Deluge

Friday night after work, I did some shopping at G.ateway (an ourdoor mall about 20 minutes from where I work).  (it was an extraordinarily successful shopping trip, but that is not part of the story.)  Towards the end of the evening I was walking down an empty sidewalk when I saw a man walking towards me.  He was very familiar looking to me, so I stared at him as we walked, trying to place him.  I noticed he was staring at me too, and sort of smirking, so he recognized me as well.  After we passed I realized that he was a friend of Ex. #1.  I felt sort of like a dork because I was in the ugliest pants I have ever owned in my life (hence, the need of a successful shopping trip) AND I figured he would be judging me for being out shopping alone on a Friday night instead of being on a date (in my defense, I was meeting a friend later that night). 

But then I remembered: at that very moment, I had on my phone 2 voice messages from men wanting to take me out that I hadn't even bothered listening to yet, plus an unread email from a dreamy engineer in Phoenix who has been emailing twice a day.  He might not have known any of that, but I did and it felt good. 

Matt (formerly "Brown Shorts" but I've decided to start using real names) and I have been out three times now and have our fourth date scheduled for Saturday.  He's coming over to my house to fix whatever I want and then we're going to eat pizza and watch a BBC series.  For our last date, he took me to dinner and ice skating and then served me sparkling cider while we played games at his house. 

I went out with a fella named Paul #1 (because there are two Pauls in my life currently).  I thought he was a nice enough guy, but we didn't really hit it off.  Then at the end of the date,  he didn't walk me to the door.  I was shocked-- that had never happened to me before.  I wrote him off (and counted myself lucky because numbering Pauls is a bit de-humanizing, don't you think?), so you can imagine my surprise when he called the very next day.  I was so shocked and unprepared that I just let him leave a message and we've been playing phone tag since then.  (perhaps his lack of walking me to the door can be attributed to the fact that he's an engineer?)

Paul #2 has been emailing and texting daily and says he'll call tonight.  He once complimented me on my proper use of grammar, so that won him big points in my book.

Sam currently lives in my same little town, but used to live in New York.  Plus, he takes care of his elderly grandma, so he won points with me.  He's been emailing.

Josh is the dreamy engineer mentioned above.  He is so funny and smart and ambitious.  Plus, I love my men to be nerdy and handy. 

It occurred to me the other day that if all of these guys progress to the dating level, there won't be enough days in the week!  But, let's not count our eggs before they've hatched.  It will be interesting to see what happens next.