To New Beginnings...

To start off, I wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for being inactive for such a long time. I had meant to add little tidbits about my life daily or at least a couple times a week, but sometimes I just get a little too busy to sit down. I still have some retrospective blogs that I need to fill in, which some of you may care to read, though some might think it is too far in the past. Nonetheless, I would like to keep a log of those moments so I can one day look back on them and remember how jovial my life once was... ;)

So what has inspired me to finally return from such a long hiatus, you might ask? Great question, one to which I have an answer. For the last week, I have been dating a girl. She is smart, sweet, funny, beautiful, adorable, I could go on, but I am sure your eyes would tire from rolling them! I will sum up by saying she is pretty darn amazing. Her name is Melissa.

We went on our first official date this past Sunday. It started off with dinner at the Yardhouse. The hostess was commenting on how pretty she is and asked if I was her boyfriend (always a great way to start a first date), and when she said that I was not her boyfriend, this woman's eyes lit up and she went on a five-minute rambling spree about this friend she has who would be perfect for her. In the meantime, I just sat back, smiled, and enjoyed her pointless drabble to the point where Melissa interjected, saying, "Actually, this is our first date," to which our new companion was extremely (and rightfully) embarrassed and apologized profusely...quite an entertaining way to kick things off.

I initially chose for us to eat inside -- though I felt like eating outside at that particular moment -- because I thought she would prefer eating inside. As it turned out, she was really cold from the air conditioning, so we ended up moving outside to the patio anyway. We split a chicken sandwich and some calamari, got to know each other better, and decided we still wanted to hang out, so we went to Dave & Buster's to go bowling. Since she was wearing open-toed shoes, they gave her a pair of D&B socks for the bowling shoes. She decided it was necessary that I have matching socks, so I acquired a pair myself. Earlier in the night, I had called her Melly, and she mentioned that she had never been called that before. As a result, she entered that as her name for bowling, and I was Bretty. In both of the games we played, she was beating me most of the time, the first game I came back and tied her, 115-115, and the second game I came back and nearly tied her again, 120-121. I had never played back-to-back games so close to someone before. We never sat down, it was constantly up and down the lane and back for hugs, high fives, and encouragement for the next attempt. She is so silly, it was adorable watching her dance ritual for better results, which actually worked a decent amount of the time. While changing back into our shoes, she was mesmerized by the way I tie my shoes. We decided then and there to have a bunny ears shoe tying contest with the bowling shoes. A girl in the lane next to ours was the judge. I won the first challenge and she won the second. There was no rubber match, which seemed fitting since there was so much tying (no pun intended) going on that night. I walked her to her car and we ended up talking in the parking lot for another two hours. It was an amazing and refreshing night.

The next day, she asked me out to lunch, and we have seen each other every day since. I am hoping to avoid overdoing it by seeing each other too much, but at the same time, I find it difficult not to see her. She just has a way of putting a smile on my face. I feel a bit silly talking this way, but that is how I feel. It cannot be helped, so deal with it! Regardless of what ends up happening, what we have shared this past week is something I think a great many people will spend an entire lifetime without, and I feel fortunate and blessed to be priviledged with this experience. It is exhilirating knowing that we can be ourselves around each other, and I hope that this feeling never gets corrupted.