36 today, this may just be MY year !

[tpaschal]

Cinders,

Hello! I haven't posted to you in a while, but I do still follow your sitch.

I recently had a similar experience---met a nice guy while I was out with friends, he started calling and texting right away, and though the attention was extremely flattering, I knew I wasn't really attracted to him. Plus, while I'm trying to "move forward" in life, I know I'm not quite ready to begin dating.

I did what you did---didn't initiate any calling or texting but did respond to his texts. I did go to lunch with him one time, just to kind of test my own feelings, and it confirmed for me that I'm not ready to date. After that, I just slowly stopped responding to his texts. If he called and left a voice mail, and then texted to follow up, I would just text back and say, "sorry no time to respond, sooo busy with kids." After a few times of this, I just quit responding to his texts and calls altogether.

He got the hint pretty quickly, and I didn't have to have an awkward conversation about not being ready, etc., etc.

Don't know if you'll want to go this route, but as you didn't even go out on a lunch date with him, I think you could probably handle it this way.

Just my 2 cents! And I am glad that it gave you a confidence boost!