New Year, new dude.

I discovered my new dating bible (see here ) about 3/4 of the way through 2011, but it was not until almost 2012 that I actually practiced what it preached.

Enter, The Aficionado.

The Aficionado is a big fan of wine, hence the nickname.  In online dating profile, he's probably the usual type I go after: attractive, tall, older, rich.  But in person he was much different and while this would usually cause me to write him off after date 2, I decided to stick around.

Our first date was rather unremarkable, but perfectly pleasant.  It was for lunch, which I preferred because my schedule is hard enough to navigate as it is.  It was very typical first date conversation which I find somewhat tiresome and lackluster.  We went our separate ways and I figured I'd never hear from him again.

So I was somewhat shocked to get a text from him the next day saying what a nice time he had and he would call me later.  Huh.  OK sure.  True to his word he called, we spoke, and he asked me out for the following weekend.  Manners make my heart grow fonder.

We had a lovely second date and he was a gentleman in every sense of the word.  I ended up seeing him 4 times in the following seven days and spent the night with him twice.

I know what you're thinking: dance off, pants off.

But NO!  I somehow have grown an ounce of self control and wisdom, and here I am 2 months later and STILL haven't slept with him.  If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then suddenly I'm proving to be more sane than Britney Spears pre-head shaving meltdown.

Things have been moving at a nice slow clip since.  He is not the funniest or most charismatic guy I've ever met; not the most entertaining or opinionated, but the BIG things that matter: respectful, consistent, and nice, he is.  While normally this lack of a "oh my god I like him so much I think I'm going to die if I don't see him this weekend," would cause me to create a phantom business trip so that I didn't have to see him again, this time I've stuck it out and so far so good.

Much like AA, I'm taking it one day at a time.

If we take marriage at it's lowest, we find that it's friendship recognized by the police,
LL