Months ago pre-covid I’ve seen this guy work at a local mineral/crystal store (crystal collecting is my ‘money-sink’ hobby) a few times. He always had such a big smile on his face when I would come in and look at all the crystals. We both love smokey quartz and would talk about what we had in our collections, and when I spotted any new ones at the shop he would tell me all about them.

Well, quarantine happened, then I went back to work a couple weeks ago. I thought I’d explore a bit on Tinder, and I came across him! We matched and chatted it up. The following weekend he invited me to go rockhounding for Herkimer Diamonds (actually just quartz, it gets a fancy name) at a local mine. I said yes of course! I’ve always wanted to go do that.

He picked me up from my apartment and we went back to his place to meet up with about 5 of his other buddies who were going with us. They were all so nice and we were geeking out about minerals. They talked about other plans like a WW2 reinactment with paintball guns, and possibly snorkeling in a local river for more Herkimers.

We drove out there and jammed out to music. For most of that day we just dug through rocks and dirt. I ended up finding a big piece around 3 inches long! And man, it was a nice sight watching him haul huge boulders around and pound them open with a huge sledgehammer. He was the only one out of his friends busting his ass like that.

He took me and into the forest for a little break and we walked down to a creek there. We talked a bit about what we want in life and he said that he wanted a river behind his house, and I did too! We also felt the same about owning a house on some land to make it our own. He didn’t really flirt much or make moves which was okay for the first time I guess (but he sure did give me some looks, whew!)

Anyway, after getting dirty in the rocks we finally packed up and he dropped me off at my place. His one friend was still with us, but I invited them up to my place to show them my crystal collection for a few minutes. He gave me a half hug goodbye and I thanked them for taking me. I also wished him a happy birthday since it was on Sunday.

We talked about plans for next weekend hiking in the Adirondacks, and I hope they invite me! I also hope I can get some alone time with him. I’m a bit introverted and he is definitely a socialite, so I hope I can keep up with him. I’m better at one-on-one conversation. I don’t have any IRL friends either, so it would be such a dream for them to welcome me to their friend group!

I am so happy which is why I wanted to share! So excited for the future! Good luck guys! If I can do it, you can do it.