Confession and Coincidences

I have a confession. I am addicted to Craig's List. I love going on there to check out furniture (for my new house) and pets (to dream about my future dog). Mostly though, I go on to check the personals. I love them. First of all, they're super affirming. At least as a woman, no matter who you are and what you want someone is looking for you. You can be 400 lbs and 82 years old... someone wants a "mature BBW." If you are attracted to blacks, whites, purples, whatever ... they want you too. Every fetish, every type is represented there. It's really fun in a sociological kind of way. Anyway, to continue with the confession, every once in a while i'll put an ad up myself. I'll date some of the guys, but generally I just enjoy reading the responses. So many good and interesting dudes out there (at least according to them). Again, it's super affirming. There are so many guys that respond. It's craziness!

Anyway, I hadn't done that in a few months and the other night I came home from a dinner and had some excess energy. I put an ad up -- "sbf seeking ltr." One of the first people to respond was R. It was really strange in a not so surprising way to see his face staring out at me from his picture. Though, not surprised I was too freaked out and embarassed to actually respond.

R. and I have a very strange relationship. We just keep bumping into each other in the most random ways. We met in his classroom (he teaches in a high school). I was teaching a special class there. About a month later we met again in an LA Tri Club meeting. We saw each other a couple more times in those meetings. Then in June I went to Las Vegas for my sister-in-law's bachelorette part. We were a bunch of girls and had rented a Limo Bus (the Limo Bus rocked my world, but more about that at some other time). We stopped at a grocery store to get some liquor for the Limo Bus. I don't know if you've ever been to Vegas, but if you do you NEVER go to a grocery store. Well, I'm walking through the aisles searching for booze and who do I bump into? R! We chat and remark about how strange our meetings are. A few months later I went on a business trip. At LAX waiting for my bags who do I bump into? You guessed it! R. has just come back from a trip.

At this point I'm getting really strange but, I don't see R. for quite a while. I move to Buenos Aires for a year. I return back to the States and am back for about a month. I go grocery shopping with my friend Corinne. We're walking through the aisles and who do I see? That's right. At this point, I'm not even surprised to see R. When we part, we say "I guess I'll be bumping into you soon." I now expect to run into him at random occasions.

Well, it was about another year before I bumped into R. again. I decided to train for another triathlon and joined the LA Tri Club. I went to my first Tri Club social. Who's there? R. Funny thing... he hasn't been to a meeting since 2001 (about the time I was last there... 4 years earlier). Coincidence that he comes back the same time I do? He said that he half expected to see me.

So, it was a little strange though not that surprising considering our history when I get an e-mail with R.'s picture in response to my ad. Perhaps I should write back and try to go on a date with him. I'm not really that attracted to him, but the Universe is doing everything it can to have us meet up. If it's meant to be, I'll see him again. I've got enough men in my life right now.

Speaking of other men, I went out with M., the massage therapist today. It was a great date. He called me a goddess. I already know I'm going to like him. Tomorrow I see the PhD student. I brough him back a bottle of Argentine wine and promised him that we'd share it. I haven't seen him since we had that talk about him and the other woman. We've talked on the phone a lot though. I asked him about her once, but the subject has been more like the big elephant in the room. We can't help but notice it, but we pretend it's not there.