Adventures in GALing

[AntoniaB]

Well, a bit of an update on something that I mentioned in early December...I had gone to this art gallery for a friend who had a show and met this guy who was really interesting and I just felt like I clicked with him. I was reading through some of my old posts where I mention him and it's so ironic what has ended up happening.

Basically several weeks ago I made a spur of the moment decision to buy his last book and read it, and I emailed him on the alt to tell him I really liked it. So then he told me he had just started a new job that was in my area (he lives an hour away) and said maybe we could meet for drinks sometime. So I said sure, and 3 weeks later, we met for drinks, and drinks turned into 4 hours of talking and dinner, and then he got home and emailed me to apologize that he'd had to leave early as he wanted to talk a lot more, but he did work the next day (and so did I) and maybe we could get together some day to have some wine...so I just did what I would do with any woman I'd met who seemed like good friendship material, I asked if he'd be into me making dinner some night and he said that would be terrific, and now we're just waiting on his schedule to see what night would work.

At this point I think we're becoming fast friends, which is really nice...and if that's all that ever transpires, then I'm cool with that. I don't have any really close single male friends in my area to go out with or enjoy things with, and I'd like that sort of relationship.

It is difficult not to get sort of caught up in things and wish for more, mainly because when I look back at my posts awhile ago where I talk about the type of relationship I'd want if I had one at this stage in my life, the fact is that without my prompting or asking he told me that he wants a particular type of relationship and it's exactly what I want. The compatibility between us on the "important" things is really very high. And I feel like I have known him a very long time and I've never got that sort of vibe off anyone I've ever met.

It turns out that at the same time I was going through separation and divorce, so was he...and his ex now lives in a neighboring state and they "tried the friend thing and it didn't work" so now they are fairly disconnected. And he has stopped dating because he said it seems like everyone he meets wants him to "stop doing all the things he is interested in and cut back on his hobbies and projects and just spend every waking minute with the other person", and he said it's so important to him that he remain the individual he became after his marriage ended.

You can see why this is all very attractive :-)

So I don't know if this will head anywhere romantic, or if it will be a friendship only, but the important thing I'm learning is that there clearly are decent guys out there who are mature and treat women with respect and care, who are not necessarily looking to just have one night stands and not looking for an instant marriage, but who want to create friendships and take things slowly, and it has been really good for me to learn this.