He came to the house to pick me up on his way to take his daughter home. She ran in the house and spoke to my parents, then I grabbed my shoes and purse and we headed out to take her home. I thought I was going to be sick. I had a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach. What if I had to see her mother… what if I didn’t compare, or stand up to, or wasn’t as pretty as, all these wild thoughts went flying through my head. When he took her to the front door, the mother never showed her face, whew! I survived. After she was home we came back to my house and slept all afternoon. We had to recover. She runs 90 to nothing!The next 2 weeks he had vacation so he was home. He had lots of plans made, clean out the shop, rebuild the hot tub, ride horses, you name it, but every night once I got off work he came over to the house to spend time with me. When he first started he’d go out to do chores with my dad and me. Once he learned what we did and how we fed everything, he beat us home during the later part of those 2 weeks and had them done for us.
We were doing P90X so after chores were done he and I would head to Kalem & Evelyn’s house to do the workout. On the 20th was Jason’s birthday so after our workout we all headed to dinner at Cheddars.
The sad part is all through this Josh became more and more non-existent when he was around. I had a feeling all along that Josh liked me more than a friend and I sound so mean by saying, he seemed more like a big brother to me. I wasn’t oblivious to all of this but I hoped it would work itself out. So I went on about my business hoping that things would work out.
On the 22nd of August we had dinner club at a German restaurant out on 43 hwy. When they sent out the email this month, my parents also go an invite. So decided to come as well. He and I headed over in his truck and my parents drove separate. Up to this point after dinner club we’d go to the J’s and play rockband so I told him that if that was the case, we’d need a way home. When we got to Roswitha’s, I could feel some tension around Josh. I spoke to him and he wouldn’t speak back. Oh great, we’re going to have to have the talk, again. I hate the talk. The I like you but for a friend talk. Really it’s heartbreaking. I don’t like to be on either end of that conversation!
After dinner was over, everyone just split. So I looked at him and asked what he’d like to do? He didn’t care so I said, how about Mini Golf?? It was settled we were going to go play mini golf. He also indulged me and stopped at BigLots for me (yes, I love that store). Now here’s something I shouldn’t tell on myself but I always pay for one round and grab 2 balls and 2 score cards so that I can play both courses, easy & hard. I told him to do the same, in fact I think I grabbed 3 balls so that we could and I grabbed both score cards. He gave me the “Are you serious” look and I grinned. Then we went outside and proceeded to play mini golf. I would like to say for the record I won both rounds, but he was a good sport about it and not far behind me!
All through this I still went to see my friends, A LOT. It’s good to have friends to rely on when things get hairy! We went out to eat at a Thai place every Wednesday night, I went over on weekends that he wasn’t in town, I went other nights of the week even. Actually the month of August we took up doing P90x so I was over there every night of the week. It was very difficult the week of August 8-14th. My parents had gone on vacation to Hawaii so I was left to take care of all of our critters. My dad had 2 horses that had “colds”. It was the best option the vet could come up with anyway. I had to give them shots and take them out and let them relax every night and it was hot that week.
Kalem & Josh came over a couple times as did Evelyn to help me with the horses. They didn’t always want to cooperate with me… The little rascals.
So the Friday before my parents left, my mom looked at me and asked if she was supposed to bring him and his daughter something home from Hawaii. I looked at her with a strange face and told her, she didn’t have to do anything. I never expect anything from her. Later that night she changed her tone and said she’d like to bring them back something, what size did they wear and what should she bring them home. Would he like a Harley Davidson shirt or another shirt or what? I told her I wasn’t sure. I was still really just learning about him myself but if she would like to bring him back something anything she’d bring back would be just fine. She wanted to know sizes so I shot him texts to find out his size and his daughters size. When he replied I told her and she asked me to text it so she’d be sure to have it while she was there.
While they were in Hawaii my mom was calling or texting me with different things they had done or different questions. She told me she found the perfect shirt for him, told me about it and asked if he’d like it. I told her I’m sure he would. She also found something for his daughter. I told her thank you and I’m sure they would be pleased.
He and I continued to talk through our normal portals. He didn’t come home the first weekend my parents were gone. I’ll admit if it weren’t for my friends, I would have been bored out of my mind. It was to hot to go outside except maybe to jump in the swimming pool but the swimming pool hadn’t been opened this year yet so that was out.
