chapter 2: meeting more friends

I see my new friend Ed, and he’s wearing a different bathing suit with an XL shirt covering his plump belly, a towel and flip flops. He looks up to me and says, “Wow you’re real tall.” I told him that my roster said 6’2, but I was more like a little above 6’1. He chuckled and said that his dating profile said he was 5’10, but he was more like 5’8 and a half. He then asked about my swimming career and I told him stories about being a college athlete. He then smiled and said he had been an athlete, too. Apparently Ed played football for a Division III school, and did throwing for track in the off season. I was surprised because most former football players I know look, um, a little more solid. He then cracked a joke about being a little bit more than his former fighting weight, but then laughed it off saying he was happy and had no time finding dates in the neighborhood at his current 250 pounds. Before long we were at the water park, and he brought me in the line to buy season tickets.

Apparently the tickets not just themselves were a deal, but for just $180 more included unlimited food and drinks at both parks for the rest of the year. Ed promised the food was lovely, and said if I did not like it the pass paid for itself in just four meals. While I was a little concerned about the quality of the food, I figured I would just swim the calories off and could use it to save mucho money for my tight budget. Even if I just did weekends, the pass would work for seven months times four weeks so that would be 56 meals…at about $3/meal how could I go wrong?

Sounds like the meal plan worked at most of the restaurant at both parks, but Ed preferred Soak City for the water park in the summer. At Soak City there were two restaurants: Longboard’s Grill and Portside Pizza. Ed’s favorite choice at Longboard’s was the fish and chips. Sounds like the meal plan also offers a cheeseburger, spicy sausage, fish & chips and mac & cheese---all with fries. At Portside they offered cheese and pepperoni pizza with a side salad or a Caesar salad. I followed Ed to have his favorite, and was surprised by the size of the portion. I took my “free refills” sprite and we sat next to each other at the table. At the time it did not occur to me that this lunch was going to be about 940 calories, or more like 1200 if you count the soda. All I knew was that it was nice making a new friend and the food tasted great.

After finishing off our plates, we walked over to the pool and took two chairs. Feeling pleasantly stuffed, and laying flat on the chair I started snoozing. I woke up an hour later to see Ed reading a book from the library. He teased me for taking a nap, and suggested that we check out the water park. We left our towels at the chairs, and we waited in line for old Man Falls. It was super fun, and I felt like a teenager again. Ed suggested that we go back to our chairs to have another soda to cool off, and then check out the lazy river. This time I had a Coke and it tasted great. We chatted for a bit, and Ed promised to introduce me to more of the neighbors. We then borrowed floaties for the lazy river, and took off. About halfway through we ran into two girls. Ed knew them from the building and we started talking. Sounds like both had graduated from Cal Poly last year, and were also working in tech. After a couple laps, we decided to grab a soda and actually chat. The shorter girl was Polly, and it sounds like she worked in marketing. This being a waterpark we were all barefoot, so it was easy to see Poly was a good eight inches shorter than me and sufficiently confident at 180 pounds to wear a bikini. The taller girl was Meg who was a UX designer. I’d put her at about 5’10, and a more fit 190 pounds. She seemed kinda into me, and made comments about having been a high school swimmer. We all had yet another soda, and decided to head back to the apartment complex so that we could enjoy beer instead.

Waking to the car, Ed joked that back in the day he’d run laps for coach, but not the most exercise he got was walking to and from his car and the food court. I made a wry smile, but decided not to say anything. Driving back, Ed said that the whole place was kinda like a vortex where everyone had fun together. I put on a different bathing suit, and brought a six pack of beer down. The afternoon was full of fun and meeting more friends. This was going to be an amazing apartment building. Six beers into the afternoon, the pool started emptying again. Apparently at 6p everyone started to think about dinner at Knotts Berry Farm. I was so not sober enough to drive, so suggested that we split an Uber to Ed. He was about to say yes, when Polly said we should not be so lazy and just do the ten minute walk. Ed was hard to convince, but personally I’d rather not spend the money. We agreed to shower and meet downstairs in 30 minutes. I put on fresh clothes, and was the first to arrive. About two minutes later Polly shows up with four bottles of A&W Root beer. I thought this was kinda strange, until Ed showed up with a small bottle of rum. Apparently the ritual was to drink a bit of soda, and then turn it into a cocktail. This was dangerous, but also fun.

Surprise, surprise it took us a little longer than the nine minutes you’d expect to make it to the park. Definitely feeling a buzz, the girls asked me what I wanted for dinner. I said Mexican always sounded good, so we went to the La Victoria Taqueria. I had Grande Chicken Nachos (just 1300 calories), and the girls both had a Southwest Chipotle Salad. Ed had a Grande Burrito plate. Of course we all had yet another 32 ounce soda. After dinner we checked out the rides until a little after dark, and then watched the fireworks. The whole time I was checking out Meg thinking about how this lifestyle would impact her cute little backside. After the fireworks we decided to return home because, well, beer. I invited everyone over to my place and we have a lovely evening. I lost track of how much beer I personally consumed, but woke up the next morning still a little full with just one Coors Light in the fridge. (And I had not even bought Coors Light.) Looking at my watch it was already 10am, and that meant I had missed my typical morning swim. After cleaning up for about ten minutes, I heard a knock on the door. It was Meg with half a box of Krispy Kreme. She said that everyone was feeling a little rough this morning, so she decided to be an angel and bring breakfast. I invited her in, and offered her a coke from my fridge. We started talking, and before I knew it we had finished the box. Sounds like Polly had ended up at Ed’s place last night, and they had a nice long cuddle session. It was clear that Meg was smitten with me, but I’m a gentleman who does not want to move too fast. Meg told me that the whole building was full of young single-ish people who just wanted to have fun. We connected on Instagram, and I also followed Polly. Wow Polly used to be super hot: even after the Freshman 15 and Sophomore 20 she was still just a 150 pound Soccer player at graduation. Anyways, we talked some more and then she suggested that we meet everyone else at the pool lest rumors start flying. Figuring hair of the dog might be my cure, I took that last Coors Light and headed to meet the crew.