A month has passed with no blog entries? What is happening?

Of a sorts I've reverted to old ways. I've returned to heavily writing in my Journals. Comfortable, threadbare composition books with coffee stains and doodles and different-colored ink. Entries written with my peculiar shorthand three pages at a time. Life plugs along.

About a month ago, a stranger contacted me through my on-line profile; he would be visiting Dayton for awhile, playing a leading role in one of the Broadway traveling shows. Did I want to meet? and I said sure and we hit it off, enough to get a comp ticket to the performance.

After the show, I ran into some friends from Cincinnati. My old landlord's boyfriend. We stood against the marble lobby walls, laughing, as the theater emptied. Things were going well, he said, J was making more money now and their new place was looking good. "And what about you? Are you dating?"

"No," I responded, "Every once in awhile I think I want to date. And then I try -- putting out tentacles, tentacles to date -- but then, then they are amputated."

Well that was a drastic picture, but take this year for example.

I met two people at the beginning of the year. One guy was hilarious, vivacious, upbeat, intelligent and we had lots in common. We sat and watched cult horror movies together. Everything was a barrel of laughs except... he was physically unattractive -- beyond what I could try, even if I squeezed my eyes shut.

The other guy was also intelligent, physically attractive, but shy or... something. We went on a few dates, but he would only speak when spoken to and that kind of one-sided direction got old fast. I didn't call after Superbowl Sunday.

Of course I spent a few hours obsessing about this state of affairs. Was I being unreasonably shallow / judgmental / insensitive / etc.?

Finally I decided that even if I was, so be it -- and I haven't thought about it since (well, not until I sat down to write this entry, that is). I still call the one guy and he's a hoot. I gained a friend.

And as for my traveling friend, the one who gave me a comp ticket to the traveling national show? Well, that was weird too. I called after the performance and thanked him for giving me the ticket and if he wanted to hang out, just give me a call. I didn't hear, so I sent an email thanking him again. Still nothing. After about a week, I received a voicemail, left in the morning. "I haven't heard from you," said the plaintive voice, "so I assume you made other plans to watch the Oscars. Still... if you would like to do something before I leave, just call and let me know."