it's raining men

i think i might need an umbrella.

i went on my first 'eharmony' date on saturday afternoon. not particularly awkward, but nothing remarkable. i feel like he and i have nothing more to say to each other after almost two hours of the standard interview questions.

there is another eharmony match with whom i have been happily exchanging emails for a few weeks now, and i would actually like very much to meet him when he moves back to chicago this summer. when he finishes his PhD dissertation. in philosophy. from Yale.

besides Yale, there are not really any other eharmony boys who have caught my attention. i'm eager for my 3 month subscription to be over. it's stressful. too much rejection/rejecting, too much flirting badly with multiple boys at the same time. not for me.

BUT

out of the woodwork.

1. hoooney and hooooney husband (ok, mostly hoooooney husband) want to fix me up with a friend of his. we facebooked him last night so i could see his pictures and profile, and i admit i am intrigued. hooooney husband says that he reminds him of what he imagines my dad was like, which i happen to think is a fabulous compliment and also too intriguing to discount. if i meet this guy, and he does remind me of my dad, that would be very cool. dad or brother. both would be good.

2. am meeting OM tonight for dinner. click HERE for the scoop on OM.... he called me out of the blue on thursday night to see how i was doing. and also to inform me that he and his longtime perfect woman of his dreams had split in a messy breakup, and that he wants to go on the Portugal build with me, and was i planning to do any travelling later, because he would be happy to be my travelling companion. umm.... ok.... wha?? maybe because he sounded so befuddled and grief-stricken about the girl. and maybe because he admitted that he has started going to counseling. and maybe because i am a masochist, i agreed to have dinner with him tonight. i have no intention whatsoever of starting anything with him. rebound or no, i'm not interested. but i am curious.

3. a certain long-past boy keeps popping up lately. in friends' facbook photos (he is not on facebook, i have definitely looked periodically to check), in a strange spammy email, in funny and unexpected notes from mom's friends. and so i got up the nerve to email him. just a breezy "hey what's up, are you still in rockford, do you ever come to the city, i would love to meet your son" sort of email... and his reply. well. joy and rapture that he replied, first of all. but i started to hear wedding bells and see images of a frothy white gown when his reply included the line "i'm actually hoping to interview for a job in downtown chicago next week" and the promise to let me know when he came in, and a request for me to do the same for rockford. and a note about how he would love for me to meet his 5 year old. and he signed it LOVE.

so do you think i should get married in the spring or the fall? outdoor reception in the city? ultra elegant or earthy chic? could it be my perfect combo of having a kiddo IN my life without actually having to GIVE BIRTH? plus the magical intoxication of the idea that he knew and loved both my parents and that they both knew and loved him. i'm only half kidding about daydreaming about marrying him. the first time i ever saw him, i was 14 years old. i was sitting on a metal folding chair in a stuffy MP room of the church lodge, sorting through piles of rubbish for the youth group's ill-conceived and hardly lucrative rummage sale. and i took one look at him and decided i would marry him.

so, you know, it would make a great story. i have no idea if he is even single. i know he isn't married, and that he has a congenial but not close relationship with the kiddo's mom. but that's enough for me.

anyway. if history is any indication, all of these will come to a lot of nothing. nothing. but oh how lovely it is to have thoughts of boys to think, and things to wonder, and hope.

i'll keep ya posted.