HA HA, I took Wellbutrin in the form of Zyban to quit smoking and I definitely quit sleeping but I certainly never adapted to it. I NEED my sleep.

I rarely, if ever, dream of WstbxH. However, once in a while he pops into my head unexpectedly and for no specific reason. After my first divorce the same thing would happen but it gradually went away. It did take several years and in that case I was the one who left him, not the other way around.

I certainly didn't adapt to the Wellbutrin, I immediately switched to the Lexapro and did that about 7-months before I had enough of that. I should note that I saw a therapist for those 7-months also.

Funny therapist story, the XW went to some crackpot that her equally crackpot workmates went to, I picked one out of the phone book, man did fortune smile on me. XW refused MC. I never saw her IC, XW never saw mine. XW says to me one day that her and her therapist have been working on their own diagnosis of me based upon the XW warped perceptions. XW's IC comes up with Asperger's Syndrome. I do some research on the symptoms and hey, I'm not that guy. I and open and outgoing and have never met a stranger. I tell my IC this and he literally falls out of his chair laughing, says XW's IC is a crackpot and that I am the furthermost person form Asperger's that he's ever seen. True story and it sill amuses me today.

My IC was instrumental to me surviving (literally) my divorce. At the end of the 7-months he says to me, "Do you think that we need to do this anymore?" I answered no. My recovery wasn't over there, but I had the momentum in my favor. Thanks for everything, Bob.

I don't know what's in the air but the tables seemed to have turned in some cosmic fashion in my direction. Donna from Yahoo passive-aggressively asks me to meet her for the first time tonight at her girl's night out. Donna is afraid she;s not good enough for me and is concerned that I don;t have the time in my schedule to date her. I get an email today from Morgan from Yahoo who I haven't heard from in a while, she apologizes (!) for not corresponding, says her dog is dying (makes me sad sincerely), says she has her emotional balance back and wants to meet if I still want to meet with her.

4 others want to meet up and I have 2 referrals. I don't have the time in my schedule for all of these women!

I know, you want to know what's different and why I'm having this kind of response. I cannot answer it definitively for you other than to say I am very relaxed, very secure, and totally ambivalent to dating and women. If I could bottle it I could make a fortune. That an the universal translator that translates man-speak into woman-speak and vice versa. Still working on that one!

booka, that is sweet of you, but I am in South Dakota and it cost a small fortune to fly anywhere from here as there are no straight flight, Denver or Minneapolis first. That is why I road trip everything!!!

I hope to get some done tonight!!! And will ask friends to help with a painting party, like I said steak and potatos. Feed them well, I was taught!!!

Thanks, Dawn

Only things set in stone for this weekend are:

spend a lot of time with my girlfriend and her daughter, watch football (esp Alabama v. Georgia (roll Tide), and attend a birthday party for my close female friend who turns 32 on the 30th. Cookout with family and friends type party.

I'm dropping a milsurp store and picking up a pair of jerry cans since there isn't a fuel can to be found in ATL.

Probably going to stick close to home until this fuel crisis aleviates.

Tonight, getting alignment for car....going to see mom...hunting for gasoline.

Tomorrow, go get donuts for breakfast, cave adventure (2 hours from here) with German exchange students and hosts from daughter's school, may go eat Mexican and hear Latin music group.

Sunday, church, lunch w/ mom, maybe zoo, then music adventure.

Do I need to put anything more in?

Meeting Susan for drinks after work, she says she has plans to meet up with a GF later, I'll inquire to her later evening plans, and there's always trouble that I can find on my own. Saturday I'm leaving open for Mary who did not know what time she would get back from visiting her sister out of town. If that doesn't pan out, could try a last minute arrangement with Morgan. Susan wants to take me to Taste of St. Louis on Sunday and there's also another fall festival that I could go to. I told her my plans for Sunday would be dependent upon how persuasive she is tonight.

Then I have the usual household tasks, mow the yard, still need to pick out trees for the backyard and plant the 12-plants I have ready to go, check Lowe's and Home Depot for clearance items in the garden department, maybe a touch of grocery shopping, and some me-time! I haven't been to The Dog in about two weeks and need to touch base their with my constituents. I am of course not only their favorite Alderman, but The Dog is also in my ward!

To prove that I'm not self-centered, I wish all of you a great, entertaining, relaxing, and productive weekends.

Well, guys I am a little scared. I had an internal ultrasound done on Wed, They are thinking that they have to do a hysterectomy.

