Hit With Cupid's Arrow

This story starts almost two weeks ago, on my Birthday. Because of all my going-out-of-town around the time, I decided to just celebrate my Birthday by going out to dinner at Pappasito's. I literally invited ten people, not including myself or Emily, to join us for dinner. Slowly, for one reason or another, everyone (besides Emily) backed out of going. It was a pretty crappy rainy night and some people had legitimate reasons to have to miss. But I was still upset/mad that only one person made it out to my Birthday celebration.

We got there and found out there was a 45 minute wait and the bar was full. Finally, we scoped out two seats at the bar, at the very end shoved in the corner. There was a "couple" sitting next to me, that I paid no attention to. After some time of being there, our food arrived and the guy next to me turned to me and admired my food. Then he kept talking to me, which I honestly wanted him to stop so I could just eat and be left alone. But he continued to talk to me despite my polite efforts to make him stop.

Then, we figured out that he was in the same fraternity as my friend Erin's husband, and they knew each other. After that I started thinking this guy isn't so bad and was interested in talking to him. Before he left, he wrote his name on my to-go box and told me to look him up on facebook.

So I went home immediately and be-friended him. By early morning the next day he had accepted my request and written me back a message. Because the technology world decided to take over my dating life, I was unable to write him back a message without getting an error message. So I had to wait until the weekend to write.

I went to Liz's lake house for a college friends get-together. Unfortunately, you will not see a blog post about that weekend because I got a stomach bug that pretty much kept me in the bathroom or sleeping the entire weekend...boo. It also never allowed me to get to respond to Ryan (which I just realized I haven't thrown his name out there yet).

Finally, on Super Bowl Sunday I wrote him back a message. He quickly wrote me back a message, and we continued this on until we set a date to get together and "grab a drink" on Thursday night.

We met at Chuy's and the date went really well. We had the kind of conversation where everything each person says was just in tune with the other person. It was clear that we had a lot in common and that we were very interested in each other. By the end of the date he told me that he didn't like playing games and following rules like waiting two days before we talk again. He said he just wanted to hang out with me again the next time we were both available, which happened to be the next evening.

So Friday night we went to South Congress and walked around until we found somewhere without a ridiculous wait, and that we both wanted to eat. After dinner, we went to a wine bar that is on South Congress so we could talk some more. By the end of this date it was clear we planned on being with each other for a while. We really let our conversations flow and discussed some of our feelings for each other.

Saturday we took a break from each other (not because we wanted a break). I have a limited time left to hang out with Emily here before she moves to McAllen, so I like to take full advantage of it. So I went over to Emily's for dinner then we grabbed drinks with a guy friend from high school. I did invite Ryan, but he was running a fever and his allergies were killing him so he couldn't make it.

Sunday night (Valentine's Day, in case you have forgotten), Ryan invited me over to his place where he cooked dinner. He made tacos, salsa, rice and charro beans (an old family recipe). It was a really good meal! Then we watched "Couples Retreat." It was a really sweet Valentine's, especially considering our first meet had only been 11 days before and our first date only 3 days before!

Monday, I had the day off from work. He ended up taking the day off from work so he could hang out with me and also to get some things done (he never takes a day off from work, but had meant to for a while). So he came over, we watched "500 days of Summer." And we just talked and enjoyed our time together.

There is sooooo much I could say about him and how much I like him. But I am not going to write about it. I do have a very good feeling about the way this is going to turn out. And I am excited to be starting a relationship with this great guy.

The timing and chance of everything happening is what shocks me the most about this. If even one of those ten people had showed up for my Birthday dinner (and what are the odds TEN people won't make it?), I would not have sat next to him that night (so thanks to all ten of you for collectively getting me the most amazing present possible). And the fact that it was my Birthday is pretty cool. Then, to have our third date land on Valentine's Day. I never would've thought it would be possible to meet someone on my Birthday then have enough time to feel so strongly for someone by Valentine's Day. As it turns out, I got the best Birthday gift this year from a fictitious character that shot an arrow a few days early :) .