Sixteen Years

Dating Again

Now that I’ve gotten some of what’s been weighing me down off my chest, I feel like I can talk about what’s going on in my life now, what I’m up to, and what I will be up to in the near future. I’m dating again, as some of you know. For the sake of my own well-being I guess I should further clarify that statement, as “dating” implies more than one person. Rather I should say I’m dating a woman on a full-time and exclusive basis. That sounds like business merger… sigh Anyway…

  I started talking to a wonderful lady from my past a few months ago, late January. In February we had our first date. Actually that’s not really true. In February we had our first date again. You see, 16 years ago a stuttering and nervous boy screwed up the courage after about a week of practicing in the mirror and asked this tall leggy blonde if she’d go out with him. To my surprise the pretty lady said yes. I had the pleasure to date this girl in high-school; a wonderful academician and a fairly accomplished volleyball player, by the name of Amy Jean Poole. I wrote about her sometime last year on my blog.

We haven’t spoken in 16 years though I’ve kept an occasional eye on her progress over the years, unbeknownst to her. I came across some old memories in a tackle-box I had kept from my childhood a few months back and summarily wrote that blog post later that evening when I got home, never actually expecting to hear from her again.

The short version of what happened afterwards; a friend of her mother’s called her mother and said “I was searching online for Amy and look what I found!” Amy’s mother, Sylvia, told Amy about it who in turn read it for herself and in short order called me on the phone.

Imagine my surprise when after 16 years I could recognize the voice like it was yesterday. I knew without a doubt exactly who it was when she called. So, over the course of a few phone calls we caught up and learned what the other had been up to all these years in between, and kept in touch fairly often.

After I separated and she too had become separated she called me again one day. A few weeks later we got together to have our first date… again. We’d spoken a lot of times but didn’t really know what else to expect from that point.  So many things are new to both of us and yet so many things are the same as all those years ago. We’ve been seeing each other since Valentine’s day, which coincidentally was our original anniversary back in 1992. Crazy huh? Yeah, a little.

Being two-hundred miles apart from each other makes dating a little difficult from time to time but we muddle through it ok. She has a very successful large-animal veterinary practice in Albemarle and I have my office and business here so we see each other when we can. I’ve always enjoyed animals, spending time with them, working with them, and so on so being able to be involved in this part of her life is therapeutic for me. It’s relaxing to watch her work her magic on these animals, to nurse them back to health, and to see the precision with which she treats and operates on them.

Her work schedule is like mine, so getting used to my odd hours isn’t a strain on her. She’s often up working before me and sometimes working long after I’ve called it a day and come home to relax. As stressful as owning your own business can be, it’s also nice to have someone to talk to who understands the stresses and realities of running a business. It makes for a nice sounding board, though she’s quick to get the glazed-eye look which I’ve come to realize is her way of saying “Look honey, you’ve put me into a coma of boredom” when I start to get technical.

Speaking of technical? Not even close. She uses email, but doesn’t IM, has never used Facebook or Twitter, and makes it quite clear she has no desire to do so. “You play with the computer things hon. I’ll fix the broken animals. ok?” That’s what I deal with on a regular basis.

 

The weekend

I’m heading out of town to see her again this weekend and have somehow wrestled Joe into helping me. (Thanks Joe!) She closed on the new house on Wednesday and now I’ve got a whole house to move, three-quarters of an acre of fence to lay, a back deck to build, and a litany of other chores that might have me begging to go back to work by Monday. Of course I’m not going to accomplish them all this weekend, but the coming weeks will see more and more accomplished as I get more tools carried down there to get the job done.  I’m basically going down this weekend to survey the land and figure out what materials it’s going to take over the upcoming months. I love working with my hands and building anything is the most satisfied I can feel. I often wonder if I should have stayed in carpentry like my father and grandfather as it seems nothing else quite makes me feel the way I do when I can work with my hands and the feel of wood ready to be crafted into something beautiful.

Well, it’s 1 AM now and the clothes in the dryer are ready to be replaced with the load from the washer, so I must bid you adieu for now. Until next time. I’ll write more then…