That’s the only way I can think of to describe it. Something is definitely wrong, that’s for sure. It’s not so much my body clock is off, like I have jet lag or something similar to that but more my mental clock is just totally out of whack. It’s like I’ve lost my mind.

It’s as if two minutes takes half an hour. If you’ve ever had a battery operated clock, perhaps you can relate to what I’m talkin’ about. As the batteries begin to run out of juice, you’ll notice how every few days you seem to have to reset the time as you lose a few minutes each day.

Then finally, you’ll notice the second hand, although doing it’s damndest to get up the hill just can’t seem to make it past the nine before it falls back down below the eight. Struggling again, it attempts to get over the hump but no go. Sure enough, new battery time.

I only wish it was that easy for me. I know my clock is off but it’s not as cut and dry as a battery replacement. I miss a very special someone and it’s totally thrown my clock all outta whack. That’s why I say I must be on football time because it’s as if two minutes takes a friggin’ half an hour to tick by.

Tick……tick……tick……kinda like Chinese Water Torture, bein’ strapped down to a bed of nails while one drip at a time, freezin’ cold water is drippin’ down on my head and I can’t seem to move. Nowhere to hide, even if I could move.

I’m sure you know what I mean. A football game is supposedly an hour worth of play time but between all of the BS, the commercials, replays and officializing the damn game takes three hours or more before it’s over. And since I’m not a huge football fan, sometimes the three hours can feel like six.

This might be ok if you are a Fan or if you like to spend your afternoon gettin’ hammered and yellin’ at the TV but again, just not there for me. That’s probably one reason why I’m not real big on this new schedule I find myself living with. When two minutes takes a half an hour, you can only imagine how long an entire twenty four hour day takes.

Not to mention the fact that my mind is so preoccupied with the object of my desire that what there was of my so called sleep pattern has pretty much been tossed right out the window. When I actually do get to sleep, I find that I can barely squeeze in a few hours and the BAM, wide awake!

Layin’ there, tossin’ and turnin’, concentrating my hardest on falling back asleep but the more I try not to think about her the more I find myself thinkin’ about her. It’s like when someone says to you, whatever you do, DON’T think about such and such and sure enough, no matter how hard you try, you can’t think about anything but exactly what they told you not to think about.

I believe it’s referred to as The Law of Reverse Psychiatry or something close to that anyway. I know it must have some kinda technical term since it’s such a common phenomenon and on of the most studied aspects of the human condition within the online PHD set.

It’s almost like the opposite of A.D.H.D., whereas with A.D.H.D. it’s difficult to stay focused on any one thing for any amount of time. With my ailment, I find it extremely difficult to focus on anything BUT one thing. And one thing only.

I don’t seem to be able to repair my clock, no matter how much I try. And what’s even crazier, I’m not sure I even want to. Well, I wouldn’t mind gettin’ a bit more sleep but as far as totally clearin’ my head altogether, it’s just not possible. No way.

I have WAY TOO MANY hopes and dreams to ever forget about her, even if I did want to. Nope, the impact that she’s had on me is even more than I can begin to describe, let alone figure out how to put a stop to it.

Kinda like Niagara Falls, my feelings just continue to flow, gushing forth with an enormous force. A force so strong that I have a hard time believin’ anything could stop this uncontrollable current of overwhelmingness.

If I had ever been in this position before, perhaps I might have some type of remedy for what ails me but I can honestly say that I’ve never been in this or anything even close to this situation prior to this so I have no idea how to proceed.

I guess all I can do is continue to ride it out, in hopes that at some point in the near future, things will get back on track and my clock will return to keeping normal time. I know there’s only one way for that to happen and to be honest, I think about that very thing happening 24/7. I just can’t help it, she’s always on my mind.

Until I hear a Ref yell “Time Out”, I guess I’ll continue to be on Football Time!

If you can relate to having something so powerful on your mind that you’re not able to turn it off, I’d enjoy hearing about it and if you liked this Post, I’d appreciate it if you’d share it with your friends. Thank you.

This is a question that I’ve been asking myself from about as far back as I can remember. Well, at least somewhere back around the time I first became interested in girls. Come to think of it, I’ve been interested in girls from as far back as I can remember. Sheesh, that IS a long time.

Hard to believe I’ve been struggling with this question for that long. How will I know when it’s right? How will I ever be able to tell when I’ve met THE ONE? This just has to be one of the most often asked questions, regardless of gender.

