Under normal circumstances, my birthday is celebrated for at least a week and is akin to a national holiday in my mind. To me, it is an opportunity to gather my friends together and say thanks for making my life better. I am proud to turn a year older because during that time, I have had many amazing adventures and met really neat people. But considering all the madness swirling around me, I just did not feel up to it this year. Not that I want this to be a negative post but I have to be honest and admit that I have a few bad days every now and again. This year was especially poignant because my birthday week was supposed to coincide with a vacation in Minneapolis to catch up with old friends. When The Ex walked away, there went my vacation, which put a slight damper on my desire to celebrate. I know, I know: I should put in an extra effort to make this birthday better than ever. However, I did not make many plans and the ones I did make mostly fell apart.

Case in point: Date #2 was scheduled to happen on my birthday at City Museum (an aside: if you have not been to this place, schedule your visit immediately!). Early in the afternoon, I received a text from him calling it off due to a server issue at his place of employment, which was going to occupy him for the remainder of the day. UPDATE as of 8/5/2011: I have not heard from him since that day so I will take that to mean he was completely uninterested. Why didn’t he just say so? Boys!

Never fear, though! The day was not a complete bust because I have the greatest friends and they came through in a pinch. At the last moment, Susan and Howard threw together an evening out that included a wonderful Italian dinner followed by nightcaps at our favorite neighborhood watering hole. Ms. Missy even managed to join us after her flight returned somewhat early.

Up Next: The Return of the Belligerence!

Late Tuesday, we finally managed to figure out plans for our date the following evening. Let me tell you, it is really challenging to go on a first date with someone when you do not have an online profile to reference. So in 2011, I must wait impatiently to find out where I will be dining so that I can Google the location and browse the menu, hoping to divine some insight into the stranger across that table. That being said, we arrived at the restaurant (Italian, local, moderately expensive) nearly at the same moment, which saved us that awkward time spent casing the joint to see if the other person was already waiting. We were seating immediately at a corner table and the conversation commenced without a hitch and then did not stop for approximately four hours. Very promising start, I would say, though I did not get so much as a hug or a handshake at the end of the evening.