Introduction

Well, she's now a serious factor in my life.

And I'm not talking about Kelly, who already is.

There's this girl, and I guess I should introduce her. We'll call her... Suzanne. I've actually met her in person, but just briefly. We had lunch and then both of us had other places to be. A pity.

Suzanne is 41, she's never been married, and is spectacularly smart and vibrant. Attractive in most of those ways that I find attractive (though her eyes are blue). She can write, and think. I really like her speaking voice. She's a pianist. She's childfree. She's a former long-distance runner. She's a former smoker. She loves rabbits and likes cats. She used to be in government, and is now a Presbyterian minister. She's originally from suburban Maryland and wants to move back here.

Yeah.

You know that this has to be true, because I am not smart enough to make it all up.

In the last week, she and I have had some of the most intense conversations I've had in decades. That sort of sparkling, stay-up-all-night sort of talking that you think can't survive beyond the freshman year of college, but sometimes, it does. It certainly does with Suzanne. She has a fearlessness I admire, a flirtiness I crave, and good sense coupled with romanticism that I've missed in recent years.

And she likes me. Really, really likes me. Me.

And I like her.

Right now, she lives barely two hours away, outside Philadelphia, as she does a sort of professional development internship sort of thing in conjunction with her seminary studies.

How can the world still produce women like this? Honest, open, unjaded, but still sensible and smart? She loves elegant clothes and a little good port once in a while, but also takes her theology seriously. She has great legs and doesn't mind showing them off (within reason -- she's a minister, after all). She wants to travel and visit places, not to say she's been there, but to actually go there. We were in IM until very late last night, and I sent her a link to a couple of places I want to return to, up in the north country of Ontario. Rather than whining about how she doesn't like camping, or saying it's too cold or too far, her first question was, "when can we go?"

I love that. I think my whole life can be summed up by that question. When can we go? And its related question, "where have you been all my life?" Inevitably, my brain starts speculating on what the last decade might have been like if I'd somehow met Suzanne back in 1994 instead of Nancy.

One whole hell of a lot different.

So, that's where I'll be this weekend. I'll be with Suzanne, and we'll see if this works in person for extended periods as well as it's worked on the phone, in email and in IM. I am 99% certain it will. She's attractive to me, I'm attractive to her, we connect terrifically well. We can't wait to touch each other.

And yes, this means that after nearly a year, there might be some actual sex to write about instead of merely the pursuit of romance, and its disappointments.

Oh... a followup on that woman I met out on a Friday night a few weeks ago, the one who seemed really interested but then completely blew me off when I tried calling her for a date after she'd given me her number? Her friend ran into me the other night and told me that the woman is "dealing with a raft of shit these days" and is actually taking some time off work, and thus is truly not interested in seeing anyone. Sorry to hear that, because, as I said, she was damn cute, but if her life is in turmoil, that's not a great place for me to be. No harm, no foul, and per her friend's advice, I am not taking anything personally. I wish the lady well.

I'm a nice guy sometimes.