Dinner Date

Well hello there, friends!

PROMMM! Oh wait, wait, sorry, we’re done with that date. Damn it! Back to reality. Or reality TV, that is. (Wah wahhh.)

So, where were we? Oh, yes. Andrew and I had just gone on a rather epic first date involving tulle and tiaras and tuxedos (all the things that make life great), and two things happened: A) he didn’t run away screaming and B) he actually kissed me. A revelation! My god, we’re six episodes in and this is my first kiss. It’s like I’m 14 again. Geez.

Except, to be honest, I still choked at the end and asked insistently if he would call me (slaps self). Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

He did call, many times. He called and he emailed and he texted, and I called and emailed and texted right back. When we saw each other again after that, it was sweet and rather magical, and certainly the most connected I’ve felt to anyone since my ex, Jack.

More than anything, I was smitten with his musical talents -- he’s one of the most brilliant singer/songwriter/guitarists I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. We’re not talking about strumming a little to get a girl into bed. We’re talking about a full out Gift from God, caps intended. I give respect where respect is due, and when he plays guitar for me, I go into a bliss bubble.

Maybe it’s because I never did that “musician” thing in college, but I finally in that moment got why women throw their panties on stage. It’s sexy as HELL. More than that, at least with Andrew, it’s sexy and spiritual. The son of a former nun (seriously, you can’t make this s--t up), he writes the most touching, spiritually-connected, folksy songs (check them out at YouTube.com/MCJellyD). My favorites are Heaven, Ghost, and Run Run Girl. When I got very sick earlier this year, Andrew recorded his own rendition of “Amazing Grace” (one of my all-time favorite songs) and sent it to me. I must have listened to it a hundred times.Now let’s fast forward to the dinner party I threw with my roommate JP… but first, a few words about my sweetheart of an ex, Taylor, who lives up in (where else?) Palo Alto -- or at least he did at the time (he now lives in SF). Taylor and I dated in 2010, and after the most amicable breakup known to humankind, we became best friends. We literally haven’t touched each other since then, but we’ve gone on vacations together, I took him as my plus one to my best childhood friend’s wedding, we talk for hours on the phone, etc. Born and raised in Montana, he’s just a solid, ethical human being with impeccable character and a hysterical sense of humor. We’ve been each other’s wingpeople -- I’ve set him up on (no joke) half a dozen dates. He met my last boyfriend, Jack, in Tahoe for my 30th birthday and wasn’t the biggest fan, to be honest. Not because he was jealous -- there isn’t any of that, I promise you -- just because he didn’t see it being a good fit, and he wanted/wants me to be happy.

BTW, if it sounds like I’m waxing poetic about Taylor, I suppose I am. He really is that outstanding a person. Plus his friends, who came to the dinner party held that evening, are equally fantastic. And yes, he reads The Atlantic (#5 on The Checklist!)

So Taylor decided to fly down from SF to visit me, see some of his friends (who have become my friends too), and meet Andrew at the very first dinner party JP and I have ever held in our new home. If I look like a woman who can throw dinner parties with no stress, you’re gravely mistaken, my friend, so I begged my sweet and talented girlfriend Brit Morin, the Martha Stewart of the Facebook generation (seriously, check out her site at www.helloBrit.com), to help.

But a dinner party isn’t really a dinner party without entertainment. As it turns out, living with a ridiculously beautiful and talented musician, AKA Miss JP (JuliaPriceMusic.com and @JuliaPriceMusic), helps a bit! And as JP is a little bit of a sly one, she stole my 73-point Checklist and decided to write a song about it, which is shown in this episode very much abridged. If you’d like to hear the entire song, you can download it on iTunes. It’s FANTASTIC, and every single one of the items she lists is ... yes, actually on my checklist. I thought it was so cute that we made a music video of it, which you can find on JP’s YouTube Channel (YouTube.com/JuliaMusic1), or here: http://youtu.be/oDgUhNONI-c.When she played it for Andrew, I couldn’t stop laughing... and she wanted to tell you, in her own words, what she was thinking when she wrote it. Without further ado, here is Miss Julia Price:

“Julia Allison really likes lists. To-do lists, grocery lists, and of course her dating Checklist of 73 things she wants in a guy.

Since I live with Julia, I wasn’t too surprised when I started scanning the bullet points of the now infamous Checklist referred to in every episode of Bravo’s Miss Advised. She’s a writer, so of course I expected to find details -- but I didn’t expect THAT much detail! Some of my favorites are:

#37: Well-traveled/wants to travel with me (in style!)
#48: Can play piano or guitar brilliantly (or sing)
#64: 75% homebody, 25% enjoys swanky events

I couldn’t help but to laugh playfully at my overly-organized roommate, but in the back of my mind I wondered if Julia was onto something with her list. Was it helping her to manifest someone who would truly make her happy? Or was it preventing her from finding true love because she was more worried about the “guy who looks good on paper” than what she felt in her heart? Well since I didn’t have my own list, I thought I would hone in on my songwriting skills to write “The Checklist Song” and perform it in front of our friends in good fun, especially because Julia really appreciates playful teasing (see #18 on her list “makes me laugh”).

What was meant to be somewhat of an improvisational ditty in front of our friends turned out to perhaps show more of her cards than she was ready to put on the table. Always the first to poke fun at herself, Julia enjoyed the song so much the first time around that she asked me to play it again in front of the new guy she was dating, Andrew. Oh no. No, this can’t be good, I thought as I started to play and we both remembered that unlike her dear friends who knew her well, Andrew was still nearly a stranger. With each bullet point that I sang I could see his eyes widening in fear... he was making mental notes of all the ways that he fell short of this massive list.

But something that Andrew couldn’t yet see, was that he was the first guy who came around in a long time that made Julia question her checklist. The Checklist wasn’t making her happy anymore. I knew that. She knew that. Our friends knew that. I finished the song feeling more nervous than I had been before my first SXSW performance or any other show for that matter. Did Andrew now know too much?”

Did he? I guess you’ll just have to wait for Episode 7 to see!

In the meantime, a Social Media Cheat Sheet (if you want to learn more!) for all the people you see in this episode:

Me - @JuliaAllison / Facebook.com/JuliaAllison / www.JuliaAllison.com / JA@JuliaAllison.com -- email me!
JP - @JuliaPriceMusic / YouTube.com/JuliaMusic1 / Facebook.com/juliapricemusic / www.JuliaPriceMusic.com
Andrew - @JellyD / http://www.youtube.com/mcjellyd / https://www.facebook.com/andrewbancroft / www.MCJellyDonut.com