I woke up on Saturday morning (the 8th) and wandered into my mom’s sewing room for some reason. Not sure what possessed me to do this but anyway I did. I had made myself a John Deere blanket with the normal green and yellow colors, then I found all the colors for a Pink John Deere blanket. I was standing at my mom’s sewing table and saw all my pink material I had bought and it hit me almost like a freight train, I wanted to make him a John Deere Blanket. I had a few pieces of green and yellow JD material left over from different projects but not nearly enough.
I called my grandma to see what she was up to. She said she was just sitting at the house.
-What are your plans today?
-Well I didn’t have any, why?
-If I ran to town and bought some material, would you be interested in helping me make a blanket?
As with any “outing” at my house, when family (or friends but mostly family) comes over, it’s a huge ordeal. Everything has to be in the perfect place and usually it gets put off until the last minute and a lot of times left for me to do. This Sunday was like every other, except this time my mom came up “sick” and couldn’t help. My dad he was busy outside so it was all left up to me. I was frustrated beyond belief. My mom woke me up at 7:30 am to clean the house and get it ready. Wait, I thought this was supposed to be for my birthday… and I’m the one who has to do everything. (yup, I should be used to this by now.) So I spent all morning cleaning, doing dishes and cooking food.
Then my day got better, about 12noon I got a phone call, it was him. He was just around the corner of my house and needed to know exact directions. I was also nervous because he was meeting my parents today also. That’s when it happened, my mom stormed off into the bedroom mad at me and slammed the door shut. I was (and still am) confused about what I did to cause that reaction. My dad walked in the house and asked where my mom went. I told him what little of the story I knew that had happened and he said, okay and went on about his business.
Then he pulled in my driveway. So I was torn, do I make him walk up to the house? Do I stand on the back deck and talk to him? Do I greet him at his car? I went for choice b, stand on the deck and talk to him. He walked up and I took him in the house. My dad was getting ready to walk out so I did a quick introduction and then we went into the kitchen. I had some things in the oven cooking and the timer was getting close to going off.
He asked where my mom was and I told him she was sick and went into her bedroom. I wasn’t sure if she’d be out or not.
Once the timer went off on the oven I pulled whatever was in there out. He asked what the plans were after that. I said I didn’t have any so we decided to get in his car and go for a short drive. I was actually starving, I skipped breakfast and lunch so we went to Sonic and he bought me a Cherry Limeade and cheddar peppers. mmmm! Then we went driving around for a bit until I looked at the clock and realized that I really should get back to the house.
We pulled into the driveway and parked and went upstairs. As I opened the back door to go in the house I heard my mom’s bedroom door slam shut again. Okay so she went back in her room. Awesome.
I wasn’t sure when he planned on going home. I knew he had to get back home and when I say home I meant the 7 1/2 hour trek back to Kentucky. He never left and he never left. So finally I said, “I’m not sure when you are planning on going home, but if you’d like to stay for dinner, you are more than welcome to.” -I hadn’t decided when I was going back. -Well I just wanted you to know you are welcome. You might even get to meet my mother. But you’ll also meet my grandparents and my uncle and whoever else decides to show up. At this point I’m not even sure.
30 minutes to an hour later my grandparents and my uncle showed up. I did all the introductions of him with my family. About that time my dad came in from doing chores and ran to his room to take a quick shower and change clothes. He came out and threw the brats on the grill. Once all the food was ready to go he asked me if I’d spoken to my mother. I told him last I knew she was asleep in on their bed so he told me to go in and ask if she was planning on eating with us or not.
I had to wake her up which made her grouchy and she told me no. So I went back out and told dad. He said okay, I guess lets eat so I moved all the food onto the table and had everyone come in to the table and we ate.
They went home somewhere around 7:30 to 8 and he was still there. My dad had to run the tractor back to my grandparents and get his truck. My dog loves to run with the tractor so he told me to keep Morelli at the house. I brought Morelli into the back door just so he wouldn’t be tempted to follow the tractor. About that time my mom walked out of the bedroom, gave me an evil mom look and walked back into her room and slammed the door again. A few minutes later I got a text asking my my “filthy” dog was in the house. I sent her one back telling her and I got another one that said to Get him out of the house. haha I was getting yelled at through text and was a little embarrassed.
