Forgot to mention

I left out a very vital detail of my weekend. In an attempt to move past the intense emotional incapacitation (is that even a word?) from last week, I went on a date Friday night! It was a guy that I had been knowing a while, that apparently had been feeling me, so he invited me out. Even though, I was not remotely close to being ready to move on, I figured anything was better than sitting at home on a Friday night feeling sorry for myself and my lost love.

Since I had already  been knowing him, I allowed him to actually come to my house and pick me up. I never do that! Talk about a step in the right direction! He had only been to this area in Dallas called the Bishop Arts District once, so he wanted to walk around there and check other restaurants. We ended up going to one of my favorite places out there called Bolsa.

Now... this guy is very open. Open as in, he is open to trying just about anything once. Still unclear on what that means? Let me give an example. He was trying to encourage me to try ostrich meat. I don't even know where you find ostrich meat, but he went on and on about how good it was! When we were at Bolsa, and he wanted to try the rabbit sausage, I was not surprised! Because I'm a good sport, and I'm pretty open to trying almost anything new, I went for it. Was it nasty? Not at all. In all actuality, it was quite tasty. It looked and tasted like Eckrich turkey sausage. Go figure huh? ( I was glad too, since everyone swears that most "other" meats taste like chicken)

I think I was most excited that he was a wine drinker. As I have learned in the past, let the man do his thing and take control unless instructed otherwise, he picked a damn good Chardonnay!

The conversation was great and he certainly kept my mind off of TP for that evening.How about the next day, he met me for brunch and then volunteered to go Christmas shopping with me! I thought I was hallucinating! He was actually quite helpful too! I picked out some great  gifts for my family!

 I'm not healed from "him" but I feel like I am moving int he right direction with making sure I stay busy and meeting other people. I'm praying on forgiving myself for all the things that I didn't do so that the guilt won't eat me up, but to also forgive him for all the things that he did to me in the past. I never completely let that go, and I'm pretty sure that's a huge part of why he and I couldn't get too far.I think if I can forgive myself and him, a lot of the pain and sorrow would be alleviated.

Will I go out with this new guy again! I sure would like to!

Date #2

Date #2

After being pleased with my first date with the fireman, I decided to give the second date a go. He let me call the shots with the first date and let me choose the place so, for the second date; I made sure to let him make the call.

Initially, we were supposed to get together around lunch time, but I ended up having to do a favor for a friend and had to bail, however, I did make it a point to let him know that I hadn’t forgotten about him and our plans and texted him. After receiving no response whatsoever via text, I gave him call. Silly me, I forgot that he was studying all day since he’s in school to be a paramedic. Of course he picked up with the quickness when he saw me calling though!

After going back and forth about what we were going to do, he finally made a decision. He decided that we were going to go to Macaroni Grill and then go to the movies.

I was kind of excited about going to the Macaroni Grill since I had never been there before AND he remembered that I had been wanting to see Paranormal Activity 4 so I was uber ecstatic! (yay for guys that pay attention!)

I sure was NOT comfortable with him picking me up at my house just yet (he does not need to know where I live just yet), so I met him at the restaurant. He was waiting outside for me (which made me a little happy on the inside especially since, if it was me, I’d be waiting on the inside at the bar, in the warmth) and gave me a big hug when he saw me. We go in and get seated and because I tend to be subconsciously observant, I noticed the server was super cute. (I know, really? Elle? I have got to do better and focus on more important things) I was super overwhelmed with all the wonderful options so when I asked the server his option, he made it a point to go through just about every single option on the menu. I have reason to believe that he was flirting with me but I tried my best to play it off and shoo him away subtly in front of my date.

I couldn’t tell you the name of what I ordered but, it was grilled something with lettuce and angel hair pasta. The conversation was great and I got a little more insight on he, and his family, and his 4 other siblings. (Why does that seem like a lot of siblings to me?) Amazingly, they all seem pretty normal. The do lots of “family like” stuff like my family do and seem to have traditions and things that they do around the holidays, which I REALLY like! 

