This is what happens...

When you leave your toddler alone for a couple minutes to change the laundry.

...

And the pantry door is left open.

















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This is what happens...

When you forget to put a new trash bag in the garbage can after taking out the trash.






















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And this is what happens...when your little boy, who you swear was just a tiny newborn yesterday, climbs up into the big chair and realizes he's not only king of the castle, but king of your heart.

















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He's growing up so fast that I just want to tell him to slow down!

(But I know better.)

Blast From the Past

Recently, I caved in to tremendous amounts of peer pressure and joined Facebook. As I was looking through photos posted by a high school acquaintance, I was shocked to find one of me, circa 1996, at the Winter Dance during my Junior year of high school. That's me there on the right.

















The couple to my left was my best friend through high school, Chris, and his girlfriend, Missi, who was also a good friend of mine.

The guy standing behind me was my first "real" boyfriend, and first love, Matt. Our relationship was an anomaly at the time--I was a Junior and he was a Freshman. (Clearly, I was a cougar in the making.)

I couldn't stand him at first. I was quite determined not to like him, in fact. But something about him grew on me. He was funny. And smart--much too smart for someone two years younger than me. He was annoying and alluring at the same time.

The first time I realized Matt liked me was after church choir practice one night when he gave me a ride on the pegs of his bike. Neither of us could stop smiling. We started dating soon after that.

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Two months later at the Winter Dance, I was painfully aware of the fact that he hadn't kissed me yet, so when he walked me to my door that night, I looked him in the eye and said, "You should kiss me now." And he did.

Two weeks after that, he told me he loved me for the first time, and I knew he meant it.

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Times were simpler back then. There weren't red flags, or dating rules, or exes to deal with. We hadn't had our hearts broken. We didn't have baggage to deal with yet.

Relationships are different now. They're more complicated. There's a lot more fear. Still, I hope to capture some of that same innocence in my next relationship.

I think with the right person, it's definitely possible.

Wasn't it more fun when "Love Connection" was a TV show and not my actual life? And also, I may have bad dating karma now.

(Where are you when I need you, Chuck Woolery?)

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On Friday night, I went on my second date with Wicked Guy. (His name is Wicked Guy because he initially asked me to go see "Wicked" with him, not because he's into witchcraft or anything like that. Just wanted to clarify.)

Anyhow, we had decided to go see Field of Dreams at the Indianapolis Art Museum. The IMA has a series during the summer where they play movies on a huge screen outside. Before the movie starts, people have picnics and explore the museum. Wicked Guy came up with it, and I have to say, I thought it was a pretty fabulous idea!

During the date, he did everything right--showed up on time, packed a picnic, brought me a rose (Cheesy or sweet? I never decided.), made nice conversation...you get the idea. There was just one problem, and it was a biggie--

No chemistry.

I can't really explain why. I just know that my feelings during the date alternated mainly between curiously detached and mildly uncomfortable. Curiously detached because I was having a good time on the surface, and felt that he probably thought things were going very well.

Mildly uncomfortable for the same reason.

At the end of the night, he walked me to my door. I decided to take the initiative and....give him a hug. I breathed a silent sigh of relief as I realized I'd successfully avoided any type of awkward goodnight kiss attempt, when he said, "Hey, if you're not doing anything on Sunday, give me a call...we could hang out."

Instinctively, I said, "Yeah! Okay!"

Um...what? Crap! Why the hell did I say that?!

I fretted about it for nearly half the day on Saturday, particularly after two of my friends told me that I would now have to call him to give him the news.

Ultimately, I decided to send him a nice email, because:
A) It was only 2 dates!
B) If someone wanted to give me that news after only a few dates, I'd rather learn about it via email. Less embarrassing and uncomfortable, in my opinion.
C) Giving that information by email instead of the phone was...Less embarrassing and uncomfortable, in my opinion!

So, there you have it. My first Match experience. A perfectly nice guy...just not Mr. Right...or even Mr. Right Now.

Getting domestic.

One area that I've never really spent much time developing as an adult is my "domestic" side. I mean, my house is fairly clean, but I don't separate my laundry (I pretty much just wash it all together on warm unless it's a delicate item, much to the dismay of my mother), and I definitely don't do a lot of cooking.

I guess I just always assumed I would magically learn how to do all of this once I had kids, like some sort of switch would be flipped and I'd be a 50's housewife.

Somehow I missed getting that upgrade at the hospital.

I'm terrible at cooking. I burn things...mostly food and my hands. I even have super cool matching scars on BOTH hands from the oven.

Exhibit A










That's why it's extremely impressive that I baked tonight for a pitch-in we're having at work tomorrow.

BEHOLD! Mini cheesecakes! I'm a cooking GOD!

Exhibit B


















Also, as an added bonus this time--no new scars!


(If you're interested, you can find the recipe here.)

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Well today was my date...and as you know, I was pretty nervous about it.

Actually, VERY nervous.

The bad thing about me getting nervous is that my already colorful personality becomes even more so. I talk. A lot.

So prior to the date, I gave myself several pep talks about LISTENING and, more importantly, NOT LETTING ALL MY CRAZY OUT ALL AT ONCE.

When he walked in, the first thing that struck me was that he was quite a bit cuter than I had expected. SCORE! Suddenly I was wishing the humidity hadn't made my hair a frizzy mess.

The conversation flowed easily...I was happily surprised to find that he talked a lot too. He was entertaining and asked about Daniel (bonus points) and laughed when I told him that I had feared ahead of time that he might be an axe-murderer.

And apparently, he thought it went well too, because he's already sent me an email about going out again.

Jumping in...

So, as you know, I recently joined Match.com.

Two contestants so far have made it far enough through my patented Axe-Murderer Screening Process™ to get my phone number.

One never called me! He sent me another email, then talked to me via IM, stating that he was "just about" to call me. Huh?

The other has called me a couple of times, and still seems normal, so we're going to meet this Tuesday.

I am seriously kind of dreading this.

Dating in and of itself is not something I'm super comfortable with...and then add in the fact that I'm going to be meeting a total stranger? Also, chances are, based on what I've heard about online dating, most dates are a bust. So now I'm completely nervous and with almost zero in terms of expectations.

There are too many unknown factors here. I like to plan for things....I can't plan for this!

So, wish me luck. In the meantime, I'm going to keep looking for a guy like this:

I've been a bad blogger.

Not "bad" in a sexy way, unfortunately. ;)

Life has just been too crazy to have time to blog...or even to come up with an organized thought!

During the past week, I've been...

--Taking care of Daniel. He's been sick, and over the weekend, his eyes puffed up like he'd been punched. I took him to Urgent Care, where they said he had allergies...but the next day, I got sick too....which means I'm also...
--Taking care of myself. (Or at least trying to!) I seriously cannot believe we have the FLU in JUNE!
--Figuring out what to do with my house. I have a realtor coming out tomorrow to officially give me the bad news on that. (Fingers crossed that I don't cry.)
--Stressing about my job. Layoffs are happening this week, and so far, I still have a job, but it has been a very tense atmosphere, as you can imagine. Some good people have been let go, and I don't like the direction things are heading.
--Chatting up some guys on Match. I did get asked out by one guy (twice now) and both times have not been able to meet up--once, because of a prior engagement, and now more recently because of my very unattractive flu symptoms. Hopefully in the near future I'll have an entertaining post about my meeting with him.

So...that's what's been going in my neck of the woods (oh my goodness, I just quoted Al Roker...I either need MORE cold meds or LESS!). I'll be back in a couple of days when I'm back to my normal, non-congested self!