I’ll bet even the Cavemen were asking this very question as well. I kinda wonder if they just knew it by the feeling of their hair as they drug them into their caves. I’m not thinkin’ communication was a huge part of a relationship back then.

I can remember my Dad telling me, “Oh, you’ll know when it’s right.” What kind of a lame ass answer is that? That seems to be the default answer that every parent read in “Raising Your Children for DUMMIES.” Haven’t we all heard that standard answer about a million times?

Sure, as kids we fell for it about the first three or four hundred times but after that, we began to question the logic behind such a theory. At that point, we don’t even know how to drive a car yet, how in the hell are we supposed to know if she’s THE ONE? Our one and only, our destiny, our soulmate?

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s a feeling you’ll get inside. You’ll know when it’s right.” Huh? Inside where? Based on that theory, I’ve met the one on more than one occasion. And let me tell you, it’s pretty damn obvious at this point that they weren’t the one. At least not the one I dream about anyway.

And besides, what exactly is this feeling that I’m supposed to be getting? Is it a peaceful, serene, quiet inside type of thing or is it a full on frustrating, raging sexual tension kinda thing? It’s comical how those that say that I’ll know it when I feel it sure as hell are lousy at describing the feeling themselves.

If they found it so easily, and knew they had found it then it seems to me that they should surely be able to describe it just as easily. But all too often that doesn’t seem to be the case. Nope, not at all. In fact, completely the opposite.

Most of those that you ask just seem to begin staring at the floor, shuffling their feet in hopes that it’s all a bad dream and the question will somehow just disappear, back to whence it came. But no such luck. This is a question that demands an answer. An answer to an as yet unsolved mystery.

So as the questionee begins to ponder all of the possible answers they could give in an effort to just get it over with and answer the question at hand, their mind goes into hyper~drive and the smoke starts pouring out of their ears.

Not only do they not have a legitimate answer, now they find themselves swimming in a sea of self doubt, wondering as to whether or not they themselves ended up with their one and only. After all the questions they asked themselves before they ever made their connection, did they make the right choice?

No doubt they were so sure at the time, not a question in their mind but for some strange reason things are no longer so cut ‘n dry for them. So they start mumbling some kinda mumbo jumbo, praying that their phone will magically ring, allowing them to get out of answering the original question.

Noticing the extreme anguish on their face, it’s probably best to just withdraw the question at this point. No need to cause a divorce over a stupid question, right? Well, it’s not that it’s a totally stupid question, just one that isn’t all that easily answered. No matter how easy you might think it is.

Perhaps that’s because it’s more of a feeling rather than a thought, a process of elimination. Assessing all of your feelings, both positive and negative as they pertain to the person you desire to be with. Then coming to a conclusion of sorts, which would make complete sense as I truly believe that the decision to spend the rest of your life with someone is a decision that will have to be made by you, not an outsider so to speak. But for some reason that sounds entirely too logical.

While their input and advice can be a welcome thing in this situation, ultimately it’s you that is going to have to decide what’s right for you. Oh, and I guess the person that you’re planning on spending the rest of eternity with should have a bit of a say in this decision as well. I mean, after all it’s only fair.

After all, this is a HUGE decision. For both of you. This pretty much spells the end of the road as it were, the end of the dating road anyway. Which as we all know can be a huge blessing. Whether we’d like to admit it or not, DATING SUCKS!

At least for most people it does. Yes, there are some serial daters out there that have made dating their lifes mission, seemingly never wanting it to end. Kinda like those kids that stay in college for 14 years and never graduate. The real world can be a scary thing, same as a real relationship. So much better to hide in the Land Of No Commitment, the home of zero expectations.

I would have to believe that almost everyone would rather be in a monogamous, committed relationship but find it so much easier to just skate through life, single and scammin’.

Like a rock skipping across a pond. Never really landing anywhere stable, just droppin’ by only long enough to get some traction for another leap towards who knows where, movin’ on to something seemingly bigger and better.

But as we all know, eventually that rock sinks into the muddy, murky depths below, never to be heard from again. And so it is with the dating world. All those years of going from pit stop to pit stop will surely leave you stuck in the pits. Doesn’t sound very appealing to me, that’s for sure.

