I admit it, I gave up.\u00a0 I found myself blas\u00e9 about the whole dating thing.\u00a0 Other than \u201cplease trample my face\u201d dude, nothing exciting was happening.\u00a0 I even agreed on a second date with the \u201cI Win\u201d guy \u2013 my first First After from back in November.\u00a0 I was chatting with a few guys, but nothing exciting and I found myself letting days pass between emails.<\/p>\n
And then I got a message.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Someone on OKCupid had contacted me.\u00a0 Someone who actually read my profile and noted my MacGyver\/duct tape reference and commented on it.\u00a0 The more we chatted, the more we realized we had in common.\u00a0 People, places, dreams, laughter.<\/p>\n
So we met.<\/p>\n
Our first date lasted 6 hours.\u00a0 We met for lunch and by the time we left the dinner crowd was in full swing.\u00a0 We talked and laughed through several nearby half-hearted renditions of \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d and countless refills of soda.\u00a0 I even forgot to go the bathroom \u2013 a fact that became relevant the moment I unlocked my door and my bladder went on red alert.<\/p>\n
But maybe he was just being kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He assured me this wasn\u2019t the case, and reinforced it by asking me out again, not just for one, but three dates. \u00a0\u00a0A picnic in the park \u2013 filled with gentle breezes, teenage shyness, and more laughter.\u00a0\u00a0 The next included being there for me as I transported my foster dog to his new home, followed by a quiet and comfortable dinner at my place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each time we met, the time flew by.\u00a0 Each time we were apart again, it felt like ages since we had seen each other.\u00a0 We kept marveling at how wibbly wobbly timey wimey the whole thing was.<\/p>\n
And then the big event \u2013 he invited me to join him for a weekend of heraldry and historical anachronisms \u2013 my first SCA event.\u00a0 We\u2019d be going with a friend, sleeping in dorm-style cabins, and dressing in historical garb.\u00a0 I was nervous \u2013 people I didn\u2019t know, worrying about looking cute in primitive conditions, fearful my snoring would bring the wild beasts to bear down on us in protest.<\/p>\n
And then came the snag \u2013 his babysitter had gone MIA.\u00a0 (Did I mention he has kids? He has kids. ) Would I mind if they came along?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll admit it, I panicked.\u00a0 I love children, but I had long ago accepted that they\u00a0would most likely not be\u00a0in the cards for me.\u00a0 I had chosen people that couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t have them. And now to meet them and so soon. What if they hated me?\u00a0 What if they didn\u2019t?\u00a0 I cry at commercials, I take in stray dogs and lodging-challenged friends.\u00a0 This could break me.<\/p>\n
But then I took a deep breath and gave myself a shake.\u00a0 Better to know than not, right?\u00a0 It\u2019s not like it was planned, these things happen. \u00a0Bye bye, Joey \u2013 have fun storming the castle!\u00a0 So I went, I anachronized, and things went very well.\u00a0 Better than I could imagine.<\/p>\n
We are moving forward \u2013 trying not to move too fast.\u00a0 But it\u2019s hard when things seem so natural.\u00a0 We\u2019ve both got things to work on, and we know that the past, the present, and the future all have to be dealt with.<\/p>\n
But for now?\u00a0 I\u2019m having a good knight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I admit it, I gave up.\u00a0 I found myself blas\u00e9 about the whole dating thing.\u00a0 Other than \u201cplease trample my face\u201d dude, nothing exciting was happening.\u00a0 I even agreed on a second date with the \u201cI Win\u201d guy \u2013 my first First After from back in November.\u00a0 I was chatting with a few guys, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,16,85,84,11,83],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dating","tag-dating-2","tag-first-afters","tag-kids","tag-knight","tag-okcupid","tag-sca"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2UnPK-5u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}