Fatty Friday...with a really Awesome story attached!

So... a quick Fatty Friday update. I'm still eating twigs and berries....and the scale is actually starting to reflect my recent rabbit-esque behavior. So, yay me! I need to get back into a workout routine so that my energy level will be boosted some more, but I'm still having a hard time finding the motivation. However, I am jug chugging green tea and water, so hopefully I'll continue to make some progress in my quest for personal health. My energy level is way up compared to before I started this process...and sadly, I have not had a chicken burrito in over 2 weeks. I'm sure they are missing me at the ol Chick Fil A. In fact, I heard a rumor that they aren't even letting people in the building now unless they are donning a black arm band in memory of "The Chicken Burrito Girl."

And now....for a really awesome story......

It's no secret to anyone that my dating life is...um...unpredictible. This is both exciting and frustrating, but more commonly the latter. I spend a lot of time going out with "really wonderful guys" who I just don't really feel quite right about. There's really no reason for this gut feeling except that I guess the timing has been off and I've been very picky about what I'm looking for. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, I've become the Online Dating Queen of the South.

So a good while back Super Man mentioned that he was using a website called Plenty Of Fish dot com. It's a free online dating site, and he said he'd met a few people that way. So, as is my motto these days, I threw up an old "What the hell!" and signed up. Because the website is free, I was prepared to be bombarded with pure crap in my inbox, so I used my google email address which I use for nothing else but this blog, and I started checking the inbox. However, just as I had assumed there would be...there was nothing but crap. So I stopped checking the email address completely, but I couldn't figure out how to disable my profile, so I just left it alone. Then, this week, I ate dinner with Super Man, who had started dating a girl that he met on this website. It reminded me that I was probably still getting random crappy emails and I decided to check the email address the next day.

There were a ton of emails from the website, most of which were nothing more than invitations for some physical fun. But after getting friendly with my delete button, I opened an email that was sent two days prior. It was actually an email with real substance and decent grammar! Jackpot! AND...the guy was really good looking! BONUS! I didn't have a lot of time right then, but I didn't want this good looking, good grammar typing guy to think I wasn't going to respond. And since you can see when someone has read your message, I decided to send a very quick email back letting him know that I liked his email and would type more soon.

Then, on a whim, I took an extra minute to check out his profile in more detail. I clicked on his picture which opened up his profile. The guy was 5'4". I immediately thought, "Oh great....he's 2 inches shorter than me. Lovely."

AND THEN IT HIT ME LIKE A TON OF BRICKS....I looked at his picture again, looked at his screen name....flashed back to bits of his email...he had been in the marines...and he graduated school in the town that I now live in.....

OH MY GOD THIS IS MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BOYFRIEND FROM THE SECOND GRADE THROUGH THE SIXTH GRADE! THIS IS THE GUY THAT IS IN EVERY SINGLE FLASHBACK OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL THAT I HAVE! OH......MY........GOD!

So I hit the reply button again and sent a message expressing that I was completely shocked and told him who I was and that I would love to catch up with him!

About an hour later I had a reply with a subject line that read "I AM BEYOND SPEECHLESS!!!!!"

And just to give you a bit more background....
He was my "first love"....as much as you can be when you're 8. We were best friends through elementary school, but he moved away in the 6th grade. When he got ready to join the marines when we were around 20, he randomly hunted my parents' address down and showed up at my doorstep one day. We sat on the front porch and he told me that he was getting ready to leave for boot camp and he just really wanted to talk to me again before he left. Then, 5 years later...just after I got married....he walked in the door of the beauty shop while I was getting my hair cut. We chit chatted and he gave me his number and said he'd love to catch up. But I told him I was married, and I never called him.

And then, out of the millions of people on that website, he randomly sends "some girl" an email....and as it turns out..."some girl" was me! He said he knew I looked familiar, but it never occurred to him that it was me. I'm living in a different area now, and the last he heard I was happily married and he just assumed I was living a white picket fence life with the whole husband and kids package!

So that night, we talked on the phone and he invited me out to coffee....and we sat on the patio of Starbucks until 2AM catching up and being completely in awe of the entire situation. As we reviewed all of our history over the years, he admitted that he walked out of the beauty shop that day completely heartbroken that I was married. And since it never occurred to him that I would end up divorced (yeah...caught me off guard too!) he never tried to contact me again.

But now here we are....catching up....drinking coffee.....and going out this weekend. : )

Let's all just stop for a moment and give God kudos for writing a week worth remembering.

Good surprise, God!

VERY. GOOD. SURPRISE.