Fast Forward

Well, here I am almost two years later and exactly six months to the day from my 30th birthday. All in all, I fell pretty good. Still have tough days and get the crazy emotions and all, but as a whole I'm so much better off than I was 2 years ago. 2008 has been a pretty big year for me in a lot of ways. I had gone to visit family in Seattle over Christmas (I'm from California, so it was really cool to have a white Christmas) The year before had been tough because of the breakup and all the incidentals that went along with that, so while I was looking forward to getting away, I was more than a little apprehensive about spending the holidays with 18 of my family members in 1 house with only 2 bathrooms for a week. Oh and did I mention aside from the 4 kids who were 16 and under, I was the only there without a significant other? And they were planning on playing a version of the "New Newlywed Game" which I would get to host because, well, you know. Why is it so easy to love family, but so hard to like them at times. Anyway, the point of this rambling is that all of these things I was so worried about turned out to be not that big of a deal after all. Don't get me wrong, at times it was a more than a little tough, but no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had so much fun meeting my new family members (REALLY long story - I'm sure I will get into that at a later time) and being Auntie Trish to my little niece Bella. God I love that kid. It feels so good to have the "Auntie" title. I had a fantastic snowball fight at a frozen lake with 10 of my family members, drove to downtown Seattle and explored the City by myself which was extremely liberating for me as I'm normally attached to someone when I'm out of town and I get lost going to my own bathroom sometimes (not that bad, but you get the idea) and really tried hard to enjoy myself. Point being, had I stayed home by myself like I had wanted to originally I would have missed out on so much cool stuff. Along comes 2008 :) First thing I decide to do is cut my hair which I had been growing out for the last seven years. Aside from my eyelashes, the thing I like best about me is my hair. It's naturally curly and I love it when it does what I want it to. I thought it was time for a chance and ended up getting a gift certificate for a free hair cut and off I went and so was the hair. Not sure if my picture is up yet, but there I am about a week after I cut my hair and I thought it came out pretty good. I'm currently debating if I'm going to grow my hair out long again tho - I think I miss it. Anyway, I about a week later I decided to join eharmony - so not something I would have ever done before. After all, I had been out with one guy since my break up and it was a disaster. His wife left him for someone else, he didn't want to believe it and even though they had gotten a divorce he was so not over her. I can understand how it hurts, but for Christ teeth guy - don't go out with a woman and bring up your ex in every since conversation no matter what the topic ok? To top all that off, he was annoying as hell. Didn't like my dog (should have known right then) and the best way I can describe him is this : George Castanza from Seinfeld. With hair and perhaps a little taller, otherwise it was him to the T. Oh except this guy stills lived with his parents after getting divorced. Side note: Saw Divorced Guy last weekend at a mutual friends BBQ and he STILL lives with his parents. You're 34 and have been divorced for almost three years now. Wonder why you are still single... Point of all this - flaming disaster and I thought it was about time for me to at least attempt to get out into the dating world.

Ok, every boyfriend I have ever had, including Divorced Guy, have all been introduced to me by friends so I have absolutely no real dating experience. Screw it - I'm not big on picking up people in bars and after the last set up, I was in no real hurry to go through that again so I threw down $60 for one month and went for eharmony. The truth? It's ok. They ask you A LOT of questions up front which someone like me is ok with, but I can see where a few people might get frustrated with it. Oh and for the commercials that show people getting rejected from eharmony? Unless you fully admit that you are an arsonist or serial killer or something, there should be no reason why you are rejected. I ended up getting to the point of 'open communication' with three different guys and it's kind of funny to talk to someone on the computer and over the phone then meet them in real life. Guy #1 was really a nice guy, but not really attractive which was too bad because he had a kick ass voice. Man, the fantasies alone you could have just with that voice...Met with Guy #1 twice and really, no sparks from either end. It turns out that I actually went to high school with guy # 2. I couldn't remember him at all so I tore through all my year books and could only find one picture of this guy - long hair, mid head-bang, playing the guitar. Ok, maybe not so bad. We talked for a few weeks and found that we knew some of the same people so I was actually looking forward to meeting him (again?). We agree to meet at a Starbucks close to my house for coffee before he heads to San Francisco to meet up with some friends. I get there, get my coffee and go outside and found him waiting for me at a table. I sit down and we start talking and honestly, the conversation isn't too bad. The looks? Quite a bit different from the year book picture. Closed to shaved head, Drew Carey glasses and works for a computer repair shop and also sports the company repair van. When we stand up to say good bye, we are the same height - next please. Guy #3 a firefighter. One picture posted and the guy is wearing a hat, sun glasses and heavy jacket. Sure like this is going to work. What the hell. I only have about two weeks of this eharmony thing left and not too many prospects. We chatted for awhile on line then on the phone and finally decided to meet up. Truly, I had no hopes of this going anywhere. He lives about an hour away from me, spends most weekends in Reno and plus that he was probably really hot. I figured we'd have a nice dinner, maybe a drink, he would let me down easy and I would come home to Chico. I guess it was sort of a good thing that Guy's 1 & 2 didn't work out and because I had such low expectations for the evening I was really relaxed; mostly I was focused on pizza and beer.

I get to this pizza place on a Saturday night and they are packed. I'm not quite sure what the guy looks like (remember the not so good picture?) and all I can think is "F*ck. I bet he bailed". Just about that time my phone rings and Guy #3 says he is out front waiting for me, was I close by? I told him I'd be right there, take a deep breath and head outside. Holy Sh*t. This guy is hot. And suddenly, he's hugging me! Are you serious? Dark blond hair, blue eyes, built very nicely, beautiful smile - the whole freaking package. We went to the bar and drank beer till our table open up, had pizza talked and laughed like crazy, then (I couldn't freaking believe this) he took me to see a Led Zeppelin tribute band. When the night was coming to and end, he walked me to my car and um yes, I kissed him. The nicest feeling that I have had in a long time was that feeling of mutual attraction. Looks like good things were finally headed my way...