While they were doing that they noticed that my gall bladder was enlarged, so when I seen the doc yesterday for the acid reflux that is keeping me up most of the night for the last 2 weeks, he poked around and I really don't have any pain. So now I have an appointment for another ultrasound and a surgical referral for the gall bladder. Still have to see the gyn about the other issues. I showed up way anemic which explains the tiredness beyond the not sleeping well!!! I haven't felt really good since July.

So I am relieved as well as scared. At least I know what has been causing some of my issues, and know that they can be fixed. But still scared as I don't like being in the hospital or having others have to do things for me!!!

Just thought that I would share.

Tonight the friend that owns Curves won a trip for two to China!!!! So we are celebrating that with a chinesse potluck. It's so cool as she is adopting a second child from China and is do to pick up the child during Christmas break, so this pays for her and her husband to go so know they only have to pay for the three kids!!!

Am not sure what we will do after that, there is a new movie with Richard Gere and Diane Lane that I would like to see!

Tomorrow is Sat, so will work here at school as a timer for a dance/cheer competition and then will help Kevin with the Pee Wee bowlers, thought about asking him if he drove and we go up in the hills to see the colors I wold buy supper, not sure if he would go for it or think I was being to forward!

Sunday is our local 1st annual fall festival, so my Youth to Youth kids will have a booth set up and will help with that!!!! And then my turn to bowl!!!!

Keep it safe everyone!!!!

Dawn

You're in my thoughts and prayers Dawn! Keep us posted!


I've had both the gallbladder removed and the hysterectomy done and trust me.....it's not as bad as you think and it's sooooooooo nice to not have the "monthly friend" anymore!!!!

(((((DAWN)))))

I hope all goes well.

As you can see, it's Friday night and I'm typing on MB so no great plans this weekend. Unfortunately, BF has to work. I finished my stairway and my shutter arrived so I'll be painting that. I will see BF tomorrow and Sunday though and we're going to have roast chicken for dinner (I'm cooking).

Son's high school football game in Erie tomorrow night...and cleaning on Sunday...suppose to rain all weekend too!!

OK, fuel was impossible to find, filled my cans yesterday before dawn and mostly stayed home.

Tabs and I went to a yard sale and found bunches of cheap goodies.
They are losing these huge houses by the droves here, I mean they are selling EVERYTHING dirt cheap for the move out.

The woman has a studio in the basement and I picked up her DSLR cameras for $200 apiece and they were easily $1700 cameras plus the lenses.

I almost feel bad for her and her husband, but there was MOUNDS of IT equipment that seems to have migrated from his employer.

I almost bought a laptop, but I'm afraid they are traceable, but I prefer a Mac anyways.

I cooked Tabs a really nice dinner since she hasn't been feeling well and I seem to have broken something in my elbow when strapping the fuel tanks down in my truck. I felt a bone spur break off into the tendon. ouch.

Anyways here's her dinner.

Banty chickies w/ squished garlik taters and asplarguses.

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd335/R_Tison/100_0505.jpg

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd335/R_Tison/Shooting/100_0506.jpg

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd335/R_Tison/Dinner.jpg

Pariah, You are so sweet!!! Why is there not a guy out there like you for me? Why am I stuck on the same guy for the last 5 years, and we are just friends. UGH!!! my feelings were hurt so bad tonight, my hip hurt too, and I had tears running down my face and not one person asked if there was anything wrong or even cared. And that hurt even more. I just want a good guy to love me and that I can love back and care for. It's really not much to ask for is it?!!

I'm sorry, guess I am going to have a pity party tonight no matter how hard I try not to!!! IT's weak, and I don't like being weak, I am the strong one!!!


Well Parih, I hope that Tabs realizes how lucky she is to have such an awesome man like yourself by her side. I hope that she does nice things in return for you!! Someday I will find that too. I am just impatient with the waiting!

Good night!!! Oh yeah my daughter beat me by one pin total tonight and we bowled against her team!!! They took 3 of 4 games!!! That hurts to be spanked by your own kids.

Dawn

Oh yeah I don't why fuel is so hard to find where you are, we are paying $3.52/gal here!

Yeah, Tabs knows just how good she has it as her husband just up and abandoned her after extensive abuse about her disability from the stroke. When we got back together she was living in a basement apartment she called the dungeon and getting further and further behind.

She said that us breaking up 16 years ago was the worst decision that cascaded into a series of bad events.

We both have endured terrible abuse in some form or other. Sometimes she gets a bit frustrated at my damaged short term memory and attention span because I will ask her something that she just told me 5 minutes previously. I will remind her that I don't get upset at her quirks that she doesn't realize she has, like her talking in her sleep and inability to grasp with her right hand.

