Since TSRum complained that I haven't made any posts lately, I figured I'd take his advice and tell you all about my weekend.

As lame as it might sound at first, I've been a member of an online dating community for about the last year. Now that I've said that, let me challenge you to think about how social networking sites, which a dating site really is, have changed how people view the internet and making friends therein.

Anyhow, back to the story. Sometime a couple of months ago, I started talking with a young lady on there and it seemed to be going well. When she suggested that we meet up, I had no qualms with it. We met a couple of weeks ago for a cup of coffee and to meet each other face to face. We spent probably 3 hours or so sitting outside in the perfect evening weather, just talking and getting to know each other a bit. After we went our ways that evening, I got home to find a message from her saying how much she enjoyed it. A couple of days later, she sent me another message, saying that if we didn't plan to get together again, it may not happen. Thus, we made plans to meet up for bowling and dinner, and those plans were executed this past Saturday.

I picked her up and we went to the bowling alley just down the way from my place. The first game was mine, but she leveled the stakes on the next game. We bowled a third game, just for fun, and somehow I threw one of the best games I ever have.

After we got done bowling, we went to find dinner. We had previously discussed what was in the area, and she said that Olive Garden was fine with her. So off we went. As we were finishing dinner, I realized that it was really much earlier in the evening than I thought, so I asked her if she'd like to see a movie. She agreed, so we went down the way to the theater.

We had an hour to kill before the movie started, so we sat on a bench outside in the (again) perfect weather and talked for a bit. We went back in to the theater just in time for the staff to finish cleaning house for the next show. We sat and poked fun at the pre-show advertisements for a bit, then the show started.

The movie, "Up", was pretty entertaining and I think we both enjoyed it equally. By the time it was finished though, I was feeling like the old man that I'm drawing closer to being and figured that 11:00 was probably a good time to call it a night. We jumped in the car and I took her home by way of downtown Houston.

You're probably wondering all the details: Did I kiss her? Did we hold hands? Where did it go from there? Quite frankly, that's not really your business and out of respect for the both of us, only a very limited few shall know the answers.

I think it went quite well. I left her a follow-up message that evening to tell her that I really enjoyed the time together and that I hoped we could do it again soon. I'm not going to make the mistake I did several times in the past and push for an answer, but I am optimisically under the impression that she had a good time and is looking for a repeat soon as well.

If you know me fairly well or if you have been reading my blog for very long, you know this is the end of a proverbial drought for my "love life", for lack of a better term. I'm finding that the social skills I've developed in my career have really been a benefit to my personal life as well, though. Don't get me wrong, I still sometimes wonder what the next topic of discussion should be and feel that brief moment of awkward silence. I don't think that will ever go away, but I only hope that whoever I am in such a relationship with will understand that we're all human and not hold it against me.

Overall though, this has been a great experience and I hope I can get to know this young lady better and build a relationship with her. :)