Peek a boo! I see you...

Dearest St. Valentine,

I’ve decided that I’m going to get a t-shirt printed up—it’s going to be basic black and in a big bold white san serif font it’s going to say, “Flypaper for Freeks!”  Let me back up here a minute and explain.

This morning promptly at 11:15, I left my less-than-comfortable abode to head down to Roosevelt Island to meet a gentleman with whom I have been exchanging emails (and engaging in a rather stark and well choreographed come-here-go-away dance) for nearly a year. Said gentleman, who I will call J. and I made our acquaintance as a result of a personal advert I placed on my favorite haunt, Craigslist. It was one that I placed in the Misc. Romance section written in the form of poetry. We were to meet at noon in front of dear Teddy himself.

It never happened.

Am I surprised by this? No.

Given that J. has a well established history of not showing up, before I left the condo I made sure I brought along anything I might need to entertain myself if there was a somewhat expected change in plans. It’s a skill I honed while dating more than one raging alcoholic. I packed up the DSLR and the macro lens as well the Xoom tablet figuring they would make perfect companions if my semi-blind date did not show. And that they did.

I waited for J. for approximately a half an hour at our agreed rendezvous point. When it became quite apparent he was not going to show, I unpacked the DLSR and began to randomly take shots of whatever caught my eye. And there were several things that did just that. As I was getting ready to leave the memorial area of the island, I stopped to set the camera down and prepare it for return to its carrying case. As I did this I made the most delightful discovery, there was the most amazing caterpillar crawling upon the surface of the wall I was borrowing for the moment.

I nearly shrieked with delight as I caught sight of the creature and quickly dug for the macro lens and popped it on the 7D. I zoomed the macro to its maximum magnification and began to chase my elusive subject. Each time I got close enough to the petite beauty, its nature worked against me, as the very long hairs that covered its body to provide warning of approaching danger would bang against the lens and the caterpillar would stop and rise up in curiosity.

After several attempts to get a shot, the dear creature became rather annoyed with our game and made for the edge of the wall. In an attempt to coax my bashful subject back toward the wall, I inadvertently knocked it to the ground which prompted the protective response of curling up in a ball and playing dead. I found a leaf and scooped up the larvae and placed it back on the ledge.

It promptly properly lengthened itself and began to march again toward some unknown destination.

Once again I moved in to see if I might get a shot. However, this time instead of stopping and peering up at me the object of my desire stopped in its tracks and stood still for nearly two minutes allowing me to take several shots.

I was thrilled.

I spent about another hour walking around the island checking out what has changed since the last time I was there. Then made my way to the northwest side of the island and took a few shots of Key Bridge. As I was standing gathering myself to hike back toward the exit, several shells passed by with rowing crews on board and stroking away. Of course, the first thought that went through my mind was boy howdy, how I’d love to see several of those boys naked!

After recovering from the thought of hot, sweaty, naked crew boys dancing before my eyes I hiked back into Rossyln, stopped at Chopt’d long enough to get a salad for the road, headed to the RAV, and steered her toward home.

As I was driving home, I thought WTFIMP?

Why is it that I can’t seem to break this pattern? I continually, for some reason, either attract (or am attracted to) the quintessential loser types. I swore, to myself and every deity known to man, that after what happened with MMRFRO I would never again fall prey to such an individual.

Looks like it’s happened again.

So where do I go from here? Honestly I don’t know. Maybe dear St. Valentine you can help me out a little here? As quite honestly, it’s pretty obvious I have no effin’ clue what I’m doing.

Meanwhile, I finished the last in the series of Stieg Larson’s Millenium series last night. Man, I’m going to miss Fru Salander. I guess I related to the character far too much as I’m just like her. LOL. It’s such a tragedy that Stieg passed away when he did as there truly was the potential to keep the series going for quite awhile. There are so many ways he might have further developed each of the characters. Perhaps the publishers can find a way to get permission from his estate to have ghost writers continue the story a la The Wizard of Oz post L. Frank Baum’s death.

I just got the most annoying email from a friend. I’ve not spoken to him for nearly a year due to a bit of a disagreement we had about his dog, and he finally gets in touch with me because he’s looking for the first two seasons of the X-files of DVD that he loaned me. I have half-a-mind to send him an email saying, “Since I’d not heard from you for, oh, about nearly a year now. I figured I was *never* going to hear from you again so I gave them to Goodwill. Pity!”

I truly am a flypaper for freaks!

Can you help me find some love here SV?