time to catch up

So lets catch up.

My birthday was about 2 weeks ago.  It was a great day!  S let me come in late, so I bought bagels for her, me and M.  One of my former students baked chocolate cupcakes w/ chocolate icing for me, and her best friend also a former student of mine bought me balloons.  A kid in my 4th period made me a cake about the size of a dinner plate.  Well it was for me and a girl in that class b/c it was her b-day too!!  My awesome teaching mentor V, made her world famous crab dip and that was special b/c she doesn’t make crab dip just for anyone.  Then after school S & M & me went to Red Robin.  MC met us there and then MC and I had dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  All of that plus the fact that I received many “Happy Birthday” phone calls, texts, MySpace wall posts and Facebook wall posts.  It was an awesome day!

Now to catch you up on my current “relationship”.  I have no idea how to categorize it.  As I said in a previous post I had read in an article that you should sign up for an online dating service in order to boost your ego and get over a break up.  Well, last week the guy that I met there and I finally met face to face.  To make a long story short we’ve spent time together everyday since Wednesday. 

He’s handsome, sweet, funny and freakishly like me.  I’ve only dated one other guy who was also an only child and he and I were nothing alike.  DJ was also raised as an only child and he is just like me.  We have some of the same mannerisms/ behaviors and even some of the same personality traits.  Okay, I’ll be honest, not some of the same but MANY of the same.  Seriously sometimes I feel like I’m talking to myself.  Today will be the first day that I don’t see him and I really think that it’ll be weird.  But, as he said its not like we won’t talk.

I’m going to say this here b/c I won’t say it to his face. . . HIS EYES ARE GORGEOUS!!!  They are like amber-colored and such a pleasure to stare at.  I won’t tell him to his face b/c I know he probably hears that all the time and that makes the compliment not so special, like people telling me that I have a nice smile.  He has a nice smile too though, w/ perfectly straight teeth, which amazingly enough are natural.  He’s the first person I’ve ever met who’s adult teeth came in straight instead of them needing braces. 

I had such low expectations b/c we had met online first, but this is turning out way better than i thought it would .  I really hope that my moving doesn’t stunt whatever growth this relationship could achieve.  I’m not saying that he’s my next husband or anything, but I feel like we could at least end up being best friends.

Looks like it’ll be good. . .

So I had a great Friday.  Saturday I went shopping to spend my email coupon from Express and even enjoyed a Haagen-Daas ice cream cone at Columbia Mall.  Oh! and I didn’t see any students the entire 2 hours I was there.  Sunday I had a breakthrough at therapy and afterwards had a great time with M,C and T.  T was a gracious host and entertainer as usual.  Today I was supported by my fave assistant principal during a parent/teacher/student/special educator/administrator meeting.  When the parent tried to say that the student never received work that he had completed back, the administrator just changed the subject back to what we could do for this quarter instead.  Then after work I did a little shopping with AS, had an early dinner and played with her cats for a while.  So far this is turning out to be a great week and to cap it off, we have Thursday w/out students which also means there’s no night school and I have a date on Friday night.

Looks like it’ll be a good week.

Good start to a weekend

On Thursday the drama teacher sent out her usual invitation to Happy Hour.  She is typically the one to spark the want to go, especially on nice days like yesterday.  I, as always said that I’d go.  I was a little nervous yesterday b/c she also usually sends out an email to say when she’s going to get there, but she didn’t this time so I thought that she might not be going.  Well, I stopped by the bar anyway and it was Drama Teacher, Pregnant English Teacher, and Curly-Headed English Teacher there.  I like them, and we are the ones that basically always show up at happy hour so I knew it was going to be a good time.  There was a lull when uninvited, surprise special teacher, GS showed up, but he wasn’t there long.

KMc, stayed for a while after he left and then it was just KC, and CO’B.  The three of us stayed there and talked on the patio until 10:20pm.  That can mostly be blamed on the fact that the sun is out for so long, but it was a good time.  I think they’re the ones that I know the best in my department b/c of these happy hours.  That was a great way to start my weekend.

Well, what now?

A few weeks ago I read an article about getting over a break up and it suggested creating a profile on an online dating service as a way to boost your ego.  So after mulling it over for a while I did.  Well, the next day I had a hit.  Okay well I had like 30 hits, so I guess it is a good way to boost your ego, but most of the guys were unattractive and/or in their late 30s/ early 40s.  Well, one hit was from a guy who lives around me who is actually kind of cute.

Anyway, I wrote him, and he wrote me back and its started an email conversation.  I don’t really know what I should do from here.  I mean, what if he wants to meet?  Should I go?  What do I do?  Help!