But the other side to that dreadful race to Nowhereville is the other form of hell, known as settling. Yep, in essence giving up and doing whatever it takes, basically sacrificing your soul to avoid being alone. Surely that’s not the answer. Is it? Please oh please tell me it isn’t.

Damn, I sure hope not because to me, that’s just as miserable, if not more so than being alone. I’m sure we’ve all known plenty of people that although they aren’t physically alone, they are some of the loneliest people on earth. Married, kids, the whole nine yards, yet they are so unhappy and only wish they were single again.

How terrible would that be to know that you’re in a relationship with someone that you aren’t attracted to, have nothing in common with and have zero connection to. Besides a Marriage License of course. Yet, in essence you’re stuck with that person forever. I’ll take being single and alone over that prison any day of the week.

I truly don’t believe that life was meant to be spent alone. Sure, it might appear to be an easier way to live. In theory you can avoid all of the heartache, heart break and disappointment that some relationships tend to entail. But you’ll also miss out on all of the joy, happiness and bliss that comes from finding the one. From spending your life with your true love.

Although I have yet to meet my one and only, I know it’s only a matter of time before I do. And I also know that it will be worth all of the heartache I’ve had to endure along the way. It’s like they say, without the bad, how would we know when things are good? And I have no doubt that’s true.

Of course it totally sucks (ok, MAJORLY totally sucks!) when you’re going through all of those bad times and it’s even worse when some well meaning individual tells you that it just wasn’t meant to be, which at that point is pretty much the last thing you want to hear.

Eventually though, once you scrape up what’s left of your heart off the hot asphalt with a worn out spatula (how’s that for a visual?) and begin to trudge the long and lonely road ahead once again, you come to realize that it never would have worked for the long haul and to continue on would have just been futile.

And for me, it has to be able to stand the test of time. I want a long term, monogamous, commited relationship and I refuse to bring my heart out of hiding for anything less than that. Why risk all that heartbreak on a connection that doesn’t show all the signs of having that possibility? No thank you, not interested.

Problem is, in your mind you were thinking that maybe she could be the one but once you begin to be honest, with yourself and who you truly are on the inside, you have to admit that although you knew it wasn’t totally there for you, perhaps the compromises that you were willing to make just wouldn’t have been worth it in the long run.

I have no doubt that true love does exist and it will require some sacrifices and to some extent you also have to make compromises as well. But that isn’t to say that you must completely compromise who you are, on the inside, for another person.

Once you begin to change who you are as a person and what you truly want in a relationship for the sake of not being alone, that is a sure guarantee that you will never be happy in the end.

With over six billion people on the planet, you’d have to think that there’s someone, a soulmate, a one and only, out there for everyone. The problem is, how on earth do you find your soulmate? Chances are they’re not gonna pull up ridin’ on the Soulmate Train. And if and when you are lucky enough to find your one and only, how will you know for sure that this person is THE ONE? Oh, you’ll just know…..

Have you found yourself wondering when and IF you’ll ever find THE ONE and how you’ll know when you do? I’d appreciate hearing your feelings about your quest for your soulmate and if you enjoyed this Post, I’d appreciate it if you’d share it with your friends. Thank you

Happiness. That oh so elusive thing that we all search for. Endlessly scowering the earth for that fix, a way of transforming our lives into our dreams, come true. It can take months, weeks, years, an entire lifetime and still there are no guarantees we’ll ever find it.

Happiness can and does mean something entirely different for each and every one of us. Luckily there are numerous opportunities for us to fulfill our dreams, to find our true happiness.

For some of us it’s things. A collection of stuff would make us the happiest people on earth. Perhaps it’s a beautiful new Home, a Car, a Boat, a Motorhome, all those endless things that we are conditioned to think, from an early age, that are the keys to happiness.

We’ve all heard the saying, “He who dies with the most toys, WINS!” Makes sense doesn’t it? Well, it does to me anyway. Not that I’m ever gonna have the most toys (or ANY toys for that matter) but the basic premise seems to be legit. Maybe toys ARE the key to happiness? Hmmm…….

Others might believe that a loving family could hold the key to happiness. A spouse that truly loves them, lots of kids to share their life with, perhaps even Grandkids to continue on the chain of happiness. Maybe they grew up in a large family and to them, a large group of loved ones around them constantly would truly be everything to them.

Some might think that having the perfect job or career could hold the key for them. Not only because it could bring in large amounts of money but the title could afford them the prestige that would truly bring them happiness. To live up to, maybe even exceed their own potential would be their greatest reward.

