good blog entry finally! - a date!

So...as a few of you were on chat the other day when I connected from my business trip, I mentioned that I had secured a date for the evening and was very excited about it.

I traveled to a casino near my previous home in California this week for business, and have just returned to Las Vegas this evening. I had taken my son with, since his grandmother on his mother's side lives along the way. The drive is about 3 hours to her house, and another hour or so to my old town.

To preface, when my son was old enough to attend daycare, his mother had found an in-home daycare provider in the town we lived in. The provider happened to be a young lady who we both knew from a casino career where we had all 3 worked, and where I met my son's mother. This was good news and my son began daycare with her at 18 months. He continued to go there until he was past 2 years old, and we moved further away.

I had always continued to send little snippets of his accomplishments and photos to her via e-mail, as she had become very attached to him, as is expected.

I remember making jokes with my x2b, when I thought we were happily married and to be that way forever. I used to threaten that if she ever left that I would go marry the daycare provider, since she was smart, very pretty, and a very nurturing and loving friend to my son. It was truly a joke, but I did find her very attractive and sometimes may have thought to myself, "what if?". She, however, had been in a relationship with a man for several years herself, and was on the "verbal engagement" plan. No ring or dates, but the promise...which she often had voiced her discontent with that plan.

When my son's mother vacated our home abrubtly, I had mentioned it to the young daycare provider in an e-mail with some picture updates and news of our relocation. I remember wishing her better luck in her future. She responded with a vague comment about that situation having changed somewhat, but I never read much into it.

Onto this week now...

So, having kept in touch over the past months, I mentioned that I would be staying at the casino hotel where we had all worked years ago, and working at another casion just a few miles away. I offered to buy a margarita if she wanted to get out for an evening. Somewhat to my surprise, she accepted with, "I would love to come out for a margarita!" I was ecstatic!

We shared a couple txt messages to setup times and meeting locations, and last night at about 7:30 p.m., she showed up at the bar where I was waiting, looking lovely, and we just sat and had pleasant chat.

We moved to another bar without live music to be able to chat without the noise, and we spent several hours just talking. Unfortunately, much of the conversation revolved around my situation, and the details of hers, which happened to be her decision to end a 10 year relationship that wasn't going anywhere. She has remained friends with her ex, and I informed her that I plan to remain civil but had no plans, whatsoever, to rekindle a relationship with my x2b.

After a while, she said she had to leave. I walked her to her car, she hugged me, and we parted ways.

Shortly aftewards, I sent another txt thanking her for a nice time. She replied with a "thank you, I had fun". I thought about pushing the matter, but went with my heart and sent a message, "almost sad I moved away. I might have to make more trips to California". She replied with "Anytime!"

Upon my return, I e-mailed her again with some more detail on how much I enjoyed the visit and asked her if she'd be interested in meeting again sometime.

Without putting too much into it, I'm excited about the fact that I've met someone who knows the details about me, and whom I trust to be an influence on my son. I still have a long road ahead before I can engage in any sort of situation beyond a friendship with this girl, and I would imagine she's not far from the same emotional hurdles. But it's a start. And I initiated it. And it shows me that I can move on. I can potentially find new happiness.

I had a good feeling for the first time in a long lont time. I had a dream that evening of a time in the near future where she and I were closer than friends. Later I woke from a dream with my x2b and there was no bond between us, and she was with her new partner. I wasn't sad when I woke.

So concludes my longest blog post in quite some time. It's nice to post a good one for once.

Cheers,

Chris