The Post wherein Stef's past comes back to bite her in the ass

All these emails from The Master of the One Line Email (two more this morning!) are giving me a lot to think about. Not all of it good.

I keep wondering about a motive. Maybe, just once, he doesn't have one. Unlikely, but what the hell. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

He has a certain reputation around his neck of the woods. It's not a good one. The apartment he rented me in December of 99 wasn't the best in the world, but it put a roof over my head, was reasonably inexpensive (more than what I'm paying in Del City though), and got me away from my ex husband, who I thought I was going to strangle if he and I had to spend one more day under the same roof together (how we managed to stay married long enough to have four kids is a miracle).

The apartment was not in disrepair, and if things did need fixing, he'd come right away to make it right. I'm pretty sure that his attraction to me accounted for some of that. One of my neighbors complained about him to me constantly, and cautioned me not to get too involved with him, because his reputation preceeded him. Being new to the area at the time, I had no clue what she was talking about, nor did she explain much beyond what was supposedly common knowledge.

When he evicted me, we came to a mutual understanding and parted amicably. We exchanged emails for a while after I came to OKC, but then that stopped and I thought no more about him.

Until January of 06, when I thought I'd take a chance and reach out and wish him (and other people) a Happy New Year. When I didn't hear back from him, I figured that I'd let bygones be bygones.

Then there were emails in October, February and the ten we've exchanged in the last week. One of today's emails had a picture of him at the beach, on a pier or something. Might be Hampton Beach in New Hampshire, but I don't know. He still looked the same as I remembered him, perhaps a little older (after all he is 60 years old!).

Some of those ten emails made clear that he is still attracted to me. I'm flattered. I really am. But I made a committment when I enrolled at Rose State, and I fully intend to honor that committment. If there was a way I could get to New England to visit the friends I still have there (and deal with Jon), I might take advantage of it when I'm not in school.

I'm just scared he might get a wild hair up his ass and come here. That I don't think I could handle. I have enough going on without that. That would upset the delicate balance of my life as I've lived it in the last 5 years. I have enough on my plate without adding that.

I think I need a hug...


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

ISO: Sleep

I did manage to get a short snooze this afternoon, but then Mom called to tell me something (what, I don't remember right off hand), and shot that all to hell.

Now it's dinner time: I need to pop those pork ribs into the oven here in a sec.

Hmmm...someone's been workin' late...

Seems that my homework is never completely done. I have a little more tweaking to do on my portion of the "talking document" for my English Comp class, then I have to email it (10+ pages and a Works Cited page-- and that's just MY share of it!) to the group leader sometime over the weekend.

And there's a new editing project to do. It's the last one for the semester (Yay!).

There's another quiz in US History on Wednesday (5/2), then the final is about ten or so days after that.

I'll just get over all that when the Summer session starts June 4th. Go. Me.

And Paul sent me another email. He wants a recent picture of me. I don't know what he's up to, but it can't be good...

Maybe I need some, um, protection or deflection or I don't know what. What possibly could motivate a 60 year old man to want to... I think I know, but I really don't want to think about it. The whole idea gives me, um, pause (I guess that's as good a word as any). He's 1700 miles and a time zone away.

And I hope he stays there.

And someone else to come over here and see my big, blue, comfy couch.

Yes, cowboy, I'm talkin' 'bout you. Your ears burnin' yet?

That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

The Master of the one line email returns...

This man slays me.

I haven't seen him since he evicted me out of my apartment in Lawrence, Massachusetts in December of 2002 in a jealous fit (because I was giving all my attention to Saon and not him), and he still sees fit to keep in sporadic contact with me.

It started with me sending out a mass email right after New Year's in 2006, hoping everyone would have a good year (there were actually two mass emails, then ones I sent to friends here in OK). I didn't expect to hear from Paul ever again.

Lo and behold, in October of '06, he sends me an email asking when I'm coming back to the area (Lawrence and the surrounding areas). I replied that I probably wouldn't be back in the foreseeable future. I had just returned to Oklahoma from Wyoming at that point. I gave him my cell phone number, not expecting him to call (he didn't call when I lived 5 miles away, why would he call now?).

Still nothing from him. So back toward the end of February, I was going thru some old emails, and found the one I sent him in October. I discovered that I had inadvertantly given him the wrong cell phone number (I combined the one I had in Wyoming with an old one I had here), and wrote to give him the correct number (again, not expecting him to call), and to explain that I had gone back to school for a Broadcasting degree.

Today... out of the clear blue sky, here's another email from him (he probably doesn't check his email all that much). Today he says this:

When you come to the area...let me know... :) so we can play.

Oh, right, Paul... I'm going to drop everything and book a trip to New Hampshire just because.

It's nice that he thinks of me every once in a blue moon. But the way I look at is this-- if he hadn't kicked me out on my ass nearly four and a half years ago, I would have never come to Oklahoma. I wouldn't have the friends I have now, and I wouldn't be near my boys. So Paul actually did me a favor.

If I find myself in Massachusetts and/or southern New Hampshire, I will look him up. Just out of curiousity more than anything else. And I told him that.

But for right now, my life is here.



That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--