And oh yes, we can’t forget to add money to the list of keys to happiness. Matter of fact, perhaps I should have put this at the top of the list. There’s a pretty good chance that this would be the number one most requested. I’d have to believe that most everyone thinks that money would be the answer to all of their problems.

After all, aren’t the richest people in the world the happiest of anyone? I don’t know any of them personally but I’d have to wonder if they truly are. With all of the responsibility, not to mention the high stress level that also goes with the territory, I have to question just how truly happy they really are….inside.

I’m just like everyone else, on a quest for happiness. Nothin’ wrong with that. For me though, while I used to think that money was what I wanted most in life, MY key to happiness but over the last three or four years I’ve come to realize that it’s something entirely different that’s going to truly make me happy. Inside. And after all, isn’t inside where it counts the most?

Unfortunately I’ve come to learn that my key is something so much more difficult to obtain than money. Heck, money is easy when you think about it. Find someone that’s making alot of money (hopefully doing something you’d enjoy doing, something you’re passionate about) and model yourself after them. Do what they do and don’t stop until you’re wealthy….or wealthier. Pretty simple, huh?

No, my key is so much more elusive than that. Even more difficult than capping a gushing oil well a mile underwater. Heck, I only wish it was that easy. That only took a couple months, my search could take an entire life time. And still no guarantee I’ll find it after all that. I’ve come to learn that the key for me is true love.

Yeah, I can hear you already, sayin’ good luck with THAT one! See what I mean about gettin’ rich or fixin’ an oil leak? Those things pale in comparison to finding true, undying, commited, do whatever it takes to make it work, love. Ok, that’s enough. Please stop laughing at me.

But if there’s one thing about me, it’s the fact that I’m too stupid to know when to give up and so I’ll continue on my journey because I know inside that the minute I stop trying, as soon as I quit moving forward, that’s when the woman of my dreams will surely never be found. For all I know, she could be just around the next corner, searching for ME and if I stop trying, we’ll never meet. And that would truly be a shame.

While my pursuit of happiness might seem impossible to achieve, not to mention ridiculous to some, others might be able to relate on some level and it’s quite possible this could also be their reason for continuing on each and every day. Their motivation to continue their own pursuit of happiness.

Ahhhhh, yes, the “Pursuit of Happyness”. One of the best movies of all time. If you haven’t seen it, you should. I won’t give it away here but let’s just say that if you want (or need) a lesson on the importance of perseverance, what drive and motivation, in the face of impending demise, are all about, then you should watch this movie. I guarantee you will come away with a new perspective on just how hard YOU actually work to achieve your goals. Might be the wake up call you need.

Goals. Aren’t they basically the driving factor for all of us? The force that guides us to all that we want to achieve in life? We all tend to set them, yet some of us stay focused on them more than others. Some have a way of keeping a laser type of intensity on them, a burning desire, while others will set one after another and never reach any of them.

And how do we retain our focus, keep our concentration directed towards where it should be in order to meet these goals? That seems to be different for everyone. Just as different as the keys to happiness are for each of us. Unfortunately there isn’t a magic pill that we can all take to help us get to where we wanna be. I so wish there was as I’d buy stock in that Company immediately! That would help achieve one of the keys on my list.

All this brings to mind a question of sorts. While we search for our keys, are we supposed to be miserable along the journey? What kinda fun is that? Why not learn to be happy now? Happy with what we have instead of miserable because of what we don’t have. Wow, now there’s a concept!

Sure, we all need a healthy desire for more to keep us moving forward, motivating us to do more, to be more, to have more but at what cost? To live a life of misery, thinking that someday we’ll be happy, once we find our key, THEN we’ll be happy?

Who’s to say we’ll ever find it? And if we don’t, what then? We ended up spending our entire life miserable, more miserable than it had to be, that’s for sure.

Why is it then that we find it so difficult to even be the slightest bit happy with what we have now, no matter what it is? Sure, it might not be everything we want but I’d have to think that most of us, without much trouble at all, could immediately think of something in our lives we can be happy about.

We all have Pity Parties, “Woe is me” times, but at the end of the day we ALL have something to be happy about, something to be grateful for. I’ve been goin’ through lots of crap these last couple years and sure, I’ve got tons of stuff to complain about (and regretfully, sometimes I do) but even I can come up with things in my life to be happy about.

