Stood up....

Being stood up has to be the most annoying and morale deflating event. And it wasn't even technically a date that I was stood up for. I had made plans with a guy to hang out and get some drinks. Nothing crazy, no 7 course dinner, just drinks. However, after a text and voicemail I still hadn't heard from him. Eventually I hear back later that night that he had gone out and gotten drunk and passed out. Cute. It was only 8:30 pm. I was crushed - and I was so crushed because I have a huge crush on him and this was another sign from him that he was not feeling the same way at all.

I'll give you some background on him - we'll refer to him as Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy is an old friend of mine from high school. We messed around a few times my senior year and finally full on hooked up my freshman year of college. I had a crush on him back then and it never really went away. At the time I had started dating a friend of his so we never amounted to anything more than clandestine hookups. That year he enlisted in the army and I only saw him a handful of times after that. The last time we had seen each other was when I was 21 - over 12 years ago. We lost touch and I had heard he had gotten married and was living in Texas and was still in the army. I would think of him from time to time and started classifying him in my head as the one who got away.

Last January I was on myspace and happened to come across his profile on another friend's site. Immediately my heart raced and I knew I had to send him a friend request. Without a seconds hesitation I hit the friend request button. I kept refreshing all day but no response. The next day I log on and I see that not only has he accepted my request but that he has also sent me an email. I almost pee'd my pants I was so beside myself. We begin emailing and I find out that he is no longer married (distance killed the marriage) and the distance he is speaking of is that he is on his second tour in Iraq. Within those first emails, the spark reignites full force for me. I don't know how he felt, most likely just happy to reconnect with an old friend. This feeling colored all of my interactions with him - I took every email and dissected it for underlying meaning. It didn't help that he emailed almost every day and that he was getting out in July for good (retiring as a Captain) and wanted to take me out on his return. His emails were alternating between serious - based on his situation and the war - and outright flirty as well. I was so excited b/c I thought maybe this was what I had been waiting for.

Around this time, I made the committment to lose the weight that had been creeping on steadily since my freshman year of college. His impending return made my desire to lose weight and look hot for him a priority.

2007 was a tough year. The future seemed so bright with these promising emails from Soldier Boy and the decision to lose weight and get healthy. Unfortunately only parts of it went as planned.