It's been a while...

Hello Friends

Wow, it's been a while. I can explain...

Four score and 7 days ago, I had a massive single girl emotional breakdown. It was brought on by a friend who had no intention of hurting me. She is married and she basically told me that she can't be alone. You might be thinking, "that's not a big deal, Katie is crazy," but it was a big deal as I had had a bad day at work and was already feeling like I could have used a little love.

I feel like I do a pretty good job taking care of myself, but there are certain things that remind me that being single is lonely. First: car maintenance. There is nothing worse than having to arrange car maintenance when no one is obligated to get you to the mechanic and back. Second: weddings. I hate going to weddings/fancy parties without a date. Third: those days when I just need a hug. This was one of those occasions. I take care of people all day every day. Even if it wasn't my job, I would still take care of everyone because it is my nature. And there are times every now and then when I want to feel like someone is taking care of me too.

The other compounding factor is that I tried to call my brother to talk to him about it and it was a very bad mobile connection and I didn't tell him I needed to talk and he ended up telling me he had to go be with his girlfriend.

So there you have it. Single girl breakdown of 2010. My 2009 breakdown was about moving. There is usually one a year so hopefully I'm done with that for a while.

And through this experience I learned that people do care about me. They went to dinner and gave me wine and let me cry. They e-mailed nice things about how they care. They talked on the phone with me. They gave me hugs and told me that they understood how hard loneliness can be. It was reassuring.

So after about a week of moping about being alone, I was ready to get back on the dating horse again. Unfortunately, fate had other plans as I got very sick and spent two weeks doing almost nothing except working, coughing, and laying on the couch.

Thank goodness I'm finally back on track.

While I was sick, I was able to give dating some thought. As you all know well, I have been sorely disappointed with It's Just Lunch. I was thinking about what else to do and I decided that I should rejoin Match.com. Out of all my online experiences it was the best. I didn't meet mr. right, but I met a couple who weren't very far off the mark. So high-ho high-ho it's back to match I go.

My first match date was yesterday. We live about 90 min apart so I googled coffee shoppes about half way in-between and found one that looked suitable. However, as I was parking I received a text message from him to meet him at Subway instead of the coffee shoppe.

Subway?????? Who goes to Subway at 10am on Saturday? Who goes to Subway ever?

When I finally found him in front of Subway, he said that the coffee shop seemed sketchy to him so he figured we could chat in Subway instead. I hadn't had breakfast. I was treasuring the thought of Saturday morning coffee with some breakfasty food in a shoppe with that delightful coffee smell. I did not treasure the bottle of Dasani I ended up drinking in a restaurant that smelled like industrial flour.

This begs the question: In what crazy world is Subway better than a coffee shoppe? Seriously. I don't care how bad the coffee shoppe was. It was not as bad as Subway.

The rest of the date was just as bad. It seemed he just like to hear himself talk. He asked me what exactly I liked about his profile. He asked if I could cook, because he sure likes to eat. And the weirdest part of the date was when he grabbed my hand and said, "I like hands." All right Creepy McCreepster that is strange. Goodbye Mr. Subway.

Today, I was supposed to go on another It's Just Lunch Date. I know I said that I would ditch them, but I didn't and they found a couple new people for me so here I am. The restaurant we were going to meet at is supposed to be really good so I was thinking that at least I would have a good dinner. I arrived a couple of minutes early so I went to the bar and got a drink thinking he would be there any minute. Sixty-six minutes later, he was still not there. Stood up by someone I don't even know. How lame. The upswing is that I met some pretty cool development officers who were in town for a conference, and I had a good dinner at the bar while I was waiting. Who knows...maybe it was better that way. And I'd like to say It's Just Lunch is now at 20% success. That's like an F minus minus minus minus. I sent my IJL buddy an e-mail while I was waiting so we'll see what he has to say this time.

I am supposed to go out with one more Match person this week and one more IJL person so I will keep you on the up and up. My dating tally for my life is 2 for 1000. Good thing I am tenacious.

My motivation this week is Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set. She is one sassy lady. Watch out world, sassy Kate is on the loose and who knows what she will do.

Wishing you all a good night.