I almost called in sick to recover.
The part with PP was not what I’d hoped, and not for any fault of ours, but the weather was cold and wet and the day trips I wanted to take with her require sun. Of course as soon as she went off with the Ex the sun came out, and according to the weather forecast as soon as she comes back this Thursday it’s going away again. Figures.
But we hung around at home and saw a few friends and watched movies and sewed some pajamas for Curious George and I taught her finger-knitting and she made a pile of caterpillars and butterflies. So we had fun, even if it wasn’t the fun I’d hoped. And we went to see the fireworks (thank you, Weather Gods, for clearing the skies for a couple of hours!). All good.
Then the weekend. Oy.
Dinner with the Banker was cancelled, which is fine although it does mean Madeleine will be waiting a bit longer for her entertaining story. Instead, Thursday, I cleaned the apartment, reasoning that if I cleaned it well then, it would stay clean for a *whole week.* Stayed up cleaning until 1:00. Friday I checked out a couple of fabric stores downtown and thought about how much LJ would love them, and brought home some fabric with a couple of projects in mind, and a few others that I don’t have projects in mind for but which were completely adorable. An article of mine came out, and now I just need to twiddle my thumbs and wait to be paid for it and for a response to the next pitch. And another article came out which I haven’t seen yet b/c they are mailing me a copy and I don’t have it yet.
Friday lunch date with the Trader was good. Short, since he needed to get back to work, but nice. He’s bubbly. Very positive and upbeat. And cute. We talked about our kids and running and work and he tried to explain trading and derivatives to me but all I can clearly recall is when he said “it’s not that complicated,” and then he lost me. He took me to a restaurant with $40 entrees and paid the bill without blinking (it was his suggestion, I swear to god, I’d never recommend something like that for a first date!) and talked about how he felt lucky because when his marriage dissolved he was able to just go and buy himself a house to live in, by which I take it that his finances are pretty well in order.
Friday evening poetry group was good. I brought shortbread cookies and some nature poetry by Tim Lilburn which is very, very, very dense, practically incomprehensible, but the language and imagery are so gorgeous I don’t care. Got home at 1:30.
Saturday: run, a crochet project,
(OT–and hey! I just got another pitch accepted in a new market! Go me! Oh good, and again I will have only a few weeks to complete the first draft.)
some reading, and the date with ED, and Niamh is just going to have to live with the abbreviation for now despite Jane’s efforts to rename him something else. ๐ That also went well. He’s very sweet, a bit eccentric, smart, and we talked for something like seven hours about our kids and environmental issues and why he moved to Canada and his incredibly complicated situation with his ex-girlfriend, after which he drove me home and I got in after midnight again. Are you sensing a trend?
Sunday night’s dinner w/ Meesha was lovely but of course that’s a given. We traded war stories about our mothers for about four hours. And then there was laundry and groceries and errands and other last-day-of-vacation stuff.
Tomorrow I’m having dinner w/ a highschool friend and Wednesday I’m going to a concert downtown w/ Niamh. Thursday the lovely and talented Mombie is visiting and we’re having a small dinner party at my place on Friday. Saturday we might go to the museum. Next Sunday I might be seeing either the Trader or ED again. (If it really bugs you, just pronounce it Ed. Ed! Edward. Edward is a nice, solid, British sort of name, yes?)
Thank god I have nothing planned tonight. And get to eat at home.
Anyway, as you might have gathered, both dates went really well and both are, I think, going to progress to second dates, beyond which my life has the potential to become really complicated. But I figure–last summer, dating the SA, we really didn’t do much b/c he was always broke, so we basically hung out on all my free days. Which was nice, but I’ve decided to take advantage of being single this summer instead of bemoaning it, and will be as busy as possible, barring any nervous breakdowns. And until discussions re: exclusivity are initiated by someone who is not me, I’ve decided I’m just going to date both of them. Because they both seem great. They certainly both give the appearance of being good dads, which is normally a good sign.
At the very least this should be entertaining for all of you.
And maybe some day there will be a mix-up and hilarity will ensue! Not that I’m wishing that for you, but y’know. Hilarity!
Congrats on all the writing gigs! That’s awesome!
Thanks. ๐ It’s great, isn’t it? I actually got something out of my year off. Huzzah!
and you know, that mix-up could very well happen. Their real-life names both start with the same letter.
Huzzah! And it sounds like you may need to take this song’s advice: http://www.rhapsody.com/goto?rcid=tra.907826&artistId=art.3219
I CAN’T WAIT!
I look forward to hearing all about it in person.
Sorry about the bad weather on your vacation, but it sounds like you handled it well. ๐
Oh to go shopping with you for fabric…mmm.
I too await anxiously to see how your summer unfolds and develops.
Mega-congrats on all the writing news!
Complicated ex-girlfriends is a lot for a first date, but I guess after 5 hours you have to think of something to talk about. So. And honesty is good.
Yeah. I’m never sure where that boundary should be drawn. Taht one guy who talked to me on the phone for 45 minutes about all the details of his ex-relationship was obviously over the line, but what is appropriate for a first meeting? I’m usually on the “say nothing unless directly asked” side, but then I’m usually on that side about most subjects b/c I’m so reserved. So what do most people do?
I should mention that I know the broad outlines of both of their relationships w/ their kids’ mothers.