The Good Stuff

It’s been a while since I’ve given a State of My Heart address. You guys get to hear about all the kitchen messes, the mom-meet-mom anxiety and the minor friend frictions. And in the scuffle, what I’ve forgotten to mention is the good stuff. I mean that really good stuff.

Y’all, I am in love.

From the second I met him, there was something different about Mister Me. And not just his (since eradicated) affection for short-sleeved button-downs. Blech.

When I walked into our first date, I knew what I’d begun to suspect with his first email. Here he is. This is the one I want.

Admittedly, its been a long road in a few short months. After years of bad dates and flawed relationships and a lack of any real commitment, the thought that this could be it terrified me. So yeah, my nerves got to me. I manically oscillated between forcing myself to feel love and trying to fly the coup.

But it wasn’t until I just relaxed and stopped obsessing that I realized my original perception was correct. Here I have the most hilarious, thoughtful, kindhearted man I’ve ever met. And he loves me. …So I guess I owe him at least one glowing, gushy, mushy, look-how-wonderful-he-is post.

I love him because he is ridiculous and once spent an entire work day trying to hire a drinking clown to attend a friend’s bachelor party. I love him because he’s endlessly thoughtful and sent a bottle of wine to our table when my two best ladies and I had dinner in New Orleans last weekend. I love him because he is smart and controls his career and his life with a confident and steady hand. I love him because he is the reflection of everything that I’d like to see in myself. And I love him because he loves me in such an intense and unyielding way that it makes me suspect he’s managed to miss my many flaws. Joke’s on him.

So here I am. In love for the first time in many years. It’s strange to be back. But it’s a good strange.