Finally he said he should get going so I walked out to his car with him to say good bye. I asked him how it went and he said it was great. My family was great, my dad and uncle were hilarious, he just wished that he could have met my mom. I shrugged and said I was sorry, maybe another time. We stood outside talking for probably an hour to an hour and a half. I felt so bad because I knew he had to make that trip. He told me he’d go back in the morning, wake up early and drive. That way he wasn’t tired on the way home. Said he’d just go back to his mom’s and crash for the night. Made me feel a little better but I still felt bad that he had to do that.
I gave him a hug that night as he got ready to leave and I didn’t want to turn him loose. Something was different. It was a scary but good different. Silly me even became a girl and cried, not sobbing cry but just a few tears because I didn’t want this boy to leave. I’d had to much fun with him that weekend. More fun than I’d had in a LONG time.
He finally left and I walked into the house. I asked my dad what he thought of him and my dad said he was a very nice young man. I grinned and headed up to my room to wait for him to call and say he’d made it to his mom’s house. Then I jumped in the shower and went to bed with a smile on my face.
***********************
Now no one really cares for Monday mornings, me particularly. I’m really not a morning person anyway. I love to sleep and my co-workers joke that I don’t wake up until around 10am. I woke up before my alarm went off this morning though, with a huge grin on my face. At about 7 I got a phone call from him.
-Good Morning Beautiful, how did you sleep? -Good morning, really well. How about you? -Not bad. I had a great time this weekend. -Yeah me too! So where are you? -On 60 just outside of Springfield. -I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you out so late. -Why I’m not, I could have left anytime I wanted, but I got the chance to meet your family, I wasn’t about to give that chance up! -They were on their best game last night too. -Your grandpa told me I must be a good man. -Yeah he told me that too, said he could tell a lot about a man by their handshake. You passed the test. -I guess so. -Well I better get off of here, I need to get my hair fixed so I can be to work on time. -Ok have a wonderful morning and day. I’m sure I’ll talk to you later on. -Um… hello, you better, I better get something letting me know you made it home. -Don’t worry, you will. bye -bye.
I then went on to fix my hair and get dressed for work all while smiling on a Monday morning. My mom hollered at me and said she was riding to work with me (my parents and I all work for the same company). Sometimes that makes me grumble because 1. I like my alone time and 2. I hate feeling like a little kid who has to drive with their parents because they have a learner’s permit. I know I have issues… LOL. I didn’t even grumble that morning though. I was in too good of a mood.
Yeah I shouldn’t have spoken to soon. On the drive to work my mom got me upset. She hit me up about the fact that he had a daughter and that the ex-wife would always think she came first. If he started doing good, she’d take him back for more money. If he got a new car, she’d take him back for more money because she needed a new car. On and on and on. It dawned on me right then, my mom wasn’t “sick”, she just didn’t want to meet him and that was a good excuse.
This was all coming from the person who wanted me to move on, date other people, 5 1/2 years was too long to spend on someone who wasn’t going to make more of a commitment. She and I have had our little squables all through life about stuff like this. I know she only wants whats best for me but this guy was different. Besides, maybe we’d be doing better because of ME and MY job and the ex can’t come after MY money.
Just when I think things are getting better, they always go another direction. But he and I weren’t even dating, we had been on a few dates, we’d hung out together but that didn’t mean we were getting married tomorrow. sheesh!
I woke up Saturday night of the party tired. I was awake until late the night before and of course, so anxious for the party that night that I was wide awake at 7 am. Go figure… Saturday = sleep in but not when you are excited!
That morning I ran to town with my mom (as you can see, a Saturday morning ritual) and then we headed home around noon. My dad was bailing hay so I went down to the hayfield to see if he needed any help and to take him lunch. I rode around in the tractor with him for a while until he realized he needed something at the house. He tried to tell me where it was but I told him he’d be better off leaving me to bale hay and him run back to the house to get it. So I started making the rounds in the field when my cell phone went off. I idled the tractor down and jumped off running yelling, “Hold On I can’t hear you.” (Yeah I have caller ID so I knew who was calling.)
