Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Date

I was supposed to write Part III but I never got to it, so here's the short version: I had locked the keys in the car and I called my insurance company to save the day but they couldn't for an hour so my kids and I sat in the parking lot for an hour from 9:30-ish to 10:30-ish. The kids were grumpy. I took some cute pics.

Okay, now on to funner things.

I had a date a few hours ago. A DATE. Like, a boy and a girl go out and the boy pays. His name is Shaun. I met him for the first time tonight. We've been "talking" for a few weeks through the dating website, plentyoffish.com. It's supposed to be Plenty of Fish, but I always read it as Plenty Offish. I'm not offish but I joined anyway. So, we'd been messaging back and forth and he finally asked me out and I accepted.

As the date approached, I became more and more nervous. What if he hated me? What if he liked me and wanted to go out again? Both seemed frightening. No one likes to be hated, and I have also grown so accustomed to my singleness that the idea of changing that is, indeed, frightening. But then a kind friend on Facebook advised me to think of the best thing that could happen, and the worst thing that could happen, and expect something in between. I took her advice and allowed myself to imagine that this date would be the first day of the rest of my life, that I would fall in love and eventually marry this guy, and he'd be perfect for me and my family. And I allowed myself to imagine that he would be a scumbag, and also that we'd get close and then he'd break my heart. After I thought of those possibilities, I realized that all are unlikely at this point, and so what if any of that happens? So what if he was a scumbag? I'd be just fine.

So I wasn't quite as nervous anymore.

It was my first date, though, in two years. And I was still nervous.

The babysitter was 20 minutes late, so I had to text him that I'd be late and I was sorry. When I met him, he looked quite different from his picture on the profile. And. Also. Here's the other thing. As soon as I saw him, I knew it was him, and it felt like I'd known him a while. Like, "ah! There's my old friend!" It was just a "click," okay? It seemed like we were supposed to be there together. You know how sometimes you click right off and sometimes you don't? We clicked right off.

The movie was quite good. Snow White and the Huntsman. He was so funny. He wasn't as funny in his emails, so it was a pleasant surprise that he made me laugh so much. I'd really thought he was a more serious guy.

I want to get to know him more.

He's older than I am by 13 years! I've never dated someone that much older. But I find his age attractive. Perhaps he's a grown-up. He has 3 daughters and they're about the same age as my kids.

He wants to see me again! I do believe I'll soon have my first 2nd date since my divorce, and I'm so excited! I really like him.

No matter what happens, tonight was a good night.