I’m already flooded – I’m swimming in stuff!

Thank you for all the hysteria Hurricane Irene, now please go away!

Jesse was supposed to be moving in on Monday. Well, that day changed today,

Big changes are underway!

This is my last week living alone. One week from today my boyfriend Jesse (and his cat) will be living here in my apartment with me. I haven’t lived with another person since 1997 (!!) when I had roommates in college. This is going to be major. It’s going to be a huge adjustment for me, for sure…but one that I’m 100% looking forward to!

Am I nervous? Yes, a little. Has it really hit me? I don’t think it’s really sunk in. Three days ago, I thought we still had three weeks. He wasn’t supposed to move in until mid-September. But his landlord was a jerk, and the date got pushed to August 31. Then U-haul was fully booked for that day, so now it’s going to happen on Monday. Monday!! Needless to say, I haven’t cleaned out half of what I was planning on getting rid of by the time he moved in. I even took all of next week off to really get down to the nitty-gritty and toss so much junk that I’ve been holding on to since about 1997. (Seriously, you should see some of the sweaters and shoes that I found last night! YUCK! How could I have worn this stuff???)

I shredded all the photos I had of my Ex on Sunday. (I will admit, it was kind of liberating!) I was also pretty pissed off at him last weekend because he had contacted me (again) with

Resurfacing!

Yes, I’ve been missing in action for about six months now. And, yes, most of that time was spent with Jesse. Hanging out at each others’ places, or traveling (we’ve done a lot of traveling together so far!) And I was neglecting more than just my blog…my apartment was a total mess all of the time, I stopped going to the gym, I was hating on my job and people I work with. I did manage to see friends, but a lot of them have moved or gotten married or had babies over the last few months, so the number of friends I see regularly has dropped considerably – as has the number of hangovers I get. (Hehe) But now that I’m back at the gym – four weeks, today – I have noticed a lot of changes taking place (other than just losing weight!)

Cleansing: body and apartment…

Thoughts that occur when starting a juice cleanse:

“I’m hungry. No, really, I’m f’ing hungry!!”

“I could really go for an everything bagel right now…with bacon…egg…and cheese on it.”

“A giant turkey hero with swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and lots of mayo would be great right about now. Maybe with some bacon on it too.”

“Crackers. Can’t I just have crackers? I. Want. Crackers!”

Today I started my very first juice cleanse. The BluePrintCleanse. I’m only doing two days (instead of their recommended three) because I need to eat real food, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do more than two days. I have one more juice to go (there are six to drink per day) and though I was kind of really hungry around lunchtime, I’m feeling pretty good right now.

How did I fall for trying this trendy (and expensive) cleansing fad? Well, I’ve been trying to change my lifestyle. I hadn’t been exercising much since meeting “Jesse” last October (actually not exercising at all), and I put on a few pounds. Well, more like, I weighed more than I ever had in my life! So at the end of June, I started going to the gym again. I belong to the YMCA and they have a free program called the Y Personal Fitness Program. It’s 12 weeks of individual exercise designed for new and returning exercisers. You meet with a Coach once per month or so, so that they can help keep you on track. I committed to working out (cardio) three times a week, and so far, so good. I’ve even lost 6 lbs! And then I thought: why not up the ante? So I’m doing the cleanse (I had a coupon for 25% off) and I figure that maybe I’ll clear out some toxins in my body, and who knows, it might kill these regular bacon and cheese cravings. (But it seems to be making it worse!)

This morning, I also started cleaning out space in my apartment…for Jesse’s things.