I never criticize her and only compliment, if I have a complaint I am direct and unjudgemental about it so she doesn't get upset. I always say we will work together on some problem or complaint she has.

From the very beginning we agreet to communicate no matter what. She still has a few problems with holding some things in and I have to drag it out and it never a problem I can't handle. The holding it in is worse to me.

It's usually something the bird has done or financial assistance.

I told her that not to be ashamed of the financial assistance because it affects me too and I don't like surprises at the last minute. Sure it might inconvience me a bit, but I'd rather be inconvienenced that caught off guard.

A bit late, by here we go:

I met Susan for drinks at the neatest Applebee's I've ever been in right after work on Friday. It took me about 30-minutes to get there from work. Out of the blue on the way, my DD15 Kate called me out of the blue (very rare) and we had a nice chat. She told me a couple of amusing things and I told her that when she's with the XW and the XN and their cohorts that Kate definitely in the smartest one in the room. She told me then went camping the weekend of the hurricane (I guess the collective idiocy of the XW and XN prevents them from checking forecasts), I asked what did she stay in, she said Larry and Dee's popup and that the XW slept in a tent with the XN. It would be hard to imagine a more perfect pair than the XW and XN, i.e. their individual dysfunctions would compliment each other. Kate was headed to her HS football game and we said our goodbyes.

I popped into the restaurant and didn't see Susan (she's 5'2") but she did see me and popped up and took me to her table. She said that the restaurant had burned down and this new one, very contemporary inside (I have contemporary furniture). We had a couple of beers and talked and made plans for Sunday. She had to scoot at 19:00, So, I told her I would pay the bill and she would get the next one. She gave me a hug as she left, a first for her. I then headed west and popped into my favorite DQ for some double-cheese burgers. I ran into a guy, name unknown, who was in my neighbor Mike's wedding, so I chatted with him, he had been with Mike throwing horseshoes and drinking beer at the KofC in St. Paul and was waiting in line for a "makeup blizzard" for his wife. I though it was enormously funny and laughed and said goodbye.

I then headed for The Dog, must have been right around 20:00. I'm thinking to myself, I should call up Anna to see if she can come out and play. I walk in and there's Anna sitting with Tom, Rick, and a chick I didn't know, and Anna says that she was just going to call me. Great minds do think alike. Anna is a remarkable woman, literally the most rational woman that I've ever met, extraordinarily intelligent, and I do crave intelligent conversation, is forever nonplussed, is cool and calm in a storm, a master conversationalist, and is a very close friend to me. Anna is what I would call pleasingly plump, comes from English stock and has that English blonde look. She has a aura and gets hit on from damn near every man that she meets except for me. I know and like her husband Kerry and would never get involved in any impropriety with Anna. I am a gentleman, last of a dying breed, and I know that Anna does respect that. We have only recently started to hug each other after about 16-months or so of knowing each other. We have the amusing experience of once being considered a married couple, i.e. that she was my wife and I her husband, and we both like to tell that story. There is no doubt that I am glad she was there, and I first made the rounds of the bar saying hello to everyone and paid for the only beer that I paid for the entire evening. The rest of the evening multiple parties bought me rounds. So I get back to Anna's table and she says to the rest that they should move to a bigger table and we all did with me sitting next to Anna. I was introduced to the chick, Miss Becky, childcare provider extraordinaire, and had some amusing moments with her throughout the evening. She is a 30-something from the Florida panhandle, very southern in accent, and had every indication of coming from what might be termed a low-class background. She had very piercing "bedroom eyes".

We had one of those tabled where we sat for the entire evening and people came to us, floating in and out of our conversations. I would only occasionally get up to make some rounds. It was a typical Friday night with about 30-people there. My neighbors Clint and Ashley were there with his brother, his SIL, and his little 18-month niece. I have this thing with small children. They inherently like me. Their eyeballs lock on. So I do my flirty baby routine and the little niece gave me a perfect high-5, very cute. Later, neighbor Jeff rolls in, Miss Becky says "Who's that?" with some enthusiasm on her part, and I later delivered the message to Jeff while I told him I had a recliner that I thought that he might be interested. He later stopped by the table and I introduced him to Miss Becky. I should add that Miss Becky knows Anna well and was there at Anna's invite, and with the people and place that we knew in common, it was amazing that I hadn't bumped into her before.