After dinner we left and we went to the movies. I’m a nerd and I like scary movies. Not blood and gore and guts, but scary movies that give you the willies and make you want to figure out how they created the effects. I’ve seen Paranormal Activity 1-3, so seeing Paranormal Activity 4 was an absolute must! We watched it and the movie didn’t make me jump throughout the movie as the other 3, but the last 20 minutes was certainly a clincher! (Getting to jump back and squeeze his hand when I got “scared” was a super bonus too, as I also got to practice my surprised yet pleasantly scared facial expressions)

When the date ended, he walked me to my car and no way did we kiss in the mouth. I haven’t even kissed him on the cheek. A hug is sufficient at this point. I most definitely want to see him again though. He seems like he’s genuinely a good guy!  Maybe he and I could find something fun to do for Halloween? I'm definitely taking suggestions on that!

My next project is to pick a date (since I assume it will be my turn to choose), that does not involve eating but more physical activity like rock climbing or arts and crafts or something. I don’t want to break the bank though. Dating gets expensive and I think the right thing for me to do would be for me to come up with something and actually pay for it so he's not always stuck out.

What kind of date could I take us on that’s fun and different and is cost effective? Any suggestions?

Match.com Date

Remember how I talked about finally being brave enough to check out Match.com? Well, this weekend I got even more brave and even went on a date with a guy from Match.com! Even better,  he's a fireman! I've always wanted to date a fireman!

On Match, you can “wink” at someone as your way of letting them know that you’re interested, before actually attempting to send something semi-reasonable and borderline corny to their inbox. (In facebook lingo, it would be “poking” someone, but not nearly as annoying).

He winks at me, and I wink back and I muster up the balls to actually send him something that wasn’t corny (and I am corny so I’m not quite sure how what I sent, wasn't corny) . I’m pretty sure I asked him where he was from or how long he’d lived here; something that would force him to write something back to me. He writes me back and we do this back and forth game and he finally gives me his number and puts the ball in my court. (granted, if this was face to face, I’d probably be salty as he should have asked me for my number, but since email has no real tone, I didn’t think anything of it).

I had an extremely long day Saturday, but he seemed pretty together, so I texted him and we went back and forth for a couple hours and he finally got the balls to call me! ( you wouldn’t believe how I squealed like a school girl when his number popped up! You would swear I was 16 again and made everyone in the house shut up so I could sound cool!)

We chatted for a good 30 minutes to an hour and we really hit it off and seemed to have a lot in common. He really took it to the next level and asked me out to dinner! I was UBER impressed! (Since normally I’m like, uh, can we do something a little more creative instead of stuff our faces?) So we met up Saturday evening at Oddfellows (because I’m no fool, we need to be in a public place) and it was a very nice yet still casual first date.

Granted, he did not look like the picture he had posted online. The picture online was obviously a younger photo of him from college but I let him slide since my picture wasn’t exactly the most recent. He did favor his picture but older and more muscular (which I LOVED and I always wanted to date a hot fireman anyway!)  I will say though, that he got major kudos for telling me that pictures do me no justice and that I’m amazing in person.The conversation was very light and fun. We joked a lot, which I enjoyed ( I hate it when guys are too serious and don’t have a goofy side! I’m like uh… do you know who you’re talking to right now? My favorite movie is Ace Ventura: Pet Detective).

We didn’t make it a long night and he was very gentleman-ly ( is that even a word? Probably not, I bet I made it up). He pulled my chair out, opened the door for me, paid the tab etc (in short, all the things a man is supposed to do that he should not be getting credit for)  and most importantly, DID NOT GO IN FOR A KISS when he walked me to my car. (that’s nasty, mono is real. I don’t kiss folks in the mouth all willy nilly) He sooooooo would have gotten his feelings hurt if he did try that! He got a light one armed hug (because I didn’t want to press my boobies against him so he can inhale the scents that make me wonderful)  and we went our separate ways.

He texted me when he got home to make sure I got home safely (although I went to a party afterwards- but that’s another story). I appreciated the fact that he was just checking on me. We texted the next day and actually I can’t wait to go out with him again! He’s a cool dude!

Here’s the question: where should we go on our next date? He’s pretty much open to  just about anything I want to do, so I should certainly make it a good one! Any suggestions? I definitely want something interactive!