A doubly, foolhardy "shake down" trip

In late December 2008 I met a very nice lady and  we had  conversation that went something like this:  Her, "Are you married?" Me, "No."  Her, "Do you have a girlfriend?"  Me, "No." Her, "Would you like to do something together sometime?"  Me, "Okay."    Wow, I am such a great conversationalist!

In my defense, during previous conversations, some with multi-word sentences, I had already learned much of her life story and she mine.  One important thing that I learned was that she was leaving Southern California is less than two weeks to move cross country to Maryland!  How safe is that?  We had one dinner date and even wound up having burgers and beer (a going away dinner) on New Year's Eve.  Both dates were okay and the New Year's one even ended with a tiny, tiny, tiny New Year's Eve kiss!  She moved a few days later.

Fast forward to Spring, 2010.  She located me on Facebook, emailed a few times and then we progressed to phone conversations.  She had returned to So Cal and made it clear that she wanted to explore the expansion of our friendship.  I really didn't.  During her absence I met another nice lady and we jumped (too quickly) into a full time relationship.  It was full time but temporary.  Within 3 months we decided that what we really needed was friendship and not really romance.

Being single at my age indicates a certain lack of success in relationships and that describes perfectly what my situation was.  I explained this to her each time we talked and her response was always something like: "I don't want a relationship either, just a friend to hang out with."  It was hard to argue with her logic, so I agreed to a couple of casual dates, that due to unavoidable circumstances (some engineered by me), we never kept.

A few more conversations and she wore me down.  I needed a new plan so I came up with a date that I was sure she would refuse.  I told her about Dod; that I was planning a five day, shake down trip to the local mountains; and finally, that she was welcome to join me.  You may have guessed her response: "Okay, sure, that sounds like fun!  When do we leave?"    Foiled again!

I have to leave my computer now and start my daily project so the story continues tomorrow.