Once I had a friend say something that really struck a chord with me. She said, “Next time you want to complain about your life, just think about the millions of people around the world that would give anything to have your life.”

After I began to recover from the feeling of standing about one inch tall, I couldn’t help but agree with her and see her point. Sure, my life was suckin’, my world was crumblin’ but at that same point there was someone else on the planet that had no food, no water, no shelter and she really helped to put things into perspective for me.

No doubt my life wasn’t up to my standards, wasn’t what I wanted for ME but there were people that were doing so much worse than I was. So I had to be grateful that I lived in a Country that would afford me the opportunity to basically do anything I wanted to do, to be anything I wanted to be. I had to give in and admit that I actually am lucky.

While I don’t have everything I want, I don’t think anyone does. Not even Oprah. I mean, how much would it suck to have so much wealth that nothing excites you anymore? You could buy anything on earth, a hundred times over and nothing to stop you. But nothin’ even gets you motivated enough to so shopping.

To be honest, that doesn’t really sound all that good. I LOVE MONEY but when there’s nothing left on earth for you to buy and you have to start looking at buying an actual Planet (Hmmm, will it be Venus or Pluto? Maybe Uranus?) on Craigs List, that’s when you know the fun train has just about reached the end of the tracks.

Luckily, most of us don’t have that problem. We’ll NEVER have that problem. Our problem is that we’re just not happy with what we currently have but that can easily be remedied. Not by what we have in our wallet or our Bank account but by what’s between our ears.

Sure, we could always be happier and someday we might be but let’s make a choice today. All it takes is a slight shift in our thinking. Let’s choose to be happy now. Because someday may never come….

If you are struggling with happiness, forgetting to be grateful for what you have, I’d enjoy hearing about it and if you enjoyed this post, I’d appreciate it if you’d share it with your friends.

Yessiree, that’s the way it’s lookin’ at this point. I thought I was going to be able to squeeze my way in at the last second but it appears to be a no go. Big sign on the door saying “No Wannabes” and I have a distinct feeling that means me, Joe Wannabe.

At least I can say I gave it a shot. I needed to prove it to myself, once and for all that I’m not as shallow as I thought. But the experiment appears to have failed. Turns out I am kinda shallow. Yep, crazy I know. I mean I had an idea that it was a possibility but now I’ve proven it to myself and to be honest, I’m not real happy about it.

Perhaps shallow isn’t the best of words but superficial doesn’t seem to sound any better. Not to me it doesn’t anyway. Either way you look at it, it’s not a good sign as far as my finding a woman to share my life with.

Like it or not, I think we would all agree that there must be some semblance of physical attraction between two people in order for there to be a strong enough foundation to build a long term relationship on. Some amount of butterflies flyin’ around in your stomach when you’re around this person. And since a long term monogamous relationship is exactly what I’m hoping for, it’s pretty much a critical must have before moving forward.

I guess the strangest part about it is that it took me 5 years to figure this out. Or at least to admit it to myself anyway. I spent so much of my life doing everything possible to remain single. At all costs. I lived at the beach forever as well as indulged in the occasional (daily) alcoholic beverage and the last thing on earth I wanted was a woman telling me when and where I could or couldn’t drink. Needless to say, me and responsibility just never got along all that well.

And I never had any real desire to have kids, just wasn’t anything I ever felt I wanted in my life or that I was missing out on. And as I grew older that feeling only grew stronger. They would only cramp my lifestyle, why on earth would I want something like kids in my life? Something that would require even more responsibility.

Same with a too long long term relationship. I’ve never been a Serial Dater, preferring to stay with a much more one on one approach to relationships. But here again, long term had its limits and when things began to get too close to the inevitable, that meant it was time to run!  Yes, I’ve never been married. I’m old fashioned when it comes to love and romance and since I never wanted to risk divorce, I wanted to be 1000% sure that if I was to get married, that it would last forever. And knowing that marriage would only cramp my lifestyle further, there was only one answer. Marriage was out of the question.

Having just reached my 5 years of total sobriety landmark, it seemed to be an appropriate time to address this issue again. Especially since the main reason I chose to get sober was all because of a woman. Yes, crazy as it seems, I met a woman that I was extremely attracted to and needless to say, she wanted nothing to do with me. I have no guarantee of the reason(s) why, yet I’m sure my being a full on alcoholic wasn’t serving to help my chances of building a long term, loving relationship, that’s for sure.

