Real Life

I met a real man last night! This is the first real man I've met since John's death! Every man I've dated since January of 1999 has been someone I met on the Internet. And most of them turned out, after the shine dulled, to be scoundrels or worse.

I have said recently that I give up. And a number of people have said, "ah, that's when it will happen — once you give up." (And Tyler said that if I'd spend less time online, if I'd get out more, then I'd meet more people.)

I was standing in the new Panda Express in Continental Ranch last night to get dinner for Ty, Jaci, the babies, and myself. They had text messaged their orders to me, and I was looking back and forth from my phone to the menu board on the wall to figure out how to put the whole order together. An attractive man standing in front of me, clean-cut, nicely dressed, about 2" taller than I, apparently age-appropriate, leaned over and asked what I was doing. I told him my kids had messaged me their orders and I was trying to get it all straight. He said something about technology and how much we relied on it. Then, clever man that he evidently is, he asked if my husband was similarly technologically savvy. KaZing! I said I wasn't lucky enough to have one of those. Then we spent the next 10 minutes in line exchanging the basic info that we normally see on each other's online profiles. He asked what I was looking for. I started with non-smoking and only a social drinker. I said my last husband was a maintenance alcoholic; he said his ex-wife was an alcoholic. Then I said I had season tickets to the symphony and would like someone who liked classical music. He said, "so you're a cultured lady." We talked about people who leave their profiles up after they start dating someone, and agreed we like to give a relationship a chance without other distractions. I told him my kids were moving away. He said his three daughters live near Spokane. It was like Speed Dating.

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If you're unfamiliar with Speed Dating, it's where 20 or so men and women meet for cocktails. The women sit at individual tables, the men move from table to table. You have three minutes to chat with and get to know briefly the person you're sitting across from. After three minutes, the men stand up and move one table to the right. At the end of the night, you indicate which people you'd like to see again. If there are any matches (she wants to get to know him, he wants to get to know her), your personal information (phone, e-mail) is given to the other person and you're on your own. People pay $45 or so to attend such events, which are organized by age range.
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As he was paying and I was still struggling with my order, I snuck a card containing my name, phone, and e-mail out of my purse and slipped it onto his tray. As he exited, he touched my arm and said, "I'll call you, Jan".

I don't know if he will. I hope he will. But in any event, he made my day, my month, my year!