Relationships are unpredictable beasts. Before any alarms are raised, I'm still floating on cloud nine, but I'm just wondering if I'm missing anything that I should have noticed by now.

I'm dating. Actually dating. I've never done this before. I've always known the person I dated before we started dating - ran in the same social circles or became friends with through organized activities, then we would mutually decide that there is also an attraction to our friendship. So this dating thing is really new.

I feel like there is much less at stake this way so I have a lot of freedom to choose the right thing for me without the worry of upsetting someone else besides the person that I'm dating.

There are so many things I don't know about all this. Most of all - me! I've noticed in the past that sometimes I have really been excited about dating a new guy, but then two weeks later realize that there is nothing between us because I was only excited about dating someone. Only it's just been me who felt that way. The guy still really liked me. I've been doing some internet reading, because everyone is an expert on dating, and it's pretty common that most people go through that re-evaluation at the one-month mark. I must just be more advanced than most. Heh.

So I know all this is normal babble, but I needed to get it out of my system so that I didn't go crazy in the meantime while all my feelings and emotions sort themselves out.

Tonight's festivities included the making of a risotto which took forever leaving us to talk for a long while it cooked. After supper, we played a game of Theophrastus which I won. ha-ha!

Then we watched About Schmidt which was like watching a very slow train wreck. Apparently, Schmidt's act of sending money to a starving child overseas was supposed to redeem him of all the crappy things he thought were the right thing to do. I can see the message, but it certainly didn't touch me at all. I enjoyed watching it in the company I was in, but I probably would've completely hated it otherwise. Next time, we should watch Battlestar Galatica.

And yes, there will be a next time. [grin]

It was just as good as I'd hoped. Smiles and giggles and laughter and games and food and history and feeling the same about each other. It was really good.

Did you hear that everyone?

I just went on a really fabulous date!

JOY!

I know I'm being optimistic and hopeful, which may ultimately end up in my disappointment. I'm choosing to completely envelop myself in these excited feelings. They're so much more pleasant than the ones of worry and concern and constant theoretical questions that have no answer. I'm just excited and enjoying every minute of it.

Of course, I don't know if I even want a relationship right now because I'm feeling so fantastic on my own. I'm sure I will by the time one comes along.

No questions, please. I don't have answers.

Bah! I have work tomorrow.

The past four days have been absolutely wonderful. I had a spa day on Thursday. Friday included gardening, a nice walk, and a house party. Saturday had me driving to Lumsden to visit some friends which was wonderful. And on Sunday, I talked to friends for most of the day and gardened some more and played City of Heroes.

And now, I have to sleep so I can have a fabulous week!

I'm glad that I don't like not having challenges in my life. I whine about them enough, but when I don't have them it's even worse! I'm not saying that I like being stressed out all the time, but there are some challenges that are just exciting and they come with stress too, but I don't notice it as much.

And I make my own challenges, I don't wait for them to happen to me. I choose it all! I've always accepted responsibility for my life, but I sometimes forget that I get responsibility for the good things in my life too.

I will take credit for choosing who I consider friends, but I am very fortunate they feel the same way. Friends are great for telling you the things that you can't necessarily see about yourself - good and bad. And they like you anyway.

My house has a bunch of projects that need doing so that'll keep me homebound for the next little bit, but I'm pretty certain that I'll be feeling like travelling again after my birthday. Maybe a quick trip to Calgary would be in order!

The day started out bad and just got worse. Lots of little things went wrong and I didn't get mad at any of them and I tried the mantra, "Today is going to be a good day." It just kept me a little more level. I was looking forward to the evening events and then those didn't go as planned either.

And then an hour with a friend turned it all around.

Gardening: 8 hours
Birthday party preparations: 12 hours
City of Heroes: 8 hours
Time with friends: 6 hours
Sleeping: 32 hours
Errands, chores, and all those other things: 6 hours

What a fantastic weekend!

My backyard looks fabulous!! I've still got some work to do, but I got done a huge chunk today so that it finally looks decent. And I tossed two bags of debris from the backyard. So utterly fabulous! I'll probably be too sore tomorrow to do the front yard, but maybe I'll get my taxes done then.

My old roommate would be very proud. Oh! That reminds me, I need to tell him that his rhubarb is coming up nicely.

The sunshine today was incredible. Maybe that's why I feel so motivated in the spring for about two or three weeks. The return of the sunshine.

