Going to the dogs

Today is easy: I am grateful for dogs. I volunteered to walk dogs that were "rescued" from shelters and were available for adoption. I have a cat and I thought it would be fun to spend some time with dogs. I was with one dog whole day, Spotsy. A sweet Springer mix with not enough leash training. This is the thing about dogs: they are happy. Being around dogs makes me happy. It really put me in a good mood and it also tired me out.

After I got back to DC (the volunteer gig was in far away Sterling, VA--necessitating a long metro ride and a lift from the station), I met Jake for a date. Jake and I had a pleasant Jdate exchange and a brief phone conversation. I liked his looks from his photo. In person, he looked just the same and I recognized him immediately.

We met near Eastern Market and vaguely planned to watch one of the football play-off games. That's what we did. We also got something to eat because I was starving. I'd managed to get myself breakfast, but lunchtime went to the dogs, so to speak.

Jake, what can I say? He was awfully easy to be with. He was attractive. He was also sort of not there, but there. Was he a little vague? I don't know. I didn't feel like we were connecting, but making a second date seemed natural and right.

I chitter-chattered a bit. He sometimes answered with what seemed like nonsequiturs, but weren't. I tried to draw him out and get him talking, but I didn't do so well. The conversation was fine, but not of much depth. I talked a lot about my family, mostly my brothers. A good semi-personal and pretty interesting gambit.

He walked me part of the way home and asked me if I wanted to go out again and I said sure. I said maybe to see music, since we'd talked about that quite a bit. He said that next Friday he was going to Baltimore to see some friends of his in a band and maybe I wanted to do that. I said, yes, maybe, I need to check my schedule. I said I wanted to say yes, but just wanted to make sure it was a real yes. He said he understood. I like him. I guess, what I do here is not make any decisions. Go slow and give myself a chance to know him and see where my feelings go. I like him, he's game. Flexible, easy to be with. Cute. Friendly. Distant. I could imagine being worked up about this guy, but I'm not. Not yet.

I'm looking, always looking, so hard for someone like my old Seattle boyfriend (Doug) that I get too hopeful sometimes when someone seems similar. Well, Jake is not Doug, but maybe it's more important to find someone who makes me feel the way I did when I was with Doug and who treats me just as well. Oh, and Jake has two cats.