Ups and Downs...and Ups!

I think anyone who peeks in at my blog from time to time easily sees the contours of the hills and valleys of my life. A few posts ago I spent some time in a valley where the landscape was disappointingly familiar to me, another wrong turn ending in a dead end where instead I had hoped to find the promised land of companionship.

Thankfully, there's always another path to trod, more roads to explore, and days filled with new opportunities. I'm happy to say that I've begun seeing a woman named Sarah. We went out for a drink and an appetizer last Saturday after spending quite a bit of time getting to know each other on eHarmony. For our first date, we joked about meeting early enough so we didn't have to wait around in the lobby for who knows how long, which is always uncomfortable on a first date. I told her that for us to just commit to an appetizer, neither of us would feel "trapped," and I said, "you know what I'm talking about, right? Those moments when you're just waiting until you can bail on the date?" She laughed, and said she knew exactly what I was talking about, and appreciated the option of keeping things short.

Soon into our date, it became quite clear that neither of us was feeling trapped, so a few glasses of wine later, and dinner and dessert, we found that we had been there for three and a half hours. We decided we didn't want the date to end, so we headed to a coffee shop and were there until a half hour after closing. All told, our date lasted five hours and it felt much shorter than that.

We spoke last night on the phone for a couple of hours, and tonight for quite a bit and made plans to get together again on Thursday night.

Life right now is absolutely fantastic. I'm going to enjoy the ride, and enjoy the opportunity God has given me to get to know a wonderful woman, who's as interested in getting to know me as I am in getting to know her, and leave it all up into God's hands as to where things go. For now, there's no question that I'm falling for an adorable woman named Sarah Marie.

And on Thursday...I'm bringing her chocolates.

Me: happy.