He was just calling to make sure I was coming and telling me I could come over whenever. In fact, if I wanted to come over earlier I could. I told him I was bailing hay waiting on my dad to come back to the field but once dad was back and didn’t need my help anymore I’d probably get cleaned up and head his way.
Dad came back and I helped him [do something to the tractor I don’t remember now what] and then I rode about 2 more rounds around the field with him, just talking. He asked about the guy and what my plans were for the evening. Once we got back to where my car was sitting he told me to go ahead and bail off and head to the house and get cleaned up. He had this all under control now. I felt bad for ditching him but he insisted so I got off the tractor and headed to the house. (more…)
I grabbed my towel and wrapped it around me and took off for my bed where the phone was laying. I saw the number and couldn’t help but grin to myself, “Hello?”
-Hey there, I was just driving down the road and couldn’t stop thinking about you.
-Yeah I just got out of the shower, can you hold on while I dry off real fast and put my clothes on?
Ha I was so giddy. I couldn’t help myself. You seriously hear stories of guys who say they’ll call and they don’t or the rule of not calling for so many days, or just a number of things, but boy this one was different.
-Ok Thanks, I’m back now, not dripping water all over the floor!
-No problem. I was just sitting here and wanted to hear your voice so I thought I’d give you a holler.
-Where are you?
-Somewhere on 60. At this point it all pretty much looks the same.
-I’m sorry you got out of here so late, that’ll have you driving late.
-I’m not sorry, I’m happy and I’ve made this trip so many times, I could make it in my sleep.
-Yeah don’t do that, you tried that once and it almost didn’t end so good for ya, please keep your eyes open at all times!
-Don’t worry I plan on it.
So we continued along talking until his dad started calling him to check on him. He said he’d better answer or his dad would think something bad had happened. I hung up the phone and I swear my small break down was over and all I could do was grin!
Of course the next day at work all the girls wanted to know how the date went. I was like it was great and with the grin they started laughing at me.
That next week was a lot of time spent talking through gtalk, texts and phone calls. He finally asked me again if I planned on coming to his sisters house on Saturday night for the party or not. I figured sure why not.
Thursday July 30th was my 26th birthday. A group of my friends, my parents and I went out to celebrate my birthday. On our way to town to eat dinner we kept texting each other. In fact he’d called me first thing that morning to be the first one to say Happy Birthday. My friend Jason beat him to it with a text at 12:40ish. But he was second. While at dinner I left my phone in my pocket on vibrate but after dinner headed back home the texting resumed. He wanted to know how my day went and where we ate dinner. What I had for dinner and how it was. Just anything and everything. Then he asked me if I liked Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yup, completely random.
Friday he used some vacation time and wound up coming home early. I had gone to town after work with my parents to have dinner at about 7:30-8ish and as we were headed home I got a text from him saying that he was in town and that he was going to his sisters house. If I wanted to come over tonight, there were a bunch of them just hanging around outside and to head over.
I went :).
I pulled into her driveway and he came to greet me at my car. Good thing because I didn’t really want to walk up to a bunch of strangers alone!
I was re-introduced to his mother, met his sister and her husband and then a bunch of people I’m still not sure if I know who they are to this day. Then, I met his daughter. She didn’t say much to me and ran off with the other kids but it made it all so real. I’ll admit it was kind of a little scary to me. It made it all real that he had a daughter, not that I didn’t believe him but still. I’ve never felt like I was “old” enough for a kid.
Anyway as the night progressed along I became a little more at ease with everything (new people and the fact he had a daughter) and I relaxed. I finally sat down next to his mother and his dog came and plopped down in my lap. She found a home for a good portion of the night.
Now I forgot to mention this part, when I got there that night my phone was on the verge of dying. I tried to plug it into my car charger but it wouldn’t accept it and charge so I went into his sisters house and plugged it into her computer to get some charge on it. A couple hours after I did that I was afraid I’d leave my phone there or something would happen to it (all the kids were in the house playing and I just didn’t want it broken) so I ran inside to grab my phone.
The kids had glow sticks out and were playing with them like light sabers. I walked into the living room and 2 little boys attacked me from either side with the saber. I played along and screamed and said, don’t hurt me! And I’ll never forget his daughter looked at the 2 little boys and said, “Don’t touch her, that might be my daddy’s new girlfriend.”
