Four Martinis Later....

... I feel pretty mellow. And sleepy.

Had dinner with my sister and her husband at their favorite martini bar. Apparently dinner is half-price saturday night, which weren't bad at all.

Talked a lot about dating with them, and before that with friends and my therapist. I was pretty freaked out the other night when I wrote that post - eHarmony is a scary, scary place. We WILL find your SOUL MATE in just SIX WEEKS if only you will TELL US EVERYTHING about YOU RIGHT NOW. Holy frack that was too much for someone like me who wants something, just not sure what. But I'm feeling much calmer about the subject now. Still confused and uncertain, but calm.

Some things I have learned and/or concluded:

While on a date, do not ask a woman what color underwear she has on.

Socialize more in real life - join some sort of club or organization where meeting women happens often.

Asking a woman out for a cup of her preferred caffeinated beverage is a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

Offering to fly to Chicago to go out for a cup of her preferred caffeinated beverage would probably be creepy and unadvisable.

Brett has in some sense been dating various guys for the past ten years. She would never call it that, and until now I haven't either. But looking back, there's always been some guy who needed her help, or would come over to help with some project like chainsawing trees or whatever, and after they'd talk and get some coffee or lemonade or whatever. Sounds a lot like what I'm contemplating now.

Dating 20-year-old college students when you're a preofessor and they're your students is wrong on so many levels. Dating 20-year-old college students when you're just a regular 40-year-old guy apparently may or may not be wrong, depending on whom you talk to and what kind of relationship you're talking about.

I'm having dinner with two different single women this week, both of whom are very dear to me. Excellent opportunities to get used to being in social situations with women while at the same time feeling perfectly safe just being myself. 

I are very sleepies. Nite nite!