So I decided to change my life, to become a better me in an effort to build a relationship with a better woman. A woman that I was attracted to, was proud to be with and one that had every reason to be proud to be with me. After I quit self medicating, I realized just how much I truly did want to meet my best friend, a quality woman that I could build a lasting, meaningful relationship with, a woman I could spend the rest of my life with.

I had known that forever, yet I didn’t want to face that fact, knowing that it would mean the end of my partying lifestyle and I just wasn’t anywhere near prepared to give that up.

But give that lifestyle up I did. All in the hopes of building a new life for myself and my(as yet to meet) companion. Unfortunately, over the past five years, my life has taken a complete and total dive. Needless to say, I’ve never needed a drink more than I have in these last five years. But knowing how hard it was for me to get to this point, there’s no way I can go back to my previous lifestyle.

Nope, too much time and energy already invested and from what little I do recall of my party days, I’d have to believe that overall they weren’t much better than the life I’m currently living. I mean, how could they be if I spent each and every waking moment doing everything possible to make those days go away? So I guess I gotta keep on doin’ what I’m doin’, doing whatever I can to hang on to some type of an accomplishment in my life.

So where does that leave me? Single, painfully lonely as well as excruciatingly sober for the rest of my life? Jeez, I sure hope not. That certainly doesn’t sound like any kinda fun, that’s for sure. And if not, then what are my alternatives? Fake my feelings and settle, just to avoid being alone? Not a whole bunch of yumminess in that outlook either.

Perhaps it would be best just to focus on other areas of my life as opposed to making any rash, last minute decisions. On one hand, I’d hate to dedicate my life to complete celibacy and equally, I don’t want to be stuck in a relationship that’s going nowhere fast, without hope of a future, something that I’m unable to get out of, at least without tons of heartache and hurt feelings being added to the mix.

OK then, the decision is made. The decision to make no decision whatsoever. Phew, that wasn’t so difficult after all, now was it? So then the next question becomes how on earth am I going to keep myself preoccupied enough to keep my mind anywhere and everywhere but on women? Being the “King Of The List”, having a list for everything that I need to take care of, want to accomplish, need to get done, perhaps that’s where I should start?

There’s only one small problem with that theory, I already have so many lists that I have lists of all the lists I have made as well as lists of the lists I still need to create so in essence, I guess I don’t need another list. Sounds like I have enough on my plate as it is, at least enough to keep me going for awhile anyway.

Perhaps first thing would be to work a bit on condensing my lists, brush up on my organizational skills? Yeah, that sounds like a great place to start. I have so many scraps of paper and post its everywhere, this could take quite a bit of time to get everything in order before I can even move forward towards completing some of these tasks.

Man, I sure wish I had someone to help me with all this stuff. Someone that understood how one can get buried by their own lists, how difficult it is to get moving once you’re under paralysis by analysis, someone I could have lunch with and discuss the days plans before even getting started.

Maybe even go to the store with me to pick out some items to help me to keep things more organized. Then maybe after we got things straightened up a bit and back on track, we could go out for dinner and discuss the days accomplishments. And then, maybe after dinner we could go for a walk on the beach under the stars, barefoot with the Moon shining bright and the only sounds being our two voices in concert with the crashing of the waves. Dang, I need a woman! NOW!!!

If you can relate to the frustration of being single and not by choice or the struggle to find “the one” and the battle of refusing to settle, I’d enjoy hearing about it and if you know of anyone that can perhaps relate to anything in this post, I’d appreciate it if you’d share it with them as well. Thank you.

In the movie her name is Mary and DANG, I love that movie! I’ve seen it a thousand times and I’ll probably watch it a thousand more. It’s totally me in a nutshell. Not so much that I met someone a long time ago that I’m still pining over but the fact that I know what I’m looking for and I won’t stop until I find her. Also the ending, which is the best part of the movie, hasn’t exactly happened for me either. In the end he gets the girl, I haven’t been so lucky.

But I can so relate to how ‘stuck’ he is on one woman. He knows what he likes, wants, needs and desires in a woman and that’s that. End of story. No one else will do. Unfortunately, I’m pretty much that same way. I have dated and been in enough relationships to know what I want. I can pretty much tell right off the bat if it’s got the potential to go anywhere or not and I don’t date randomly, just to date. I can’t ‘fake’ my emotions and I don’t date just to feel ‘wanted’. I ONLY date a woman in hopes of building a friendship that will last forever, with a dream of finding my one true love, the love of my life.