Wow that was a shocker! Me, I was still gunshy at this point and told him I didn’t want any kind of commitment or anything. I just wanted time to heal but that I loved being around him so we’d just go that route and see what progressively happened. He said he understood and to take my time. He was ok with that and then this happened. I was speechless.
I walked back outside leaned against a truck. He walked over to me and slid right in next to me and said, what’s up? I looked at him, grinned and said, would you like to hear what your daughter said? He looked at me with an Oh, Crap look on his face and said, um….. okay. I told him and I thought he was looking for a hole to go crawl in. I laughed and said, nah it’s okay, she’s fine! He apologized profusely and I told him to forget about it.
I finally went home around midnight or 1am. It was getting late and I was tired. He asked if I was still planning on coming to the party the next day and I said absolutely.
To be continued 🙂
See I give you short spells, I don’t want you to get bored reading it all at once 🙂
That awkward feeling didn’t go away. I kept telling myself, if I don’t go home, I’m never going to get there. All we keep doing is starting up a new conversation. Awe but look at those pretty blue eyes, do I really want to leave them… No Nicole don’t get ahead of yourself. 1 date, it’s not marriage. We were close, in fact he was hugging me because it was chilly out that night/er morning. And then, there it was, he kissed me. It was shocking, it was different, it was nice, so many emotions running through me. I even almost felt like I was cheating on the ex but I wasn’t with him anymore, it’d just been so long since I had kissed anyone other than the ex that it felt weird.
Yeah I think I was on cloud 9 that moment in time. I finally made it into my car and headed home. Before I left he asked me to come over to his mom’s house the next day before he had to go back to Kentucky. I was a little hesitant and told him I’d talk to him in the morning after I woke up. I really wasn’t sure when I’d get up. (yes I was finally sleeping at this point.) He said, well I’ll call you.
I went to pull out the driveway and I called him and told him that he had to talk to me all the way home so that for one I stayed awake and for 2 he knew I made it. And he did. Of course I went back to spastic talking about nothingness because again, I was back to being nervous. There was this great guy that had just kissed me. What was I supposed to do now? I got home, got off the phone, turned out all the lights went upstairs and crashed on my bed about 3:45 am.
The next morning around 10am I woke up to my phone ringing. I really thought that it was my alarm going off and I started grumbling trying to figure out how to shut the stupid thing off. After many attempts it dawned on me that it was the phone ringing and I proceeded to answer it in a groggy I just woke up voice.
I knocked on the door and was greeted by the cutest little Boston Terrier bouncing off the screen door. Then I heard his voice holler at me, “Come on in. You’re Early.”
“Yeah but I didn’t speed.” I still don’t think
“I’m almost ready. I didn’t expect you that soon. I figured I had more time.”
“Well we have to drive to Springtown.”
“Where?”
“That’s what we always called it in college. Anyway it takes an hour.”
“Um… it takes about 45 minutes from here….”
“No it doesn’t.”
Yes that continued on for a while. So when he was finished getting ready I had to razz him about a girl being early and ready to go before a guy. Then we went and got in my car.
Talk about nervous. And when I get nervous, I have a tendency to ramble. I will talk about anything and everything and sometimes it’s nonsense. I think I proceeded to talk about the CD playing in my car. I know lame right… So then I started talking about the photos that a friend of mine and I took earlier that spring. We thought it would be fun to be “models” so we started taking photos and posing for pictures. I had him pull out my laptop from the back seat and told him to open up the folder and look.
Another advantage to me driving is I knew my way around town. And he was right, we made it in 45 minutes. So we had lots of time to kill so I proceeded to drive him around town and show him all the places I lived and the ever popular “art” in this person’s yard. It is a meat cleaver carved in the top of a tree.
It finally got time to head to the south end of town where the restaurant was and again, knowing my way, I made it in excellent time. I pulled into the parking lot and sat there and texted my friends wondering where they were. They were about 15 minutes behind us. Once they finally pulled into the parking lot and parked, we all got out and the introductions started. Kalem & Evelyn were excited to meet this guy I wouldn’t shut up about. Jason was fine either way, Josh, didn’t care to meet this guy at all. We proceeded into the restaurant and met up with the rest of the group.