This is one thing you miss when you have weather all the time - seeing life come back to the world around you. I truly love living in Saskatoon.

I'm still laughing so hard that I can barely breath, let alone type.

So, being cheeky as I sometimes get when I'm in a good mood, I answer the phone in a non-standard manner by saying "Bonjour." No call display since I was upstairs but I fugred, who could possibly be phoning me that wouldn't be likely to understand my playing.

National Census Agency.

Taking a poll on the English and French language usage.

Nope, I'm not making this up.

I had to suppress my shock and surprise before interrupting the French dialogue I was eventually going to have to respond to. I laughed really really hard when he re-introduced himself in English. He apologized to me because he thought I'd answered in French. I confessed that I had. It confused him, the poor sot. And I laughed some more. In fact, I think I giggled through the whole call. I felt obliged to answer his questions after confusing him so badly. He actually asked me twice during the call why I'd answered in French. Ummmm... All I could come up with was that I was being cheeky.

My tummy hurts from laughing so hard.

It's been one of those days and it's not even over yet!

I've had a great, exhausting day today. I had to do performance reviews with my staff all day. It's tough! My opinion matters a lot to my staff. There is always something people can do better, but they know better themselves what they need to improve upon. Anyway, there was no screaming from any of my staff about their reviews which was nice. However, one of my staff broke down in tears because she was so happy with the review. It's one thing to say it out loud, but to put it in writing and back it up with a good merit raise is another. She was extremely happy. She makes me glad I'm a manager - her manager.

So on the heels of that, I come out to my desk to find a candy bouquet on my desk. Two of my co-workers decided that they wanted to thank me for all I do around the office so they brought me a little surprise for the weekend. (I have to be at work a lot this weekend as we have a third party vendor working in our server room.) It was enough to bring to tears after my tiring day so I went and hugged them both.

And now I'm just waiting for a phone call from a friend of mine who I haven't spent time with for quite a while. I'll probably cry then too.

I know you're just dying to hear about this one. So, today, he showed me his belly where he has a small mark from where the taped up knife that he and his friend were playing with wounded him. Apparently, yesterday, they were playing with the same said knives and there was actual blood. But only his friend ruined a shirt... this time. I was laughing so hard.

Opening the post with, "So my chiropractor showed me his weapon," was my original intention, but I thought that might get some seriously disturbed comments from the viewing audience. Heh.

The knives were pretty cool, I have to say. There was a scorpion blade and the Riddick blades. Very cool.

Anyway, I asked about the "guy". It's a massage therapist. How bad would it be to date a registered massage therapist? [grin] Anyway, he'll be on display attending my birthday party next month.

I've got a cat asleep on the bed next to me and one purring in my lap making cute noises of complaint every time I move.

I made plans to go to a movie on Thursday after I have drinks with co-workers. I took someone's advice that I wouldn't normally take as his advice isn't typically all that good. I called some people. Well, maybe only one additional person. I'll call other people later in the week - spread out the time I spend away from my cats. Heh.

I think I know why I have the blahs - the endless to do list for work. I keep saying I need a vacation, but what I really need is time away from my email and my phone at work so I can get some work done. I've been avoiding all the things that I could put off before because there were more pressing things to do. Now that things are back to the "it would be nice to get these things done" list. Some of those things are actually becoming more important than that list, but it's a really tough transition to the "must be done now" list. It usually ends up skipping that list and going to the "MUST BE DONE RIGHT F-IN NOW" list which is a list that doesn't have anything on it for very long. Probably have to put something on that list tomorrow. But hey, that's tomorrow.

Did I mention that I'm trying to save money and I suck at it? Okay, I don't suck that much at it, but I could be better. I did manage to walk out of Michael's today and spending less than $5. But Canadian Tire and Future Shop had already stung me. I got some pants hangers and some fluorescent light bulbs and then 3 movies at Future Shop. Chronicles of Narnia came out today and I really like that movie. So I got it. The special addition with pretty metal case.

It's late and I'm really hungry. And I have cucumbers in the fridge just screaming to be eaten. Literally. They're really annoying and are going to get it good in just a few minutes.

Since I haven't really done anything outside of work in the past few weeks, I don't have much to report. Playing with kittens and playing City of Heroes is about all I've done lately.

I should probably get out more. I feel like a charity case though. I would like to spend time with my friends but I never made time for them before a certain someone moved to Calgary so why should they make time for me now? I don't think that's terribly fair of me. Maybe I'll figure it out next week.