So had a very good time with people I love and was very buzzed about the experience and the chance to see Anna. Anna, Miss Becky, and I all left at midnight. I got home, saw Tim and Jen out in their garage, grabbed my vices and walked up there to chat. They were winding down and so I popped over to Brad's house, and there was Jeff, Clint, Matt, Brad, and the women. The women left pretty soon. Brad's wife Mindy was drinking a bottled beer, highly unusual, I inquired, it was an O'Doul's, and after my experience of last weekend with Laura, I immediately asked Mindy if she was pregnant, and she said yes, I congratulate both her and Brad, etc. It was then down to us 5-guys and I had my first round of very enjoyable guy-talk of the weekend. They're all 20 and 30-sometings and accept me as I am, the old dude, into their group. I always enjoy their company and particularly Clint, who has a personality like mine, and Jeff, who I have always had a strong bond with. Imagine 5 guys together with beer and what that conversation would be like. It was a lot of fun and we all broke up about 01:00.

Woke up about 09:00 and did the usual housework and went out the garage and read the paper. I saw Tim was up and at them, so I brought my pressure washer up there along with one of the two beer pitchers that I had from the picnic. He eventually got down and brought the washer back down and then C1 wanted to borrow it to do his driveway. I took a look at my vinyl floor and said this is the time to scrub it, so swept it, I have this microfiber duster thing for floor and went over it with that, and then it was scrub time. I have a stiff brush that will screw into a standard extension-pole, the kind of pole that you would attach to a roller-frame for painting, etc. When I did the driveway, I purchased a pro-quality one and it's a pleasure to use, relegating the old one to an unused status. So I scrubbed with that setup, very hot water, lemon cleaner, and then went over it with a mop, and then a dry Swiffer. It was nice and shiny afterwards. C1 was still washing and I didn’t want to wait for him to get down, so I cleaned up, headed to Lion's Choice for lunch (a local chain that kicks Arby's hinder in a very serious fashion) and went to Lowe's (that's a big ka-ching for Mimi-san), bought 3 bags of gypsum, 2 5M bags of starter fertilizer, a bag of bluegrass seed (bluegrass in the front, fescue (love saying that word with a simulated southern accent, fescue!) in the back), and grabbed 4 of the $3.00 Mums.

I then went to Shop N Save, one of the big-3 local chains, sort of the warehouse kind of store, and picked up a bunch of stuff there. Then it was to home, unload all the goodies, mowed the grass, cleaned up again, had a confab with Tim and C1, and Tim that our mutual friends Rob and Jaimie were going to BBQ, so I called Rob and made the arrangements, later packing up at cooler and heading over there at about 18:00. I had many text messages that evening and had to immediately get my glasses, which amused them all, but I'll have my revenge when they're in their 40's! Rob manned the grill for burgers and dogs and some interesting potatoes. It was at that point Rob and Jaimie, Tim and Jen (J1), Tim's brother Ryan and his wife Jen (J2), and myself. Later Tony and Laura stopped in. Had a great time with them and heckling and kidding with the neighbors on both sides. We for the first time since I've known them talked in depth about film, started by Rob announcing that Paul Newman had died, a sad thing for me. We started by going through some of his memorable roles and then branched way off into Westerns which always causes me to discuss Kurosawa's films, etc. The other great discussion was about the economy and Tony said that he could get Ryan a job at AT&T, where Tony works, and said they were hiring for their Uverse product rollout. Ryan installs flooring and you can imagine the rest. I'd say everyone was in favor of it except for Ryan and we helped him to consider the big picture of things. At then end of the evening, it was just Rob, Ryan, and I, and I had my second round of man-talk. I took Ryan home at about 01:00 and stayed up until about 01:30.

I had many texts with Mary that evening, it was funny to the rest of them, I'd reach for my glasses, read Mary's messages, and reply. I had a lot of texts Saturday from a lot of people, including Susan and Kris, and also had a few calls with Sherry. It was very possible that the jeep at Jeff's house when I left for Rob's was Miss Becky's, it sure looked the same as the night before.

Up Sunday about 09:00, just couldn't sleep anymore, so headed outside and ended up spreading the gypsum, fertilizer, and grass seed, doing some watering, etc. Talked to several neighbors and read papers, listened to the KSHE Klassics show, about the usual scene. Jeff stopped by with his buddy, can't remember his name, Jeff has big Ford diesel pickup, red, and the three of us fetched the recliner from the garage. It is a all-leather La-Z-Boy, powder blue, was custom ordered, swivels, rocks, etc., but it just wouldn't fit into my color scheme, and I figured a swinging bachelor young guy like jeff would like it, so I gave it to him. I was actually glad to get back the space it was taking up in the garage. I then puttered until it was time to get cleaned up for Susan's arrival and had a long call with Herbie.