The waitress came around asking what we wanted to drink and who was on whose tab. We’d never talked about if he was buying mine or not and I was prepared to buy my own when he spoke up and said I was on his ticket. Ok no pressure on my part. I think that actually made me even more nervous. To me that made it an official date. I guess I really thought this was just 2 friends meeting up to reminisce about old times… and now I was on my first date in forever. Dinner went great!
At the end of Dinner Evelyn said we needed to go to the mall. Debs was having a sale on dresses. I grinned and Kalem goes, oh she wouldn’t make him go with all of us. I grinned right back and said,” Oh really?” Then I looked at him and asked if it would be ok? He said that’s fine and Kalem rolled his eyes. It was official we were headed to the mall, shopping. The J’s, Kalem & Evelyn got in Jason’s car and we got back in mine and off to the mall we went.
Once at the mall he struck up a conversation about electronics or computers or something with Kalem & Jason. Cha-ching, that’s the in key right there… know about technology 🙂 with those guys anyway. After we made our purchases at Deb off to Dillards we went. Evelyn had a dress there she wanted to find and purchase for a cruise. Josh’s foot was hurting him so he lagged behind, but he lagged behind for more reasons than that.
After we made all the purchases at the mall we could we parted ways and the two of us headed to my friends Jamie & Brian’s so they could meet him too. Yes all my friends wanted to meet the guy I wouldn’t shut up about. We were there until around midnight when we finally decided we needed to head home.
We made it home in great time. When we got there, his mom was home from work. We sat in my car and chatted for at least an hour.
So now it is 2am and I’m still at his house. I was getting tired but at the same time got my second wind. We got out of my car to say good night. It was so awkward. There was this funny tension between us, you know the end of a date, do you say nice knowing you and leave? Well this has been fun, I’ll call you, we should do it again sometime… what? or do you kiss or hug or walk away… I hate the awkwardness. Especially since I hadn’t been there in ages.
So instead of ending it, we prolonged the inevitable and continued to talk. Go figure… LOL. At about 3am I realized I was exhausted and I really did need to go home and go to sleep. I proceeded to try and leave again. This time I was a little more serious. Plus that late in the night or that early in the morning, however you look at it, I was COLD! So that brought us closer together. He said he had extra body heat so we proceeded to hug. Hey, he kept me warm, I didn’t care! 🙂
Ok must go home, back to the awkwardness!
How will this evening end?
Guess you’ll have to come back again to find out 🙂 I know I’m mean but to be continued.
As per usual, when something you are excited about and looking forward to is coming up, something inevitably always goes wrong. So you must be wondering what went wrong this time… I got a silly summer cold. Yup, you read that right, I got a summer cold the week of dinner club, the week of hanging out with this long lost friend. I’m not one who usually goes to the doctor when I’m sick. I usually just let it run its course and proceed on. I’ll sometimes take over the counter meds just so I’m not completely suffering but I usually just tough it out. Not this time. I didn’t want to cancel. I didn’t want to wait for my next chance to meet up with him. He lived in Kentucky, I mean seriously, how many chances would I get or how often??
So I did what any normal girl would do, I found my old high school year books and looked up his picture. I had to remember what he looked like! Yup, check, he looks like what I remembered from way back when… oh wait, those were from way back when. Well you get the picture, right? 🙂
The day before “the big day” he was able to take a vacation day and come home a little earlier than normal. He got in around 7pm. We talked and texted the whole way (I sure hope he wasn’t texting while driving!!!). I didn’t realize he was going to be in so early so I went over to the J’s house to hang out and help Josh bake a cake. We were texting all through this. He was sending me pictures of shirts he had and pictures of him in a cowboy hat and all kinds of pictures. I think I sent him pictures of the cake I baked.
So the day came, July 25th. I woke up that morning and did the normal morning ritual of going to town with my mom. I’m not really sure we set out on a mission that day but we headed that direction non-the-less. While in town, of course I was watching the time. I had to get home, get my hair fixed, make-up on, and dressed before 4pm. That’s when we had to leave to go to dinner. I volunteered to drive because he left his convertible top down all night and wouldn’t you know, it rained.
