knock rhythmically

Internet! Hello.

A story, a true one, and a related request for advice:

This week, I was invited on a vacation with one of my regulars at the coffee shop, an older man*.

It went like this: He was leaving as I was taking the trash out, and he rolls his passenger side window down and said "Hey Micah! Come here! You won't see me for a while!" and I said "How long!" and he said "10 days!" and I said "Where are you going!" and he said "Colorado." He then paused before saying "Come with me!" I fumbled a bit and then said "What!" and he repeated "Come with me!" and I said "Oh, I'd love to, but I've got (pause) school (pause) a-an-and work. (pause pause pause) My brother lives in Colorado! (pause) Ok well have fun!" He said something else, I saw his lips moving, but I was jogging away and waving, saying "Have so much fun okay BYYYEEE" so I don't know what he was saying, but I imagine it was either "AWW HAHA I WAS JUST JOKING SEE YOU SOON" or maybe "QUIT WORK! QUIT SCHOOL! I CAN TAKE CARE OF YOU.**" Not sure which.

So. When he comes back into the shop at the end of this 10-day vacation, do I acknowledge that we had that conversation? Do I ignore the invitation part and just acknowledge that I know that he was out of town? I like the guy, I think he's nice and if he had asked me to dinner I might've thought about it for a few minutes before I might've said "Sorry, bro." Do I just hide in the back office every time he comes in? Do I take him outside and say "Hey, listen, no thanks, I like you but not like that, please don't bring it up again." Idkdkdk. To be clear: we've not ever had a conversation during which I was not on one side of the counter and he, on the other. As much as I enjoy it when he comes in our relationship is very much barista-and-customer.

Please tell me how to appropriately interact with this man from this day forward, and also lol with me because really, dude, you can't just tip me two dollars every day and then think I'll want to go places with you. REALLY.

*Boss thinks he's mid-forties (but she also thought I was 28 when we first met... I was 20), my guess is mid-to-late-thirties. Either way... too old.
**I've decided he might've said this because he regularly makes it a point of tipping me not in the tip jar but by putting money on the counter and sliding it toward me, and it is always more than one dollar, and I've always read it as him saying "see, I have money" but it didn't really bother me because he's friendly and nice and not bad looking for an older man (poor reasoning, I know).

Last night, my mom asked me if I'd removed my lip piercing... I've not had jewelry in my lip for over a year (except for that day or two that I tried to force jewelry back through... that didn't last long)! I do miss it, though, and regularly toy with the thought of repiercing it. Truth.

Tonight, I was super tempted to go to the drug store and buy red hair dye and do some peek-a-boo bangs, again. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Not sure.

In an effort to get out of the house and make more friends, I went to some puppet-making workshops for last weekend's All Soul's Procession. It was a neat experience, and while I'm not sure whether or not I made new friends, I did make new acquaintances who may become more friend-like, someday. Anyway, here's a little video somebody put together of pieces of the finale, which was pretty amazing. (This probably is not the best depiction of the event, but I like the video, so I'm sharing.)



And here's a picture of me with my face painted, and the "puppet" I made for the procession:

For those of you not familiar with the procession, it's Tucson's take on Mexico's "Dia De Los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) -- over 20,000 participants [gather] on the streets of downtown Tucson for a two-mile long human-powered procession that ends in the finalizing action of burning a large urn filled with the hopes, offerings and wishes of the public for those who have passed. Inside the event are myriads of installation art, altars, performers, and creatives of all kinds collaborating for almost half the year to prepare their offerings to this amazing event. The All Souls Procession, and now the entire All Souls Weekend, is a celebration and mourning of the lives of our loved ones who have passed.
Anyway, it was an amazing experience (this was my first year going to the parade, much less participating in it) and... yep. It's really bizarre to me that this happens in Tucson... I feel like Tucson's not cool enough, or big enough, maybe? I was in awe of Flam Chen, though, which is the group who did the firedancing during the finale, while hanging in the air from a crane like a human wind chime. I can't wrap my head around Tucson housing such a talented group. I don't know why it's so hard.
If the you want to see more pictures of the procession, here is the flickr pool.

Lastly, remind me not to straighten my hair. THX.

 Things:
I'm going to Minnesota (St. Paul) over Thanksgiving, this was decided last night, I purchased my tickets today.  YAAAAY.
This semester is almost over... about four weeks until finals, and I'll be out of town for one of those weeks.  AAUGHGHG.
I have these boots, they are grey and purple, a little.  HOW DO I WEAR BOOTS??

His name is Charlie.