Wanted: Sleeping Pills . . . ASAP

This will be me tonight, sleeping with sharks . . . . and eels . . . and pirahnas . . . and other slippery wet things. Bug decided some time ago that she wanted to have her birthday party be a sleep-over at the Downtown Denver Aquarium. It sounded very fun at the time, but now I'm having some anxiety. After visiting the Aquarium, I now know that there are snakes in the building. Hideous, grotesque, evil snakes . . . . snakes and tornadoes are my irrational fears, so please . . . no emails or comments about any value whatsoever of a snake. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to think about them. I don't want them in my world. Yet, tonight, I will be sleeping in an enclosed area with them in the building. I would rather put on a wetsuit and spend the entire night in the shark tank.

The Harry Potter scene where the glass disappears and the snake escapes keeps running through my mind. I'm convinced one is going to escape during the night, make its way to my sleeping bag, and bite me. Never mind that there are also tigers in this Aquarium (part of a rain forest exhibit). I can handle a tiger . . . . but not a snake. So . . . if anyone has any Lunesta or other wonderful sleeping aids . . . . please get them to me by 7:00 tonight . . . . that's when the Aquarium locks the doors . . . and there I'll be . . . . until 9 AM tomorrow morning.

what was I thinking?????

The reason I haven't been blogging lately...

This is Robert. We met in Parking Lot D of Dick's Sporting Goods Park on the 4th of July following a Rapids soccer game and the largest fireworks show in the state. We were parked beside each other and could not even move out of our slots for a good 45 minutes or so. He reminded Bug and I of our friend Ken from Canada --- the height, age, hair color, and even his glasses were the same. And on the other side of us were some scary people, i.e., drunk and in a huge family argument. So Bug and I struck up a conversation with Robert. And . . . oddly enough . . . he's from Canada too, from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. (How cool is that???) And a former professional soccer player for Canada . . . now a mechanical engineer living in Denver. As unnerved as Bug and I were by the drunken people, Robert was a complete joy to be parked beside. He also coaches youth competitive soccer, so he and Bug had a lot to talk about. I was very sad when traffic opened up and we were able to pull away. He was behind me and I could see his headlights for the next 15-20 minutes as we made our way through the lots and open fields the police had opened up to move the traffic jam. I thought about him for days. Bug kept talking about the nice man from the parking lot and how she wished he was her soccer coach. I even called Colorado Fusion (Bug's club) to see if he was going to be coaching there in the Fall . . . no luck. . . . But . . . . as fate would have it . . . .

In mid-September, I went for the first time onto Facebook, looking for a potential claimant to see if the person had posted incriminating remarks on a profile and . . . on a lark . . . typed in Robert's name and . . . . there he was . . . on the screen in front of me . . . . what to do? what to do? . . . After a very long while of trying to get my nerve up, I finally emailed him . . . . reminded him of the Independence Day parking fiasco and our conversation. Not too much later, I got an email back from him!! Yes! He remembered me! And was so sweet in his email . . . said he was flattered I remembered him and mentioned "fate". We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers . . . . started emailing and texting, and the next week, Bug and I met him at the Rapids game at half-time. We were unable to get our schedules together to meet up again and that Thursday following the game, he had to have surgery on a fractured ankle and ligament damage . . . soccer injury. I thought about him the entire day of his surgery and texted him frequently over the next few days. On Sunday, Bug and I went and picked him up from his house to ease his cabin fever, and we went and saw The Dark Knight and went to dinner. It was so comfortable being with him ---- felt as though I had known him a very long time.

The following Saturday, we made plans to go to the soccer game together. In the afternoon, Bug got a call from a friend to spend the night . . . she wanted me to call Robert and ask him if it was okay if she didn't go (she was concerned he might not want to go if it was just me!!!! Seriously, she said that!!!!), so I called him and he assured me it was fine if it was just the two of us. We had dinner beforehand then went to the game. It was cold and shortly after half time, he put his arm around me . . . and it was just the best feeling in the world . . . we fit together perfectly. Oddly, we attracted two different Rapids mascots who kept coming up to us, trying to separate us, acting as if they were going to put the moves on me . . . both felt terrible when they looked down and realized Robert was in a cast. But it was as if our energy had attracted them to us. I was able to meet one of his friends at half-time, who later texted Robert "nice catch", which I thought was really cute.

After the game, we drove through Starbucks for lattes, drove back to his house, and watched Jerry Maguire on TV. Apparently, it's a very romantic movie . . . LOL . . .because we were sitting so close . . . I don't think a piece of paper would have fit between us. The rest is history so they say. We've been pretty inseparable since and having a lot of fun.

Last Monday night, October 13th, we even celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. Here are a few pics . . .

Admittedly, not a great shot here of me . . . .but all of you who know me know how much cooking stresses me out!!!

Robert brought me flowers and Bug a funny pumpkin . . . isn't it the greatest to open the door to a man bearing flowers???? Chivalry . . . it still exists!

Robert zapped Bug with a little whipped cream before we sat down to dessert . . . . my very first home-made pumpkin pie . . .

I'll try to blog more, but am enjoying spending so much time with Robert and Bug. Besides soccer, he's a hockey goalie on an adult men's team, rides mountain bikes and motorcycles, wind surfs, snowboards, water skies, snow skies, plays golf and tennis, and practices martial arts . . . so I'm thinking I have an active future ahead of me if things continue to go as they are. :):):)

Wish me luck!!!!