Single, again

Earlier this week, I received an unexpected email. It was from a nice gentleman who took me out for dinner and a drink in September. After the encounter, he expressed some interest in seeing me again. It was more than the usual, "I''ll call you," which means, "I'm never going to call you." I wasn't born yesterday. It's been a while, but I still understand dating code. No, this was definite interest. This included, "Are you busy next weekend?" Definite interest.

Unfortunately, I was booked up for the following 2 weekends, which makes me sound really "in demand" but I was visiting married friends then entertaining my 5 year-old nieces for the weekend. No hot dates with Orlando Bloom or the like (ha ha, as if there is anyone like Orlando Bloom). In hopes of reminding the nice gentleman that I was still interested, I sent what I thought was a witty email on my way out of town. On the plane to Chicago, I realized that read in the wrong light, my email could possibly be interpreted as a threat. Fine line between wit and threat these days. When I didn't hear from him, I figured that he thought I was actually going to hunt him down if my trip to Chicago did not go smoothly.

Fast forward six months to this past Monday. I received an email response to my September message. That's right, an actual reply to my original message six months later. Two entire seasons. Long enough for me to write the remaining 2 chapters and defend my dissertation. Long enough for me to teach an entire semester of early US history. Long enough for me to apply for and interview for what seems like countless jobs. OK, truth be told - even if this fellow had called in January, I wouldn't have had time to go out. But still - 6 months.

Without going into the gory details, let's just say that it's been 6 dry months. So, I emailed back, said I was moderately stressed out about graduating without a full-time job, but if he wanted to go out, sure I was game. This was on Tuesday. It's now Friday. I haven't heard anything.

I've heard of taking things slow, but this is really pushing the limit. There are days when I wonder why I'm still single. Today is not one of them. I've decided to start wearing make-up again, even visited the Clinique counter at my local department store today. Maybe that will improve my fortunes. If not, well, there's always red wine and Netflix.