(Oh yeah, I’ll post about my birthday tomorrow, when I’ve downloaded the accompanying photos from my camera.  Just a hint. . . it was a great day and I still have a present on its way.)

she’s real nice

Today I met my new therapist.  I was a little nervous b/c I’m always nervous when meeting new people, but b/c she’s a therapist I figured she’d be used to meeting weird people.  She’s a Christian counselor so you don’t just get talk therapy, but you get talk therapy that helps you get closer to God and she even prays at the end if you’re okay with that.  She sounded just like my mother when explaining why I should find a church home here.

I’m going to see her once a week.  She accepts my insurance, but I don’t even know if that works anymore since it was through ExH, so I’m just paying out of pocket.  B/c of night school I can easily afford it and you can’t really put a dollar amount on mental health. 

Just like my last therapist she gave me homework, which sounds easy, but probably won’t be as therapy homework rarely is.  I like her a lot and she even pointed out some things that I had never thought of or noticed about myself.  It was really an interesting session, especially what she said about my relationship with my mother.  She brought up something that could be true about my relationship w/ my mother that neither me nor my mother knew about.  She was really perceptive in that 2 hours.  I’m actually excited about going back on Sunday.

ONLY 2 MORE DAYS UNTIL MY B-DAY!!!

eating alone

Why is there such a stigma on eating alone?  Watching TV the other night, I saw a preview for a movie about a guy who loses his girlfriend and goes on a tropical vacation alone.  There’s a clip where he goes to a restaurant and the host asks if his girlfriend is going to join him.  He says no, and the host embarrasses him by yelling across the restaurant to the busboy, that he can clear the other place settings off the table because its just one man.  Why is it an embarrassement to eat alone?

Before leaving for VA for Spring Break, I went to IHOP.  I had just gotten my hair done and IHOP was only about 2 minutes from the hair salon.  Plus I had been craving pancakes for a week.  No one was shocked about me eating alone, no one stared at me or looked at my pitifully.  I was completely comfortable eating my pancakes and reading a book, alone.

This scene would not take place like this in other restaurants, except for maybe at lunch, but at dinner forget about it.  Could you imagine what would be going through people’s minds if they saw me at P.F. Chang’s or Cheesecake Factory alone at 7pm on a Saturday night.  They would be curious as to why I was alone.  Some people would probably even feel sorry for me that I don’t have any friends or loved ones.  That wouldn’t be true of course, because I do have friends and loved one, but what I don’t have in MD are single friends.  Okay, not entirely true there is AS, but she’s typically working on Saturdays b/c she’s a server.  Other than her, my single friends are in Atlanta, which does me no good on a day like today when I really want to go to Olive Garden.

I really have no problem being single.  I’ve even become comfortable hanging out at home, or going to the movies alone.  No one thinks its strange when someone is at the movies alone.  Because my MD friends are married, there’s no one around to just go out to dinner with me at the drop of a hat like when I was in Atlanta or VA.   *sigh* Only 70 days until I move.

The bestest friends ever!!

S & M got me the Namaste messenger bag that I wanted!!  They got it for my birthday, which isn’t for another 14 days, but M was impatient and wanted to give it to me soon.  I can’t believe that they even got it this quickly and its the chocolate one that I wanted!! 

They also got me the Stitch ‘n Bitch knitting journal.  I’ve actually seen this journal a few times and considered getting it, but never did.  They didn’t even know that and they got it for me.  I have to admit that I had no idea, even though a few days ago M asked me if I had any of the S n B books and I didn’t even think anything of the question.  I was totally clueless. 

Aren’t they the greatest friends ever! THANKS SO MUCH LADIES!!

The bag came just in time too.  1) If they had waited until my b-day to give it to me I would have had 2, b/c I know for a fact that someone else was going to get me the same thing.  and 2) yesterday the yarn for the Sorbet baby sweater came in.    I’m going to start on it Friday since there’s a half day.  I’ll be at school a long time b/c other than having a ton of stuff to grade, I’m going to the lacrosse game @ 5:30 to watch my “sons” play, and then to the play at 7:00.  I’ll be able to knit at the game.

Its so cute, the little balls of yarn, but will go into this tiny baby sweater.  I’m going to make one for AB’s baby first since she’s already born, and then KMc’s baby sweater after.  If the pattern is as easy to knit as it looks, it shouldn’t take me long.  It’s knit in one piece w/ on seaming!!

And in other news. . .
ExH’s father was chosen to be the first African-American police chief for the city of Chesapeake, our hometown.  Congratulations Police Chief Wright!  If you want to read about it you can check out the story here.  ExH is quoted at the end.