Theme Day

You know how some days there is some topic or person or word that just keeps popping up over and over seemingly randomly? Something like the word 'egregious' (which no one ever really uses) being used in a book, a newscast and by your sister-in-law all in the same day. I think of these as 'theme days.'

Today was a theme day.

And the theme was not egregious - neither the word or the meaning. Whatever could the theme be, you ask? Ex-boyfriends. Bizarre, no? No less bizarre from the fact that I was not the only person taken into this particular theme.

Susan and I (mostly Susan) had a Yard Sale today. In in, I sold the guitar given to me by an ex-boyfriend, and Susan sold a bracelet and Waterford crystal make-up brush (seriously) given to her by an ex. Then there was a new post made by an ex-boyfriend. And finally, to top it all off, I got a call from an old friend to tell me that she ran into one of my old boyfriends last night at a party and that he was asking about me.

Okay, so maybe that really doesn't count as a theme. But I'm taking it. AND, I'm taking the opportunity to discuss here, on my blog, my less-than-extensive dating history. To save for posterity as the 'before' as I await my exciting, date-filled 'after.'

My first boyfriend was named Joe. We started dating in Germany while on an exchange program. I was 16, he was 15. I think we started officially dating a few days before we left Germany - he asked me out as we were getting back on the bus after visiting a bunch of really beautiful churches and fountains. One might say that a beautiful German church or fountain would be a better setting for one's first 'wanna date' talk than the exhausty back of a bus. One would be right. Joe was a good first boyfriend, though. We dated through band camp (yes, I said band camp). He played the bass drum, and therefore had the coolness factor that made it okay for me to date a sophomore during my junior year. Eventually, Joe dumped me for a girl on the color guard named Jamie. My being a junior didn't make up for the distinctive un-coolness of being a clarinet player, I guess.

A few months later, I asked a guy named Aaron to the girl-ask-guy dance at our school (which, for some reason still unknown to me was called Bali Hai). I had had an on-again, off-again crush on him during our sophomore year. We ended up dating for about three weeks, I think. Not very long, but it was high school, so three weeks is a long time! Even if one of those weeks we missed several days due to snow. Aaron and I parted relatively amicably. I think there was just a little too much ego to split between two people there.... During our senior year, Aaron started dating a mystery girl from another high school. Apparently, they are married now! That makes me officially the Last Girl He Dated Before He Got Married. Weird.

After high school there was a looooong stretch of un-boyfriendedness marked by several close misses of disastrous relationships - notably during my junior year of college where I nipped a semi-budding flirtation in the bud. Mostly it was because he was two years my junior and I was on res life staff in the dorm he lived in. Also, it was partly due to the fact that his name was Bert.

When I was 24, I started dating a great guy in Alaska named T. I never knew how to spell T's name for sure. T? Tee? He didn't seem to care. I generally just avoided writing it, so that worked fine. T was a wonderful boyfriend. For my birthday, he threw me a party, gave me a guitar, painted me a picture, AND had two Dairy Queen ice cream cakes packed in frozen ice and flown up from Seattle. (seeing as there was no DQ in Sitka, and that is 'my' traditional birthday cake) I was not a very good girlfriend to T. I knew when I started dating him that I'd dump him when I left for med school. Yeah. I felt too guilty to do it at first, so I waited about a month before I crushed him. He is married now too, marking the second time I'm the Last Girl He Dated Before He Got Married. I heard he proposed on top of a mountain (literally) - I did do better at finding boys who have a better sense of setting by that time, I guess.

After T was.... well... No one really. I've had a couple of disastrous and/or spark-less dates during med school, but no official 'boyfriend.' Which REALLY makes it weird that I could have an ex-boyfriend themed day, don't you think? Hmm.

Oh, well. I made some money at the yard sale AND I got a suit yesterday. FANtastic.