623.

One date, two dates, three dates, four...

Okay, I haven't had quite that many dates since my last post. Two, I think.

There was a date scheduled for Friday evening but it's been postponed until Saturday afternoon.

It's not a "first date". I already know this guy. We met (online) last summer. Our first date was unusual in that it was a swim date at his house.

Before he and I met in person, we e-mailed, talked and texted for a while. He was very comfortable with forwarding me personal information about himself that I was able to verify on my own. With the help of a good friend, I was able to gather additional background information on my new suitor.

It appeared that everything he'd told me was true. Coupled with the supplemental information from my friend, my new suitor was either a regular nice guy or a psycho who'd managed to fly below the radar.

Overall, it was a lot of behind-the-scenes work for a date but absolutely necessary under the circumstances.

When we finally met in person, it was at a mutually agreed upon public location. We hugged hello and sat down. He showed me his i.d. and we laughed about it. Then we talked until I felt comfortable enough to follow him back to his house.

As I followed him, I made a pre-arranged phone call to my good friend to verify/relay my suitor's address and tag number.

His home was at the end of a long-ish driveway. He had a beautiful garden and well-tended grounds.

We went inside where it was a bit chaotic. Which wasn't a big deal. I knew of his circumstances from our first conversation and knew the chaos was only temporary.

It was a lovely afternoon, splish-splashing in his backyard under a blazing hot sun. I stayed for a few hours after our swim. We ate and drank, listened to music, he serenaded me with his guitar, we played with his dogs, talked...

He was such a sweetheart.

That was a good first date; I headed home tired and happy.

We've kept in touch but the effort of dating would have been a bit much for us at the time.

We live almost an hour apart, when traffic is ideal. Not terrible but not great either. Our schedules didn't mesh well and the distance exacerbated that issue. In addition, he was in beginning stages of recovering from a traumatic event and I knew he needed time to heal.

So conditions weren't conducive for fostering a romantic relationship.

(And they may not be now. Who knows. And it's not something I need to be concerned about at the moment. Because although anticipation is exciting and fun, I'm learning to embrace living in the moment.

Regardless of what does or doesn't happen in the distant future, I know he and I will enjoy each other's company while we're hanging out.)

When he called me Thursday afternoon, we hadn't talked in several months. He had crossed my mind about a week before so I was happy to hear from him.

In the midst of our catching up, he asked me out. I was momentarily surprised and hesitated a beat too long I guess because he told me to take a day to think about it.

I knew I would say yes but I took the day to think about it.

He called me Friday afternoon and I said yes. *chuckle*

We planned to meet in the evening but later decided to move things to Saturday, today.

He said he would call at noon. Which leaves me approximately 7.5 hours to snore.

Good night y'all.

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