“You’re looking for obstacles instead of looking for magic”

I am a very logical person. Sometimes, maybe too logical. I analyze situations and go with what makes sense. So this kind of “advice” is hard for me to take, let alone give. But once you get yourself into this mindset, things really do get so much better…

I used to be the kind of person who would not attempt to even look for a date because something like a big business trip would be coming up and I would think to myself, “Hey – why not wait until you get back from the trip before putting yourself out there.” I knew that my mind would be busy thinking about work and what I needed to get done leading up to the trip, and it just made sense to wait. It was logical. So naturally, I wound up spending many evenings alone, sitting on the couch, watching Law & Order repeats with my big glass of wine (or two.) But then, upon returning from the trip, something else would inevitably come up. Maybe I was afraid of getting hurt again, maybe it was sheer laziness, I don’t know. But a couple of years ago, something snapped (I realized that all of my friends were in relationships and I was still sharing my evenings with Jesse L. Martin and Jerry Orbach) and I became determined to meet someone.

Reflection, happiness and irony

Although a lot has been going on in my life, especially in my dating life, when things are good, as my blogger friend Amy has said, it’s hard to find something to write about. So I decided that today I’m going to reflect a little upon 2010.

After a year spent having some great dates and far too many wacko dates, I met “Jesse” in October and nearly three months later, I’ve already met his family (mother, stepfather, father, father’s wife, brother, sister, niece, brother-in-law…whew! I mean, I really got “introduced”!), and he’s met my parents and my brother. They really liked him. And my friends really like him. And most importantly, I really like him. And he’s told me that he really likes me…

When I started this blog last year, I was just starting to get over my ex-boyfriend. He’s been contacting me again, trying to meet with me. Well, not only trying…I actually went and had lunch with him.

“We haven’t been to a wedding in a while…”

Gossip spreads through my family like wildfire. I tell my mom something, she tells her sister, who then tells my cousins, who tell their husbands and kids and suddenly I find myself sitting at a crowded Thanksgiving dinner table with fifteen pairs of eyeballs staring at me, and the words “We haven’t been to a wedding in a while…” hanging in the air. Why is everyone looking at me?? Well, probably because I told my mom the other day, that I was invited to spend this weekend with “Jesse” at his mom’s house…in Virginia…and I decided to go!

Jesse and I have been dating for nearly seven weeks. Not a super long time. But I like him. And I know that he likes me. I mean, I know that he likes me a lot. But I love traveling and I will pretty much go anywhere I am invited. And so when Jesse and I were talking about Thanksgiving weekend last week, and he just brought up the idea of me visiting him while he’s down in Virginia, I just thought to myself, “I’ve never really been to Virginia before. Why not?!” (I kind of was technically there just once, to go to a party when I was visiting D.C. last year with my ex.) In my vision of how this trip would go, I saw us walking around in a cute little town, and maybe going for a hike, and just staying at his mom’s place. So yay, I’d get to meet his mom and stepfather. But somehow, this trip has turned into a “Meet the Family” kind of visit. Tomorrow after I arrive, we’re going to be driving another 2 hours to another town for me to meet his brother and sister and then Sunday is a visit with Dad and stepmother. Hmmmm. And now I’m starting to get nervous.

As I told my family, there won’t be wedding bells for a while, so don’t look at me (there were some other single people at the table – like my brother! – hello, why all the heat on me??) but I will admit that this trip is kind of exciting…wish me luck!!

Infatuation

I don’t know how it happened. But somehow, I am deep in the throes of puppy love. I mean, total infatuation!!

It’s been a busy two weeks. The guy I was calling Henry in the last post (aka: Mr. Familiar Face) turned out to be a total loser/jackass. The Monday after my night with him, I got a text message from him saying that he had a great time with me, but didn’t think there was a “relationship connection, but I saw a lot else I liked! Thoughts?” Yeah, here’s a thought, how about I punch you in the face! But whatever, he’s my Twitter follower now. Yay to increasing those numbers! That experience, paired with having a really crappy job interview for a possible social media fashion gig really put me in bad spirits that week.

Then that Friday, I had gotten an email from Paul, aka: Mr. Mexican Cookies. He invited me to go to a Oktoberfest party. So I said yes, and we spent that whole Saturday together…drinking mostly. It was fun, and he is a good guy. Towards the end of the night, he invited me to a barbecue in Brooklyn, we went and I met some of his good friends and afterward, we somehow ended up at my place and he slept over. But I didn’t feel much of a spark and I think we’re better off as friends.

