I think the problem I ran into with my flash-in-the-pan experience with Ashley was that we got traction before we plotted any kind of direction. I don't think you necessarily have to have your journey charted with a person you are newly dating to any extent beyond a reasonable hope for a second date, but its probably a pretty good idea to resist the urge to smoke your tires coming right outta the gate. In the interest of chivalry, I'll claim a full mea culpa on this one, even if I don't really believe it all belongs to mea. Enough said. Ashley is a wonderful woman, and I wish her peace, love and happiness...just not with me.
I have been supported to the Nth degree by some awesome friends who have all stepped up tremendously. Special thanks to Stevie, Deb Dudley, Diana, Rachel and, most especially, Erica. I have also been checked on by my wonderfully caring therapist, Kerry. Kerry, you had some big shoes to fill by being the Post Vickie therapist, and everything that was wonderful about Vickie fits you like the glass slipper you deserve - you're awesome!
Since last week's less than stellar turns-of-events, I've started a really great conversation with another interesting and lovely young woman. Her name is Susan. This is where the application of lessons learned with/from/because of Ashley comes in. Susan is laid-back, fun, light-hearted. I think I'll follow her lead in those respects. They say girls just wanna have fun. Well, so do guys, too, pretty much. Pizza, beer, football, coffee, Target, movies, trivia...it all sounds good to me. I'm much more relaxed talking to Susan, and I think I'll let that relaxed feeling be my internal pace-setter, here. Its cool that we get each other's arcane 80s pop culture references. I like that.
So, there it is. The last week, or so, in a nutshell. Hell, it took me 40 years to get to a point where my mindset is healthy enough to reasonably even try to date; it might easily take me another 40 years to get good at it. And, I don't think guys will ever figure out girls, so I'm just gonna throw that all-or-nothing goal out with yesterday's news. I thought about giving up on the whole dating thing because my first dating experience with a healthy mindset didn't work out well. Well, Erica indicted me quite correctly on that one...she said I was going back to an old "attack myself" psychological comfort zone; guilty as charged, your honor!
Lesson learned with a big thanks to all, even Ashley!
"One More Try", George Michael.
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