Wedding Party

Here is the deal. I had a friend's wedding on Friday. I was fixed up with a friend of a friend who was also going to the wedding. She had been through a similar situation in her life as me so it seemed like a good match. I guess you can call this a date although we would both be going to the wedding anyway even if we were not going together. I picked her up at her place and she had a very pretty black dress and looked beautiful. She is about 5'4" with long red hair. I am a sucker for redheads so to me she was prettiest girl there. Anyway to make a long story short, it turned out to be more of a friends get together than a date. Of course we were sitting at a table with a bunch of friends so it wasn't exactly a perfect first date but I think we both had a good time with each other. The wedding was in a hotel so I wound up staying at the hotel and we closed the hotel bar and then went up to one of the rooms to continue the party. We went to bed about 4:30 so I am still recovering today.

Storms

We had some really bad storms last night. They pretty much kept me up the entire night. A couple of the chairs from my patio set wound up 4 houses down the block in fact one of them was caught on the top of the fence. I spent the morning picking up the garbage. Today is garbage day and of course it blew all over the place.

I had a phone call last night with my date on Friday, T. It was a somewhat short converstion because she had to go get her hair cut but nevertheless it was nice. I have not been that nervous talking to a girl on the phone since I was a teenager but I was pretty nervous last night. I hope I didn't say anything stupid. I am looking forward to Friday but I feel like a helpless kid again.

It has been a while

I know it has been a very long time since I last posted but I thought I would get back to it. A lot has changed since my last post. For one thing, I am now back to being single. Also, I still own my own business and I recently moved into a new place.

Things have finally settled down emotionally for me and I am going on a first date on Friday. It has been a very long time since I have been on a first date so I am not sure what to expect or how to act. I'm sure a lot has changed in the area of casual dating so I guess I will play it by ear and see what happens. After being totally screwed over (story to come in later entries) with my last relationship I have been very reluctant to get back into it. However, one of my friends is setting me up with someone they know so I swallowed my sorrow and decided to go for it. If you have any advice for a 35 year old who has been out of dating for several years feel free to share, I feel like a rookie and I am very nervous.

Elevator Woes

I had an interesting experience on the elevator yesterday. We were headed home for the day and suddenly the elevator dropped 3 or 4 floors and we were stuck in between two floors. There were 10 people on the elevator so it was very crowded. Being stuck in an elevator is one thing but having all these people jammed in there and stuck in a dark elevator was a very scary feeling. We were only stuck there for about 20 minutes but it seemed like hours. This gives me more motivation to take the stairs more often.

More Babbling

I was thinking about this today and I was trying to figure out what feature attracted me the most on women. For me, it is the eyes but more specifically the eyelashes. Yes, as strange as it sounds I really fall for women with pretty eyes and long eyelashes. Anyway, I took a long weekend around the holiday so it was a nice break. I went up north to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin until Sunday and then I came home and continued to pack for moving. I can't wait until this process is completed and I am settled into my new place. So far September is off to a good start. The weather for this week has been great as it has been in the 80's all week with mostly sunshine. Ok, I am done with my babbling for today, have a great weekend everybody!/

Taking the Plunge

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now. There is this girl whom I saw again last night that I have fallen for. The problem is that she is 10 years younger than me so having a relationship with her might be difficult. There are a few challenges I have to consider with acceptance of family and friends. Plus, being that there is an age gap our friends also have the same age gap.

Also, being that there is such a big age difference I wonder if we will be compatable in that way. We get along great now as friends but taking it to a romantic level might be a challenge. We are from different generations so I am afraid that I won't be able to relate to her. Also, I feel a little silly asking her out because she is so much younger than me. The flip side is that I am crazy about her. She is a lot of fun to talk too and hang around. We seem to be able to talk for hours about everything. She is tough to read but I get the impression that she is interested.

I need to give this some thought because I don't want to put in the effort if it isn't going to work out in the long term. At this point in my life I am not interested in a fling, I want something long term.

I probably won't see her again for another week so this gives me some time to think about this.

I'm Still Around

After a much needed break from the blog world, I have returned to post an update. Between being really busy, the summer and just being burned out on blogging I decided to take a couple of months break. I am happy to say I am back. As soon as I get a few free hours I need to go back and catch myself up on all of my favorite blogs. I am looking forward to seeing how all of my blog friends have progressed.

As for me, I am currently in the process of moving so things have been very busy. This is hopefully the last of a series of changing events in my life so I am hoping to be settled into my new place and have some stability for the holidays. I currently have nothing exciting to report as far as my love life goes. Maureen and I have taken a step back (a long story), I have not spoken to Maddy in several months, horn girl is happily back with her husband and train girl has fallen off the face of the earth. I have had my eye on this other girl and we have become friends but she is 10 years younger than me so I am very cautious and unsure if I want to take it any further.

I am going away for the holiday weekend so hopefully I can get another post in by then but if I don't I will tell more next week.

Bad Choices

I am a little drawn these days because I have made a couple of bad decisions recently and I don't exactly feel great about it. It was something that I knew was a bad decision at the time but I made it anyway. Typically I am not the type of person who makes a decision for the short term. Usually when I make a decision I balance the short term with the long term. So this was a little out of character for me but I figured once in a while you should do something to benefit today and not worry about the long term outcome.

70's Again?

I went down to the local river this evening and went for a walk. It was a beautiful evening and I was enjoying being outside. There was a bad band playing there and the place was surrounded by teens. It may just be me but when I am around a bunch of teens I feel like I am on that 70's show based upon the recent fashion trends of our youth. It is a little scary.

Anticipation

I love summer. I love being able to go outside every day and night. I try to keep myself busy every single night and do something outside because I know that warm days are rare around here. Last week, I played softball, went running, hiking, biking and swimming. Very nice. It really seems to put me in a much better mood also.

