When It Rains, It Pours

So remember me saying that I have a date coming up on Wednesday night? A date that’s not really a date because we’re not going to end up dating because of the whole kids thing? It’s more like a couple of people going out for coffee and a fun time together. I’m looking forward to Wednesday night, because he’s a pretty cool guy and I think we’ll have a few good laughs and a fun evening together.

Well, as it turns out, I had an ACTUAL date last night. Whoa, I know. Who knew? This one came pretty much totally out of the blue.

I’d met this dude from last night (I’ll call him “Hibbs”) when I’d briefly joined that dating website where I met the “friends” guy. I’d added him to my msn a few weeks ago when we initially met, and over the last few weeks, we’d had a few casual “Hey, how’s life?” conversations. We talked a bit about our kids (he’s got two young ones of his own) and talked a bit about respective breakups – nothing all that serious or intense. Seemed like a nice and decent guy.

Yesterday after I dropped the girls off with their dad for the rest of the afternoon/evening, Hibbs and I started chatting via msn again. Before I knew it, it was suggested (I don’t even remember by WHO!) that we get together a little later that evening for a coffee. I figured, “What the hell, right?”

I’m so glad that I did. We had a great long chat about whatever happened to come up. We joked, we laughed, we shared politically incorrect sentiments, cute stories about our kids, and just had a very relaxing conversation. It was SO GOOD for me to have an evening with someone who knows nothing about my recent messy history with my friends, or my personal struggles. It was fun to sit and flirt with a good looking guy. I felt so completely and utterly normal for the first time in a very long time.

I felt like ME. Not the “me” that I once was, but the me that I am becoming.

No, this dude isn’t the love of my life or anything like that. This isn’t going to turn into this whirlwind romance where I get completely swept off my feet. And you know what? I am just as happy as can be about that. I do like him, and during the evening there were definitely mentions (by both of us) of the two of us getting together again at some point in the future, and we just left it at that.

Because the thing is, in the meantime, I have a lot of work that needs to done on me….and I can’t let a few coffee dates with adorable Mr. Hibbs to get in the way of that. But when we do go out together, you can be damn sure that we’re gonna have a fun time.