There. I said it.

One year ago today my daughter and I left for the long trip across the country to take her to college….

 

Shortly after I dropped my daughter off at college and flew back home, I was really getting into the groove of being an empty nester.  Granted, it took me a few weeks to get used to not having my daughter around with whom to argue; but eventually, I brought my gym equipment into her room, surrounded myself with friends, family and copious quantities of alcohol, and was happily moving into the next phase of my life.  I worked hard and I played hard and was happier than a pig in shit. My daughter came for visits for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas, so I was getting adequate amounts of “me time” and “daughter time”.   Just when I started to go through withdrawal from my kid, she would come home, piss me off and then leave.  Life was grand!

So I proceeded through life for the next 4 months, happily living my life and writing my blog and flirting both virtually and realistically. For the first time in the better part of 20 years, the focus was on me again….FINALLY!!  ME, ME, ME!!

Fast forward to January 2013 (((place squirrely fast forward noise here))), and the holidays, with all of their anticlimactic fervor, are over;- and it’s fucking cold outside,  boring and fucking cold. I decide it’s time to begin to address some things in the house that I felt I had neglected over the years.  I decide I want to do some home improvements in my kitchen….

About a year or so prior, a guy that (apparently) I went to high school with (I don’t remember much from high school) friend requested me on FB and around the same time, started reading Antics.  At that time, I was getting a whole lot of friend requests and I didn’t think much of it.  It just so happened, however, that the guy that friend requested me worked for a large home improvement store and (not angry about this), was pretty damn cute.  EUREKA!!

Keep in mind that I have always considered myself to be the world’s biggest cynic when it comes to love.  My friends and many who read my blog would agree with me.  For the past 20 years I have dated (short term), and even had one tumultuous longish-term relationship; but for the most part, I have been alone in raising my daughter and found love to be a messy, annoying emotion.   I found that sex without all of that silly emotion to be exactly what I was looking for and I was content to happily live my life without love. 

So, I begin to text said hot guy for any information/discounts he can give me, things progress from there and, Lo! and Behold! the naysayer of all things romantic, the purveyor of pessimism for all things passion, FALLS IN LOVE.  

There. I said it.  For the second time in public, I said it. 

For me, it’s been a bit of a rocky road, I’m not going to lie.  I actually fought it in the beginning tooth and nail. I didn’t think I wanted it, needed it or could possibly stand it.  I spoke to friends, family and even saw a shrink. But, it happened and here we are.

So, I guess the Antics blog will change a bit from here on out.  I will always write about my life, including the “old days”, but I will also have to change gears a bit and proceed from my life that is here and now.

So this is the rest of my story…..