I am looking forward to my vacation coming up in a couple of weeks. I have been making reservations and making plans and it has been a blast. I love the feeling you have just before you are going to take a trip. It is the same feeling when I am about to ride a new coaster and I am next at the gate. There is something about having that feeling of being next that is very exciting. It seems to enhance whatever you are about to do. I have come to realize that when you experience things in life that the anticipation is at least 50% of the experience and I have learned to enjoy that just as much as the experience itself.

Old Friends

I had a very long train ride home yesterday because a train right before ours struck a car. There are 3 tracks and they had two of them closed so it was like a plane sitting on a runway wating to take off. Anyway, after that long ride I stopped by my old work to see some of my old friends. It was really nice to see some of them again and you realize that people pretty much stay the same. It was a little disappointing because there were at least 2 people who I worked with at my old job and considered friends but all they seemed to care about was asking me for a new job. So instead of chatting and asking me how things were going they were asking me if I had any jobs for them. Normally, I wouldn't mind as I realize that networking is very important in finding a new job but when it comes up within the first 2 minutes of the conversation after not seeing someone for almost a year it throws me back a little and puts me in a difficult position. The part that makes it worse was that there was one guy who kept asking me questions like we were doing an interview. He also made a comment about how he was looking at his options and wanted to know all the details before making a decision. This made me upset because he was acting like I was offering him a job and he was trying to decide if he should take it. Keep in mind that this is someone I have not heard from in a year, he never tried to call or email and now after seeing him for 2 minutes he is acting like I am giving him a job. Overall though it was a positive experience and I am glad I decided to take the few hours to do it.

All is right with the world

This morning was a beautiful morning. It is finally comfortable enough outside to where I actually enjoy being outside in the morning and going through the commute. A good morning walk downtown as the sun is rising is just what you need to start your week.

Anyway, I get on the train today at my normal time and my eyes nearly popped out of my head because I saw train girl sitting there. I believe the last time I saw her on the train was in January. I just guessed that she moved or found another job. I forgot how pretty she was and how attacted I am to her. My heart was beating really fast pretty much the entire train ride. It really started to make me feel alive just seeing her again. Her hair is a little lighter, almost blond and it was nice to see her without all that winter gear on. Now I have seen a lot of girls whom I found attractive but there is just something about her that makes me feel good inside. I hope this isn't a one time occurance and I see her on the train again tomorrow.

Finally, some coasters.

I am finally starting to pin down some plans to do some coaster riding this summer. I'm off to a little bit of a late start but better late than never. I am heading up to my local park SF Great America next week, up to the Dells to ride the new woodie Hades in late June, over to Michigan Adventure to ride Shivering Timbers in July and finally I am going to California in July where I plan on visiting Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knotts Berry Farm. I was hoping to get over to Six Flags Great Adventure to ride the Kingda Ka but it doesn't look like I will be able to squeeze it in this year. Nevertheless, I am pretty pleased a the way the schedule is shaping up.

Am I still Alive

The answer to that question is yes, I am still here. Wow, I can't believe it has been a month since my last post. The month of May just flew by, it was very busy for me. I'm just trying to remember where I left off as some things have changed in my life in the last month.

Where do I start. Well, my engagement with Maureen is now off, that is a very long story but let me say that I really didn't have a choice in the matter and it wasn't a really happy time for me. I will explain in detail another time. Job wise, I am still doing the same thing our company is starting to take off. We have signed a lot of new customers recently which is one of the main reasons why I have been scarce around here recently.

Interesting thing happened to me on Monday. I went to work out and I came out and noticed a note on my car. Someone had left a note saying that they hit the front of my car and they left their number. I called them back to let them know that there wasn't any damage and it wound up being a very nice girl. We had a very pleasant 10 minute conversation. I am debating calling her back and asking her out for coffee or something but that just feels a little strange to me.

More Rants.

I didn't post yesterday because I wound up sitting in a meeting for 12 hours trying to close a deal. Today, I am just happy to be back to my normal routine.

I had a somewhat busy weekend this past weekend. On Saturday our band played at a bar in the western suburbs of Chicago so I didn't get home until very late and on Sunday I had to play again because we had our Symphonic Band Concert in the afternoon. I do really enjoy performing but the back to back days are a little much. Follow that up with the marathon yesterday and my brain is a little out of it today. Also, I can't decide if this sore throat that I have today is allergies or if I am getting sick again. I really hope I am not getting sick but it is so tough to tell with this constant change of weather.

I must say I found the events with the new Pope last very interesting. It was really fun to watch history unfold and the whole process of choosing the new Pope. I was very young when Pope John Paul II was elected so this was really the first time I experienced it. I was a little embarrassed by the way they portray America because if you listen to the media you get the impression that out main concerns are issues such as abortion, human cloning, same sex marriage and birth control. These issues seem kind of shallow to me though when throughout the rest of the world you have war, disease and poverty. We should feel very blessed living over here and I do. Also, if you listen to the media you get the impression that there is some radical left wing within the College of Cardinals and that they chose to go with the conservative choice. Do they really think that even if they chose the most liberal Cardinal that the Catholic Church would change its stance on some of these issues?

On another note though, I know they won’t but I really do hope they consider expanding the role of women in the church. When I think about it I could understand why the church has the stance they do on issues such as abortion, homosexuality, cloning and birth control. They give a very clear picture as to the morality of the issues and why they believe the way that they do and even if you don’t agree with it the stance is very clear. But I can’t see what the issue is with allowing women to be priests. Where is the bad morality in that? There is no moral issue of human life, sexuality and creation to deal with. I just wish that someone would explain to me what would be so wrong in allowing women priests.

Anyway, I am getting off my soap box for now. I have a phone call to take in a few minutes so I will try to update this later if I can.