Under oath

*raises right hand*

I KathyHowe, do solemnly swear not to ever intentionally give any of my boyfriends food poisoning.

Pinky swear.

Planning for Operation Love Me Tender is well underway. I suppose one of these days I'll need to come up with a name for him here on Kazoofus but nothing perfect has struck me as of yet so stay tuned. I was thinking about going with "The Last Man Tied To My Bed" but that would be projecting a bit considering we haven't had our first date yet.

For now lets just call him Incredible.

One of the things that has transpired related to our first date is that we originally planned something for mid-November and while that is still very much on the calendar, we kinda lucked out and were able to squeeze in an earlier date to get together.

So, instead of our first date being in his neck of the woods, it will be in mine. Which means I need to feed him (egads!) and amuse him (dog save me).

My last boyfriend (wave hello TLMS) taught me how to make twice baked potatos so maybe I can remember how to do that. What he didn't teach me how to do was inspect salad for e-coli though so I might skip the bag of lettuce this time. I think trips to the E.R. can really put a damper on an otherwise great first date.

I wonder if Incredible likes cheese pizza.

I know many of you are on the edge of your seats longing for more details on the date and who this guy is. I know, cuz ya'all keep emailing me. So here goes my take on Incredible:

I've known him for awhile now, we met through a client project once upon a time. When we met, we hit it off immediately even though we didn't meet face to face for several months. He once told me that when he first met me in person he was "struck" by me. Apparently I light up a room as well as I light up conference calls.

He is very bright, incredibly funny, loaded with integrity, totally optimistic, super open-minded and an AMAZING communicator. He has a great voice - he could be on the radio with that voice. His interests are very much in line with mine, we have similar past experiences, the same future goals and enough mutual respect flowing between us to float a fleet of ships. He has always treated me very well. He opens my doors, carries my bags and tells me many times a day how much he likes me.

He absolutely rocks my world.

His admission of how he felt about me, which took place a few months ago, was stunning and flattering all at the same time. The feeling was most definitely mutual but we had a couple of roadblocks to dating at that point.

1. The famous Kathy Howe Dating Hiatus was in place (aka Single By Design, don't fuck with my design).

and

2. Location. We do not live in the same state.

Shortly after TLMS and I decided to be really great friends forever and ever amen, I crossed paths with Incredible again. We hadn't talked in several months and it was a lot of fun to reconnect with him. He/we re-iterated that we are interested in one another but we still have this pesky location issue. I let him know that the dating hiatus was no longer in place and that I had in fact just split up with TLMS. I let him know that I wasn't sure now was the time for he and I to pursue a relationship considering the rather recent break-up.

The word "rebound" kept popping into my head. I also kept wondering what is the right thing to do? Should I spend X number of days or weeks at home being miserable grieving the break-up with TLMS or should I dust myself off and give dating another try.

I talked to a couple friends about it and carefully considered my decision before deciding to pursue Operation Love Me Tender with Incredible. I don't want to hurt anyone here. Not TLMS, not Incredible and certainly not myself in all of this.

Here are the things that facilitated my decision to go forward with Incredible:

1. He and I have always had really great communication and it just keeps getting better and better. I have been 100% open and honest with him about TLMS and all of my thoughts and feelings around that and everything else that is swimming in my head these days. He has absolutely supported me and offered to give me all the time I need and put the control of this into my hands. I believe his words were "we'll go at your pace."

2. The advice from my friends was unanimous. GO FOR IT! Live, KathyHowe, LIVE! They supported the idea that I get back out there and see what the dating world has to offer once again.

3. This may sound stupid but I considered the feelings of TLMS. I wondered how he would feel if I returned to the dating hiatus. How would he feel if I implemented a grieving period and sat at home crying into perfectly good beers over our break up? I decided he would feel like an ass. I knew in my heart as much as I knew in my head that he would absolutely want me to get back out there.

So I said yes to Incredible and Operation Love Me Tender began to progress. It has been such fun getting to know him better and planning for our upcoming time together. He makes me laugh every day and makes me feel like I'm the best thing that ever happened to him.

OH! Do you want to know something cool that happened to me this week related to all of this?

This week I received an email from TLMS and this email is a perfect example of why we are friends. He told me he read about Operation Love Me Tender here on Kazoofus and that he is happy for me. His words:

"You did your time in divorce hell, you deserve to be happy."

Is it any wonder why I think he is great? I don't know that I needed his "blessing" so to speak but it sure did feel good to get it. It was almost a freeing feeling to get his support.

I have the best ex-boyfriends a girl could ever hope for.

And so here I go again giving love another chance and I'm excited as hell about it. Who knew dating could be this much fun? I feel like I'm kind of on a cloud these days. Is this really my life? Is it really this great to be in a relationship with someone? It all seems way too good to be true.

Pinch me, amigos. I think I'm dreaming.