I can’t believe that the summer has ended. Looking back, I am amazed as to how much happened. Over the space of less than two months, so much has happened to me that it is difficult to wrap my head around it sometimes. Vexing as it may be, I will try to make a quick sum up of the highlights of Summer 09. Everybody ready?
Yesterday I received an interesting phone call from Justin pertaining to the state of my ex. Obviously I will not go into too many details about the subject discussed, but if you are anxious to know feel free to ask. Under other circumstances I would have no troubles discussing it; I just would not rather go into too much detail in such a public forum. Having said that, I will say that what was revealed to me came as no great shock (I had that as a suspicion for quite a while), but all in all it left me saddened for Jen’s state and that of her family. Everyone must choose their own path, but I wish some would not have to learn things the hard way. At the end of the day, she has made her bed and must lay down in it, reaping what has been sown. Truthfully, I am thankful to finally put aside any doubts I had about myself in that marriage and move forward. Her choices are her own, and I will leave it at that. Every day I wanted to know the real reason why she left, and now that I know, I feel it is the last piece of the puzzle that was needed to allow me to move on. Relief feels so very good right now.
You may be wondering what else is included in my highlights. OK, I’ll give a brief bit of info. Understandably many of my thoughts have turned towards where to go with my desire to start a family of my own and that includes getting back into the dating scene. Actually, it has been my predominating thought throughout most of the last year or so. Right around the beginning of July, I started attending Single Adult activities. Every weekend there seemed to be something to do, and I liked having a bit of a social life again. Most of the people I met were very nice, but I was a bit disappointed that there were not many single girls my age. Yes, in case you hadn’t guessed, I was looking. During this time of fun mixed with frustration, a friend of mine suggested setting up a profile on a couple of LDS social networking sites. Reality dictated to me that if the girls weren’t coming to me, I should start being creative in seeking them out. Eerie as it was at first (I have never been a fan of romance on the internet, regardless of how many times it has worked) I proceeded to start my cyberspace adventure. After browsing two such sites (LDSSingles and LDSMingle), I decided there was enough of a local pool to investigate that would warrant a financial investment to fully utilize this new resource I had discovered. Much angst was felt while I received emails and chat invites from potential lady friends as I waited (impatiently, of course) for my money orders to go through. Credit cards, how I miss you! Of course, it went through just fine, and I discovered that there were about five different girls that had peaked my interest enough to start fishing as it were. Much to my surprise I came across one particular young lady who was a 100% match with me (at least, that is what the compatibility profile matcher said). Even more to my surprise was the fact that she seemed very interested in me as well. The problem was that we were both at the end of our respective divorces and were waiting for the paper work to get finished and finalized before we could really start working on a real relationship. Regardless of that, we have clicked ever since. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on perspective) we decided to follow some sound advice and put everything on hold until both of our divorces are finalized. Eventually it will happen, and we would rather act appropriately than rush things and ruin what is likely to be something wonderful.
For now, that is where I will leave the status of my love life: temporarily on hiatus. Over time it will change, and then I can tell the whole world about this lovely and wonderful lady I have found and how happy we make each other. Rest assured we are trying to do this the right way. Ever learning patience is my fate, so I will endeavor to help you all learn it by not saying anything more. Very mean of me, I know, but that is how it needs to be. Each day I thank God for leading me to her. Rightfully I will wait and hold of on my feelings until it is the proper time.
Yet despite this, I do have some other things to report. Out of all that I experienced, I thought my Top 10 list would be great for summing up. Understandably there are some things I cannot include as my top 10, so I will keep the love story stuff out for another day. Ready? Summer 09’s top 10 moments for me are:
10. Cleaning up panda poo at the Calgary Zoo. I always had a childhood dream of being a zoo keeper, and thanks to the volunteer program I was able to live out that dream helping out my new friend Ingrid with the Eurasian animals.
9. 50 levels on City of Heroes. OK, I spent a fair bit of time in front of the computer, but with a double XP weekend in there I was able to earn a total of 50 levels for a variety of my characters.
8. America’s Got Talent Season 4! By far my favorite reality competition show and the acts are getting better and better as we go.
7. House sitting for Tara while they were at Chicago. No, don’t get me wrong, I missed them terribly, but it was kind of nice to be on my own again, bachelor-style again. I had fun, but yes, it was very nice to have them come home again. The house is just too quiet without them.
6. Discovering a new dog-walking trail. A good friend of mine introduced me to the Bow River trail not too far from where I live, and I’ve taken Annie out there. It is so nice and peaceful there. I really need to get her there more often.
5. Hiking in the Kananaskis. I do not remember the hike I went on, but I can tell you it was steep. I took Annie with me, and we made it up and down without too much trouble. OK, in all honesty we are both out of shape, but it was still a fun time to be had with my new SA friends.
4. Movie sequels and reboots! I saw Transformers 2, Harry Potter 6, GI Joe, and Wolverine, as well as a second showing of Star Trek. While some were better than others, all were enjoyable. Of course, I am looking forward to having a regular date to go to movies soon, but that’s getting ahead of me.
3. Stampede! I really enjoyed myself at the Stampede, even to the point where I went twice, once with Amy and Connor, once with some of the SA people. I had a lot of fun, spent way too much money, and enjoyed every minute of it.
2. My Edmonton vacation. I was able to go to my step-brother’s wedding, reconnect with him and his sister, see TJ and Shelley, meet Kevin’s new GF (plus gave him heck for not keeping in touch more), saw Dad and Violet again, go to the Fringe with Matt (next year we are bringing our respective significant others, at least, that’s what Matt’s wife Sharon said), cooked pancakes for Bruce and Sean at CISN, and went to the Valley Zoo where I reconnected with an old high school friend and took some great videos! I also ran into several friends at the Bonnie Doon Stake Centre on Sunday and attended the temple twice. One of the best times of my life.
1. Rafting down the Bow River in a leaky raft. This had more to do with the company, but the rafting part was fun as well. Our raft sprung a leak, but the 5 of us decided to just keep going. We were able to stay afloat with four of us rafting and one of us bailing.