She was a bit late and was texting on her way and called me as she drew close. She has a big old Suburban, she calls it the bus and also says that she has a Jeep, so she rolled up, I gave her the tour, we loaded up in my car, and headed to St. Joseph's in Josephville for their Fall Festival. Susan didn't mind me driving with the windows down, didn’t fuss about her hair blowing, etc. I had offered to turn on the AC and she declined. I gave her a bit of a tour of the area, the whole corridor, from east to west along Highway P from St. Paul to Flint Hill is gorgeous and even stunning in places. I cal it God's country and it is. We went down Eisenbath road, where you literally can see a $500,000+ home on one side of the road and a cow farm on the other side. We got out to Josephville, found a great parking space, Susan was hungry, so we got two beers and sat down on benches in front of a 7-peson country band. Now this is not the country you hear on the radio, this is the real deal, and we had an amusing time there. I have an amazing repertoire of songs in my head and know boatloads of classic country songs. I must have been singing along a bit and I kid you not, the guitarist was watching us and asked us if we wanted to sing with the band. There was some snappy repartee and we declined. We talked and talked and talked. Susan is very easy to talk with and we have some common interests in politics and business. If fact she got all awkward at one point trying to ask me a question whose answer had some weight from her perspective, what party did I belong to? This led me to a discourse of my political history and why I have always been a Republican. I don't like everything that they do, but it's way too late in life to change affiliations (officially) and I'm hoping that the party can actually be helpful to me in my political career as I seek some higher offices. Everyone asks me what I want to do and Susan is very interested in my ambitions and the fact that I am an elected official, quizzed my on my background, etc., and I tell people, look at that guys who is governor now, average intelligence (debatable) and average ambition, heck he's not even running for a second term, think what someone like me could do in that office. Tim said Saturday that no unmarried governor has ever been elected in this state, but it's too early to speculate on my status at that juncture.

Anna and I have a standing agreement about the mayor's office, if she wants to run, I'll run her campaign and vice versa, she has the first right of refusal. Susan was very interested in where I want to go in the political arena. Her dad is very hooked up and that's of interest to me.

So we sat on the bench side by side, talking, bumping shoulders, elbows, touching arms, shoulders, etc. This was the loosest I've seen Susan, she was very amusing and definitely in her comfort zone. We did this for two hours and would say hi to different people, including someone that she knew and who is one of those people I'll be sure to run into again. We decided to grab dinner, she bought, and we went into the very cool hall as it had got rather warm and humid outside that day. We sat at a table and made introductions all of the way around and had a family-style sausage and turkey dinner. Father Larry was going around from table to table, he's the one that taught the RCIA class that I attended, I really like him, not your normal priest, early 40's, Van Dyke, handsome, outgoing, and iPhone equipped, the post-modern priest I suppose. He stopped by and I made introductions and then had an enjoyable exchange with Father Larry. I often wish he was our parish priest. We finished and headed back to my house, Susan had to be home at 19:00 for her kids and I sent her on her way with a kiss.

I then sat in the garage, smoked big cigars, drank bourbon, and listened to great music, and had many texts from the usual suspects and a very amusing call from Chris who told me an interesting story about his Saturday night. More on that later.

i got stood up last friday night :RollieEyes:

C3, you might thrill us with the circumstances of being stood up. I myself have many maxims for dating and one of them states:

Dating partners are unreliable by nature, always have at least one backup plan.

I'll amplify that the backup plan should consist of something you enjoy. I find myself sometimes with multiple invites to fall back upon and also have a place that I can go to (multiple places actually) where I can find company and conversation. You can always call up a friend and spend some time with him.

Another dating maxim is:

Keep your expectations low.

If you follow that and the first one, then you'll have no regrets as to being stood up.

The bigger question remains, and I ask this of everyone here, if stood up for a significant date, say a Saturday night, would you ever consider going out with that person again? Or would you guess at what creative excuse they'll come up with? My vote is that if they didn't show enough interest in me to extend the courtesy of at least calling to explain why they couldn't make it, then I'm not that interested in them either.

eh it was just a first date with somebody off an internet dating site so it wasn't so bad... and i did have a fallback plan

went out with a friend instead

i don't have womean biting at the chomp to take me out... just had a few dates since the divorce. had a good month in september date wise though so i guess it's getting easier

kinda hard getting back on the horse when i have my son 80% of the time but i like it that way. i chose my son over the ability to date... as opposed to his mom

but that's another story

all i have planned for the weekend so far is taking my son bowling... trying to convince a single mom whose daughter knows my son to come along