The next morning, I woke up with a terrible hangover, Paul sleeping next to me and very little memory of how we got there (we were both fully dressed), when I realized that I had to feel better quickly and get rid of Paul sooner than later because I had a date that night with a new guy that I had been conversing with. I told Paul that I was having an early dinner with my friends and that I had to get ready, and after he left, I put every hangover cure that I had ever tried to use. Though I had zero interest in meeting a guy for drinks at that point, and contemplated canceling, I decided to suck it up and went to meet “Jesse” at a bar in Williamsburg.

I got there a little early, and unfortunately, the bar he had chosen was closed. So I texted him that I would be waiting outside. He arrived soon after, and apologized for the mix-up. We found another bar (we were in Williamsburg, Brooklyn … you can’t turn a corner without hitting a bar!) and chatted over two pints of beer. He was cute, very tall, smart and is successfully pursuing his dream career, which was nice to hear. We had a great time talking, and before the date was over, he asked me if I would be interested in seeing him again, so I agreed to a second date. He had sparkly eyes, and I love that.

Second date we met at a bar near my office, after work, and we spent six and a half hours there talking and drinking beer. We realized that we had a LOT in common, and he shared some stories with me that he said he had never told anyone before.

I love when life delivers unexpected surprises…

Yesterday, in the midst of cleaning my apartment and writing my post about my Friday night date with “Dean”, I checked my email and had a message from this guy I was corresponding with on OKCupid before I left town. So I logged on to reply, and an instant message window popped up, with a familiar face in the photo. Now, I do not IM on that site and I have written in my profile “Please do not IM me because I will not respond.” Well, Mr. Familiar Face had IM’d me and written: “I know you don’t IM, but since we’ve known each other for YEARS, perhaps you could lift the moratorium this once?” And it turned out Mr. Familiar Face was this guy I had met on another dating site, about three years ago!

But… we had never actually met… just corresponded… on two separate occasions. The first was obviously the initial correspondence, and we almost met then, but somehow he got back together with his ex-girlfriend and I was kicked to the curb. But that was understandable. The second time was a few months later, after he had “amicably” broken it off with the ex. But this time it was the holiday season and I was traveling and by the time I got back, he had taken up with a different girl and was going to try things with her. That, I chalked up to bad timing. So what a surprise to get this message yesterday morning!

We flirted like mad via IM for about twenty minutes, and it was so much fun. I was so on my game: I was sharp, quick, funny, sexy – I was on fire! I love that feeling.

Too much, too soon

Before I left on my business trip, I got a flurry of emails from guys on all three of the online dating sites that I’m on. I wrote to a few of them and have a few dates lined up in the coming weeks. (Surprisingly, three of the four guys I was corresponding with were also out of town about the same time I was, so it was perfect timing!) One guy I went out with last night.

I’m going to call him “Dean”. Now, when Dean first wrote to me, he wrote me the message in French. (I studied French for 6 years in high school and college, so this is not unusual.) I responded half in French, half in English. (I’m rusty.) Anyway, his profile made it seem like he was a fun, interesting and very worldly kinda guy. Which I like very much. He was kind of cute in his photos, and very playful too. All positive things. But as we emailed and then texted, he started to get too familiar, like “How are you my angel?” And I started getting the “Uh oh” vibe. I do not like too familiar too soon. You don’t know me, I don’t know you – don’t call me “angel” before you even meet me. It’s a pet peeve, what can I say?

We both returned to the US from our respective trips earlier this week. We decided to meet up last night, and after agreeing to a Friday night first date (major date night!), he then sprung on me the fact that it was going to be a dinner date. Well…I don’t like dinner on the first date. Because then you’re stuck with the dude for an extended period of time if you don’t like him. But I was too jetlagged and lazy to think of a good excuse to get out of it, so I let it go, thinking, “it’s just dinner”…