Homecoming dance!

Yep... today (...technically yesterday now, since it's almost 1 AM), I went to the homecoming dance with Ruth.  And also to an Italian restaurant, this time the one that's further away from school (Nick's Italian Kitchen.)  Food was really good as usual--I had manicotti for the first time in a while, and she had eggplant parmesean (which apparently was pretty good, and the eggplant didn't taste weird or anything) with ziti.  No cheese sticks this time--mainly because we'd probably be full enough without them; Ruth said she didn't want any because she wanted to still be able to move after eating! XD--though we did have salads and breadsticks (seems like most Italian restaurants give you those for free, heh.)

The dance was actually really fun this time--no sitting around feeling lonely and bored at all! I'm guessing this was partly because there were actually things to do besides sit around or dance (the dance was circus/carnival-themed and had lots of random games and such around the sides), and mostly because I actually went with someone, so I always had someone around to talk to, dance with, etc. rather than having to just wander around and hope to bump into people.  Me and Ruth stuck together pretty much the whole time, usually talking and just goofing off (for a while we played with balloons, we had our pictures taken, got random stuff painted on our faces, and tried out a few of the games around the edges of the room) but occasionally actually dancing a little bit.  Well, okay, she danced a lot more than I did, but most of those times I was kind of standing there attempting to dance and ending up... actually moving a little bit, for once?... but not really dancing.  Except when they played slow songs a couple of times, we actually danced to those.  Eventually she started getting a little sleepy, so she decided to leave and I went with her.  I think we only left maybe 10-15 minutes early, because when I walked back down afterward it seemed like everyone else was leaving too.  Anyway, we drove back up to the lofts (...okay, she drove, but I was in the other seat!) and then stood outside talking a little bit more... and as always, I hugged her before she left (twice this time, actually... the first hug wasn't nearly long enough. XD)

Overall the whole night went really well, I thought; Ruth seemed to be enjoying herself too, even to the point of staying a little longer to talk and goof off more despite the fact that she was starting to get sleepy.  And thanks to something that came up in one of our random conversations toward the end, I now have an idea on where we could go on our next date... whenever that might happen to be (probably not next weekend, since I'm going to the Shootaround with Julia and the venture crew then.)