I can't help falling in love - Part One

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” - Nora Ephron, 'When Harry Met Sally'

This little quote, written by one of my favorite women, pretty much sums up where I'm at right now.

You've read my blog. You know my story, my struggles, and the inner turmoil that tossed and turned concerning my love life - or lack, thereof. I don't need to rehash any of my past for you. You know it. You've prayed for me, maybe rolled your eyes at me, laughed with me (or maybe even at me.)

Now, I ask you to celebrate with me.

If you've reached this blog post from my Facebook, you know that my 'single' relationship status has been pulled from the dusty, cobwebby shelf that it's sat on since the birth of my Facebook page, and has been replaced with the ever-coveted, "in a relationship" status instead.

It's exciting. It's more than exciting. It's mind-blowing. It's humbling. It's more than I ever dreamed it could be...well, I guess it's more like its everything that I dreamed it could be, I just reached the point of having given up on everything that I was dreaming about.

I recently got my girlfriend Sam to join a dating app. Just for fun, mostly. I had a couple okay connections on it, and being single is kinda lame sometimes, so I told her to check it out. One day, she connected to guy on said dating app. They talked for a little while, and eventually, she sent me a picture of him.

I don't really know what to say from this point, to be honest. This was in April. Sam didn't tell David about me right away. Once she did, he was more than willing to contact "beard friend" to see if he'd be interested in talking to me. 

Our numbers were exchanged. I couldn't believe what I had done. I don't give my number to random men that live in Florida! How would this even work out? He doesn't live near me at all! I decided that I didn't want to text him first. I would wait. I had already been so uncharacteristically aggressive that I didn't think I could make myself do it. Later that night, as I was getting home from a walk...

It took me a while to write back. I was nervous, excited, confused - what even was I doing??

And, that's how it started.

We talked for a few days, here and there, and then...

Now, when I read his initial text, what went through my head was, "Wow, he's just...planning to talk on the phone. This is weird..." and he didn't ask like, "Hey, wanna talk on the phone some time?" He just put it out there. We're gonna talk on the phone, when out of these options works for you?

I liked that. I didn't have to try and make him talk on the phone. I will note, that he preferred to talk on Tuesday, as opposed to Wednesday, because it was a full week after we had begun texting...who pays attention to that?

We talked on the phone when I got out of work for an hour and a half. There was some extended moments of silence, but we both were pretty honest about the fact that we're terrible at small talk, and it wasn't personal.

I liked him. He was different. He was thoughtful, and open.

We made plans to video chat on the upcoming Sunday. I got to kind of meet his mom. And we just...talked. Laughed. Then, at one point in the conversation, he tells me that he's looking at flights to come up here.

Here's what went through my mind: "What?! Why? What if we aren't even talking after another week? He already knows he wants to fly up here? What?!"

Here's what I said (essentially): That would be super great. Let me know when you wanna come up.

I rationalized it by later telling myself that if he ended up hating me, he's the one who was losing out by spending money on plane tickets. I was clearly prepared to disassociate, and become heartless at a moment's notice lol.

So we had a date. We were going to see "Jurassic World." It was insane. It was exciting. Why not just go along for the ride?

Not long after Tim had talked about looking at flights, maybe a little over a week, his flight was officially booked. It was insane. I had a boy flying across the country...to meet ME. I mean, I've come to the acceptance that I'm a pretty fantastic person, so of course he would want to meet me - I'm a frickin' catch. (Look, it's not ego, okay? It's taken me years to think that I'm truly worth anyone's attention. Love me.)

But it was madness. I don't know this guy. He doesn't know me. He's FLYING FROM FLORIDA to meet ME. Something must have stuck out within that first week that made him feel compelled to do this, right?

My mind was reeling, to say the least.

To Be Continued...