I were boyfriend and girlfriend. I thought we were still getting to know one another and we were just dating. I wasn't seeing anyone else as all my free time was with Lazo but whatever. I was happy and smiling.
Lazo left to take John home. Everything is fine.I go to Lazo's soccer games which was really odd because I'd never gone to any of my uncles and they are on the same team. I was a girlie cheerleader for them always screaming and shouting for them to win. My uncle's girlfriend was there too so it was fun. Everything was great. For now. Lazo and I go to a soccer banquet. I run around with him to pick up some decorations and pick up the flowers that were donated. We go home, get ready, and then go back to the banquet for the reception. Lazo was having a great time dancing and mingling. I wasn't having such a great night. I'm not a dancer and my disease really limits the amount of dancing I can do as I get tired super easily. I was mingling with some of the girls there (that from conversation I picked up that a few of them had dated Lazo, a few wanted to date Lazo, and that I was not so well liked because I WAS dating Lazo). Anyway at the end of the night I was taking Lazo home when he asked me if instead I wanted to go to a Greek dance bar that was a hole in the wall. I told him that no, I'd rather go home I was very tired and just wanted to sleep. He got upset and broke up with me that night because we were too different (yes one had a disease that made us tired and the other had a chip on his shoulder!). I was all like, okay. I was sad but I'd get over it right?
The next day I called my friend Joe (who had broken up with my friend by this point) to see what was up and we talked and I told him about what happened with Lazo. He suggested we go out and party. We did. I think its the first time I ever lit a cigarette and put it to my lips. I wasn't stressed but it was a huge shock to me to just be broken up with because I didn't dance. I was actually angry. Joe suggested that we go home, pack a suitcase and go to Toronto for the weekend. I was game with that plan. We did. We did a lot of bonding on that road trip too. He told me why he and my friend had broken up, he told me how he was hating his job and all that other stuff. We got to know each other and I understood why he and my friend broke up.
We came back to Montreal a few days later all well rested and me being a non smoker again. I was over this BS with Lazo. A few weeks after the break up John calls me to see what I'm doing. I tell him all is well. He asks about Lazo. I tell him about the break up and he said thats why he hadn't called. He didn't want to be calling a girl who was in a relationship. I told him its stupid. We are friends, friends hang out whenever. The subject of Costa came up and John told me that the night he had come over he was going to tell me that Costa kept asking about me but with me dating Lazo he didn't think it was the right time to bring it up.
John did the nice friend thing and invited me to hang out with him and some of his friends, Costa included. Costa and I spoke, we got to know one another more, and eventually we started dating. Go figure. It's been long enough right?
One day I had gotten sick but had plans to meet with John and Costa at a coffee shop near my apartment. I called John and told him that he had to come get me because I didn't feel well. He told me he was sending Costa and I was refusing. I didn't want Costa to see me sick...I mean didn't that cost me my relationship with Lazo. John told me that Costa should come and he had his reasons for it. Costa shows up. Before we go to the car he sits me down in this little lobby area of my apartment building and explains to me that he had an exgf who had cancer. He wasn't very supportive when she had cancer, he didn't know how to handle it and they broke up. I was floored. I was expecting another "See ya". He told me that he regrets that and he'd never do that to me. Thats when he told me he loved me for the first time. It was sweet. I almost cried. He helped me to the car and helped me into the coffee shop (where ironically enough my friend and Joe were there getting together again! LOL).
I was in school and guess who was in one of my classes? Costa's bestfriends girlfriend. We recognized one another from the few time's we'd all hung out together. We made arranagements for just the girls to go out one night. Everything was going great. We'd been together for months and everything was perfect. We'd all go out as big groups, just the two of us, just the girls, just the boys, double date with my sister and her boyfriend at the time (Kosta....yeah thats weird. We both dated a Nick at the same time too). Life was grand.
Then everything isn't so perfect anymore. I was at the coffee place by my house with John and we were talking about what everyone was up to. I told him Costa was working late and I'd be seeing him later. He gave me a look. I looked at him and demanded he spill the beans. He told me Costa wasn't working late but was at his firend's house just hanging out. I was furious. I was angry and of course confused. How do things go so well and then just kind of die? And for no reason? I called Costa as soon as I got home and told him I didn't want a bullshit answer but to be straight up with me. Why would he lie to me? His answer: "Baby, I love you but you aren't dating material. You are marriage material and I'm not ready for something that serious right now." I was shocked, I was confused, and I was just plain fucking pissed off. Guess what smartass? I'm YOUNGER than you and not looking for marriage right now EITHER! I hung up the phone and was just.... I don't even have the words for it.
Fast forward another 2 or 3 years. I'm at a concert with my friends and boyfriend (now husband and at the time we were engaged). As I'm walking to the bathroom guess who stops me to chit chat? Costa and John. John and I hadn't spoken in about a year or so because he decided to inform me that he liked me and I was apparently too stupid to see it. He was mad because I dated Costa....Umm buddy, you hooked us up! Costa is looking at me like I was an alien. John walked away. We exchange the greek air kisses and a hug and ask how we each are doing. I inform him I'm engaged now and he looked shocked. Whats so shocking? Aren't I marriage material? He tells me if I wanted to come join them what table I could find them at and then as he's hugging me good bye he whispers in my ear, "I was stupid to let you get away." I wanted to laugh and let him know that he had really left me heartbroken because I just didn't understand why we broke up. I wasn't pressuring him to get married, to move in, to meet his parents. We were just taking things day by day. A few months after our break up I sort of wondered if maybe what happened with his ex happened with me too. Maybe he couldn't handle dating someone who was sick? Yes, my disease affects my everyday life but not THAT dramatically. I whisper back in his ear and inhale the wonderful scent of Jean Paul Gauliter that he always wore, "Yes you were, but thank you for doing it."
I could probably go on writing for days on end about my experiences dating Greek guys here in Montreal but I'm gonna end it here. Obviously things worked out for the better. I ended up getting married to George who treats me like a princess. He spoils me rotten and worships the ground I walk on. I love him to death and we are happy together. All of my dating experiences just made me stronger.
Guess what? Costa is still single.
