"Ithaca Joe"

He grew up on a Vermont dairy farm, spent senior year of high school at the Walden Project, and is an avid hiker/mountain biker/rock climber.

He’s a drummer, has an encyclopedic knowledge of every jazz show going on around town, and burned about 1,500 jazz albums from the Middlebury library back in high school.

He appreciates food and takes pride in cooking. Sauce from scratch? I haven’t even gotten around to doing that. Yesterday, he picked up saffron. (This stuff is crazy expensive, one time Scott and I tried to calculate if saffron powder was more expensive than cocaine.) He also knows the ins and outs of all the hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants around town. “There’s this amazing Yucatan/Mayan place at 5400 west…ok, it’s an extra 8 miles out of your way, but you can bike there easily…”

He’s well-read, recognized my Strand bag, and didn’t recognize Lost or 24.

He also has no college degree, and has a “gig” at a bike taxi place that will last until the end of the summer. After that, he might take a trip to the Grand Canyon (one of his friends works the white-water rafting down there), or S. America (another friend is planning a 3-month trip to Chile). You know, whichever way the wind blows; he’s a free spirit.

I don’t know what’s going on.

We’re making dinner on Sunday.