Yes, looks are a part of it, who’s kiddin’ who here? There has to be a physical attraction of some sort but that’s why God made everyone ‘different’. Because everybody is looking for something different and if anyone says that looks don’t matter to some degree, I believe they aren’t being completely honest with themselves or with others for that matter.

But that’s such a small part in the overall scheme of things, it’s so much more than that. That’s why sites like ‘Match’ and ‘Eharmony’ can actually work. You get a glimpse of someone and that can be the initial ‘spark’ that’s needed to get the ball rolling. Then, providing the profile is reasonably accurate, you can get somewhat of an idea of whether or not you have similar interests and have a desire to go any further. Not to say that some people don’t ‘embellish’ their profile a bit, pictures, age, etc. but even then it still helps to get a bit of background before proceeding. One thing I do find kinda odd is how many ‘world travelers’ you’ll find on those sites. It seems like all of the women have been travelling longer than they have actually been alive but that’s another story.

Yes, you hear about all the guys that ‘prey’ on the single mothers, hoping for an easy ‘target’. Tell the women what they want [need] to hear, get in and then get out just as quickly. Yes, there are plenty of guys like that. Some have even bragged to me of their ‘conquests’ but to me that is such a low and shallow way of living.

That is so not me. I don’t mess around with peoples emotions, same as I hope they won’t mess with mine. Doesn’t always go that way of course but I’m all about KARMA and so I tell it like it is, right from the start and hope for the same in return. Karma is key. I don’t lead women on just to get close to them, just as I hope they won’t lead me on. I am honest to a fault which of course has caused me to get the lousy end of the ‘deal’ my entire life, yet that’s just ‘who’ I am and I can’t seem to change it.

So hopefully someday I will have the same luck as ‘Ted’. I really shouldn’t say ‘luck’. He FINALLY found a woman that ‘got him’, understood him and realized what a ‘score’ he actually was. Women say to me quite often that they “can’t believe I’m single, I’m such a great catch.” Now, I would like to think so but whether or not that’s true I really can’t say. Even though I hate being single it still makes me feel good when a woman says that to me. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very sincere and so far from conceited it’s unreal [even though it may not sound like it here] but it’s true, I hear it alot. It’s just the fact that I refuse to ‘settle’ . And I also haven’t found “the one” yet. The timing is ALWAYS wrong. Seems as if when I FINALLY find a woman that I think I could possibly build a future with, she just wants to date a bunch of guys [I don't date a bunch of women at once] or she’s in a relationship already or she just got out of a relationship and the LAST thing she wants is to get back into a relationship. I’m only interested in a relationship that has the possibility of lasting a lifetime so to ‘serial date’ is just not me. Like they say, “Timing is everything” and it just never seems to be right for me.

Yes, I’m probably just too stupid to give up. Maybe I should but I’m just not a quitter. I just have to believe that someday the timing will be right. I have no right whatsoever to be picky and in my eyes I’m not. In fact, I don’t even like that phrase. In my mind I’m not really being picky as much as I just know early on if it even has a possibility of becoming a long term relationship or not and if not, I just won’t get involved. I have a very good idea of what I want in my ‘future’ partner and I won’t ‘settle’ until I find a woman that has some of those things. Someone that shares my ‘core’ values and beliefs.

So I guess if picky is the opposite of desperate then yes, that’s me. I don’t think that I’m tryin’ to find a woman that’s ‘out of my league’. I don’t want the super glam, gold digger, trophy chick. I want a ‘real’ woman that I can actually do ‘things’ with. Sure, sex is a big part of a relationship but you still have to communicate and ‘get along’ in all other aspects. I want to find my ‘best friend’ and build a relationship on that.

So thank God for this movie. It still gives idiots like me at least one ounce of hope that maybe I will find a ‘real’ woman that “gets me”, appreciates me for me and wants to build a friendship with me that will last a lifetime. Yes, I guess I’m a hopeless romantic. “Old Fashioned” sounds kinda lame, I’d prefer to think of myself as “Old School”. So I will continue to trudge ahead on this extremely bumpy road until the timing is FINALLY right. Because There Really IS Something About?????