While in town I looked at my mom and said, “We should go visit Dotti.” Dotti is the Elizabeth Arden make-up rep at Macy’s. She always loves giving me a make-over and I figured, hmmm… maybe we’d be lucky and she wouldn’t be busy. Dotti hooked me up! I had beautiful make-up! Then we ran home and my mom decided to fix my hair for me. I then got dressed and I was ready to go.
The next few weeks were very similar to each other… talking on the phone, texting, talking through gtalk… You know, the getting to re-know you.
The group of friends that I made started what we referred to as Dinner club. We’d get together once a month, go to different restaurants, usually ones that weren’t chains and we’d (get this..haha) go to dinner. Some dinners were dress up, guys in suits, girls in cocktail dresses, some were more casual, but we were more about just getting together and trying new restaurants around the area. So the e-mail came out for the July invite for dinner club at a restaurant called Touche and I wanted to go, but I didn’t want to go by myself so I was torn about if I wanted to accept or not.
While on the phone talking one night, he made the comment he was coming back home for a visit. Of course that sparked some excitedness (I think I made up that word) on my part! Maybe we could get together and catch up. As the time got closer he let me know the week he was coming. (I bet you saw this coming…) It just so happened to be the weekend of Dinner Club. So I made the comment to my friend Kalem at work one day and he told me I should invite him. hmmm… me having to make the first move… I wasn’t so sure I could do that. So some other co-workers they all agreed I should invite him as well. After a couple days of pondering this, I decided I wanted to ask him. The worst that could happen was he’d say no. The bad part though was this was one of the dinners that the guys wore khaki’s and the girls nicer sun-dresses. In talking to him, his clothing wardrobe consisted of jeans and John Deere t-shirts, that means probably no khaki’s. So now I was going to be making him buy some dress pants so he could go with me. So yes, I talked myself out of this. I was back and forth so much that I was annoying not only myself but everyone around me.
So who really wants to be alone, little lone on holidays? Well, I can sure tell you, I don’t. Because I hadn’t been alone on a holiday in a long time I didn’t know what I was going to do with the 4th of July approaching very fast. It was a scary time. Some friends of mine had a fireworks stand and they said I could come hang out there but then my mom got the bright idea we should go visit my aunt and uncle in southern Oklahoma, get as far away from here as possible and go relax in her swimming pool. We could take my dad’s horse down with us and practice in my uncle’s Barn to get the mare in different surroundings (dad was training her to be a cutting horse). So we loaded up the trailer, packed our suitcases and headed for Oklahoma.
The thought was a great idea, but in actuality, there is a lot of downtime to do nothing but think. My mom and my aunt tried to keep me busy but busy wasn’t cutting it for me. Since the 4th was on Saturday last year, work let us out on Friday so we went down on the 3rd. When we got there my mom and I met up with my aunt and we all went to town while my aunt got her nails done. We went shopping and to Wal-Mart. The town she lives in has one of the dirtiest ranked Walmart’s in the nation. How’s that for nice thoughts. Anyway…. when we got back to the house we jumped in the pool. When my uncle got in from working cattle we all went to the movies. My mom wanted to see The Proposal. I thought I was ok with that, ok definitely a cute movie but not one you want to watch when you break up with someone.
By the time we got back to the ranch (my aunt & uncle’s house and yeah it’s a nice sized place), it was late and everyone went to sleep. Well, that is, everyone but the insomniac, me. I laid there and played solitaire & spider solitaire, Free cell & Hearts. Nothing could make my mind shut down and then if right on cue I got a text from him. He was still awake and had actually left the house he was living in to run to Sonic for a drink. I figured since he’s up I’m going to take advantage of this and called him. We wound up talking from about midnight until 3 am when I decided my phone was going to die if I didn’t plug it in and the cord wasn’t long enough to reach the bed. We talked about everything. What happened in my previous relationship, how he wound up down in Kentucky, what it was like living in Afghanistan, his daughter, and the fact she was coming to visit him for a week. You name it, we talked about it. I believe God knew what I needed, a friend to talk to and he delivered. I must have felt at ease when I hung up because the next thing I knew it was 7 am and I got up and headed out to the arena to ride horses.