S’mores

Just when I think I have my life figured out, my plans are disrupted.

I’m a planner. As much as I like spontaneity in my day-to-day life, I function best when I know there’s a long term plan in place. But I have found in my life, as much as I like having a plan, most of the time the plans don’t work out as I’d hoped. In fact, most things in my life so far haven’t gone according to plan. If you would have told me in high school that I would have gone to college in Iowa, lived in New York for 7 months, dropped 70 pounds to be a size 12, and still living with my parents when I’m 25, I would’ve thought you were crazy. But even though my plans haven’t exactly worked out like I thought they would, everything in my life has worked out in some way or another. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

This is exactly one of those times.

I had pretty much given up on dating for a while. Actually, I was quite content with being single. Over the holidays, I could do whatever I darn well pleased. No extra presents to buy, no worries about who was going where to which family gathering, no awkward encounters with strange extended family members (well, except my own of course). I’m registered for the UNI Overseas Recruiting Fair to possibly teach music overseas next year. At the same time, I’ve been applying for my Minnesota teaching license and jumping through hoops to finalize that process. I had decided to give all my time and energy into those endeavors and worry about dating after this school year when I knew for sure where I was going to be next year. I was single. And satisfied. I was pretty set I wasn’t going to date anyone (if at all) until June after school was out.

Then s’mores happened.

I got this message on my Plenty of Fish account

Complete sentences. Correct grammar. Witty. Complementing my teaching (huge plus). Worth a profile click. I saw he was educated. Tall. Nice. Not drop dead gorgeous, but cute (which I like better anyways. Guys that are hot – and know that they’re hot – are nothing but trouble). His glasses were endearing and his description just seemed so genuine. He seemed normal. Then I saw where he was from – Mankato. 2 hours away.

Dang.

But I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and message him back.

Best decision I’ve made in a long time.

We instantly clicked. I can’t even really describe what it was, but we messaged back (and later texted) paragraph upon paragraph talking about our interests, education, upbringing, and lives thus far. We had so much in common it was scary. It was like I had known this guy for years. Conversation was never forced or awkward. He shared my sense of humor and sarcasm. So of course I wanted to meet him and see if the connection was real. I didn’t want it to be another strawberry cheesecake situation where there was no spark in real life.

I was taking the last of my MTLE’s (Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations) in Eagan on a Saturday – conveniently half way between us. We planned on meeting up after the test and grabbing dinner or drinks or something. Well, he suggested (in the non-creepiest way possible, I swear) that if things were going well we could continue the date at his place that night with some wine and Netflix. I told him I couldn’t because of church choir in the morning. S’mores said he totally understood. But as we continued texting, he offered up the fact that his Friday night was open as well if I wanted to come down there before the test Saturday. And so begins the story of the stupidest but best decision I have probably ever made.

I drove 2 hours to Mankato to meet a complete stranger at his house.

And I lied to my parents about it. (In my defense, dating under your parents’ roof is terribly tricky. They know exactly when you are and are not home and if your mom is anything like my mom, they want to know exactly where you are. All the time)

So mom, if you’re reading this: I’m sorry.

I’m still alive to tell about it. He wasn’t a Craigslist killer or total creep! The connection we had was instant. Even better than when we were messaging and texting. We went to this gorgeous winery and then out for dinner. There was never a lull in conversation or awkward silences. It just clicked. He didn’t try any moves on me, never made me feel uncomfortable, and he was just a genuinely sweet guy.

Saturday I went to my test (and passed) that afternoon and we met again for dinner at Surly Brewing Company’s new brewery in Minneapolis. And it was awesome. He’s awesome. That was 2 weeks ago, and I’ve definitely had some more s’mores. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

As you can see, my plans don’t always seem to go as expected. But I’m definitely not complaining