A Rose By Any Other Name...

Nothing will make you reevaluate your life like writing the “Interests” section of an online dating profile or answering the, “So what do you do for fun?” question. 

• Online Interests:  I love to run and stay active. I ran in a Mud Run in November and am training for another, this coming November; I will be training for an Adventure Race this year as well. Traveling has always been a passion of mine and I love weekend camping trips.  The Monday Night Football theme song, coffee and sushi genuinely make me happy. Although I am a mother, (and a very good one) I do make time for myself and the things I like to do.
• Actual Interests: Vacuuming, folding t-shirts with Gap-like precision, finding new uses for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, (seriously, those things will clean anything) finding a candle that burns evenly, (not as easy as you'd think) running, writing and taking pride in an exceptionally clean toilet.

That’s right boys…the line forms to the left

So when one of my matches sent me the question, “What do you do for fun?” and it gave me a PARALYZING brain cramp trying to come up with a response, I realized that I needed to get out from behind my computer and find some interests!  Right then, I hid my profile from the masses and turned off the “match” feature.  Time to go live my life!

I swear there’s something to the old adage, “When you stop looking…”    

“Living my life” equated to dinner and drink dates with my girls, enrolling in a candle-making class, (I was on a journey, people) hitting the gym more regularly and catching up on my ever-growing library of books. 

Candle-making, gym-ratting and marathon reading didn’t do much for my social life, but the dinner dates with my girls resulted in great times and fun pictures.  Fun pictures get posted on Facebook.  Pictures on Facebook get noticed by lots of people.  Some of those people are guys…you see where I’m going with this…

So there I am, living my life and I get a Facebook message from someone whose name I didn’t recognize.  One look at his picture and I didn’t care who he was, I was just happy he was emailing me!  He ended up being a friend of a friend, so I called this friend to get the low down on the ultra hot cowboy we’ll call Trent.  She told me, “Trent's a great guy, a bit of a ladies’ man, but if you want to give it a shot, go for it.”

Well I did go for it.  I was on a business trip at the time, so we did a lot of texting while I was out of town, just playing the “get to know you” game.  Then he asked the question I’d been waiting for; “Hey, when you get back in town, would you like to get together?”

Uh, yes please.

We decided to meet for dinner and then hit a bar to listen to some live music.  He told me his usual group of friends would also be at the bar, and asked if it was okay that he wanted me to meet them. (did you hear me?  He wanted me to meet his friends!) 

Dinner was at a fantastic Mexican restaurant on the lake.  We sat outside and there was a gorgeous sunset; a perfect backdrop to a really great date.  We had lots to talk about given our mutual friend and our steroid-induced texting sessions.  I just knew that “living my life” was about to be rewarded!  In fact, he even asked when he could see me again as we made our way to see the band. (Karen and Trent sittin’ in a tree)

As we made our way to our next destination, I found myself inordinately intimidated to meet his friends.  I mean, this group all went to high school together and knew each other really well.  And let's face it, no one likes a newbie. (Who does this chick think she is?  Did you see her roots?  Trent can do SO much better than her!)   All eyes would be focused on me and not in a good way. 

Regardless of the voices in my head telling me otherwise, I proudly walked into the bar, head held high, on Trent’s arm.  After all, he chose me, right?  He spotted his group over by the dance floor and we made our way over.   A shorter girl with brown hair was the first friend he introduced me to.  I was so nervous and it was loud in there, so all I heard was “…is Jennifer.”   

Thank goodness I at least heard her name. (and she kind of looked like a Jennifer so it would be easy to remember)  So I said, “Nice to meet you Jennifer,” as I shook her hand.  Jennifer looked at me kind of funny, but I didn’t have time to over-think this – it was onto the next person to meet:

Trent - “Shayla this is Jennifer.” 

Karen – “Nice to mee –" (wait….Jennifer?  Was I Jennifer?  No wonder “Jennifer” looked so confused – her name wasn’t Jennifer.  She thought I was an idiot!)

Shayla – “Nice to meet you Jennifer”

Karen – (are you freakin’ kidding me?) “Nice to meet you, too”  

 

This scenario repeated itself 4 (yes, 4!) more times before he finally got it...

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New Interest: Guys who know who the hell I am!

Damn!