Life on Mars

I am in absolutely no rush to get married or have children. I'm not saying that I won't want that one day, but I love my independence. There is so much still I want to do before I "settle down" and focus on a family.

With that being said, my relationship situation is not in any means any desperation for a companion...but rather trying to get a general understanding for the opposite sex.

In high school, my first real relationship actually lasted 2 years. The guy was the valedictorian, 2 years older than me, and was a geek. But I was totally infatuated and thought I was cool dating this guy 2 years older than me. The summer before my junior year, I visited Europe for 3 weeks and figured out I needed to be a little more independent. So, while he was at the Naval Academy, I told him that we needed to end our relationship.

My freshman year in college, I dated a guy that my friends refer to as the "Neon Sign". He was a high school drop out, had multiple piercings (beneficial piercings), tattoos, but was a hell of a lot of fun!! Wow could he sing, and that's what I fell for!

I returned to California a year later and met a Marine (named Dirt by my friends) that I dated for a few months that said he had to go take care of a sick grandfather and for me to wait for him. (He actually ended up going to Okinawa I later found out)

I dated another Marine (named Butthead by my friends) for another few months, brought him home to meet the family, and then he had to go to Okinawa and once he got there, he couldn't handle the long distance relationship.

I then ran into Dirt again and started seeing him. Things got serious, he moved in and I was very much in love. I could have been happy living in a cardboard box with him (which we practically were). He went to Missouri with me and met all my family and seemed to be the real deal. Well, one day he upped and left and ended up being a real jerk (said mean things, left me with some bills, etc). Hence the name Jerk. I find out way later in life, that he was married the whole time he was with me and ended up leaving abruptly because his wife found out and threatened to go to his command.

I later moved to Yuma, AZ and you can probably guess who I met....another Marine. No one has come up for a name for this guy yet. He was a harrier mechanic, into fast cars, tattoos, and drinking. We had a blast! It was a party every weekend! My best friend and his best friend (a married couple) invited us to share their 3 bedroom house. This lasted about 6 months until he went overseas and couldn't do the long distance thing either.

So I move to North Carolina. To shorten the story, I meet two other guys, both Marines, that end up being married!

So, to sum it all up, I have MMM - Married Marine Mojo!

I am now in South Carolina have dated here and there. So let's get to my current dilemma. I met an Army Officer and went out to dinner with him Saturday night. I usually end up dating guys older than me, but this one happens to be younger. I thought that might present a maturity issue, but we actually had a decent time. We had plans to do something Monday night, but I canceled on him due to me leaving this week and having too much to get done. Since then he calls me or sends me a text message a couple times a day. I don't answer all of them, usually only about one a day. At first, this seemed stalkerish. But each time I do talk to him, he asks me how my day was, trys to have a real conversation and seems really genuine.

So, there were a couple of points to all of this:

#1 - I need to move away from a military base! :-)
#2 - My luck/judgment hasn't been the best
#3 - I can't see the difference between genuine interest and stalker

So, the next couple of days/weeks should be interesting. Have I met a genuine fun guy or a psycho obsessed stalker?