Life After Lent

Cancel the jubilant prancing!

Well, Lent has been over for nearly two months now. To be honest, I keep forgetting that it happened. I had planned to celebrate my triumphant survival with a night of drunken karaoke where everyone sings either the sappiest love song they know, or the angriest breakup ballad. It would have been a shit-show. But suddenly there was too much going on to take up a whole night just to recognize this weird thing I did for Lent. It was over, time to move on.


No time for Taps!

And so the daily slog of my life settled back around me quietly and (almost) seamlessly, and this batshit crazy thing that I did is just a hazy frenetic memory. If I really focus, I can remember some pretty odd things. Did I really go speed dating and get zero matches? Harsh. Did I eat milk and cookies at a pub while on a date? Did I accidentally wear sweatpants and a volleyball jersey on a date? Yup. That actually happened. And then it disappeared. Just another chapter in a weird but fairly standard life.

I’m back to working and playing volleyball and planning silly events (Mark your calendar: Saint Swithin’s Day is just over two weeks away!) as though Lent never even really happened.

There is one major difference though.

 

Kevin aka Swamp Rat

After Lent ended, and Kevin returned from Costa Rica, we continued to go on dates. Lots of them.

It’s weird to think that a fledgling relationship is the fruit of my Lenten labours. I tried to play it cool. When people asked what our status was, I’d alternately refer to him as “my man” or “the dude I’m banging.” But in truth, we have been dating. Like, actual, heavens-to-Betsy, grownup dating. The concept is only marginally more insane than a 40 Date Challenge.

Dating one guy (as opposed to as many as possible within a set timeframe) is interesting. I’ve done it before, once or twice. To be honest, I generally get pretty sick of them by the second month. I find I’d much rather just do my own thing than try to find a way to incorporate somebody else into it. So far, not the case with Kevin. He incorporates just fine on his own. He and Captain Horatio Longbottom are still madly in man-crush with one another. They text each other about meal ideas and whiskeys and the gods only know what else. He supports my Freezee addiction, came out more than once to play volleyball with me, and my girls think he’s lovely. So I guess that’s a thing. I guess that's my thing.

 

Constantine

I felt absolutely awful about the fact that Constantine didn’t work out. He went from wanting to schedule a standing date to play board games at a cafe every Sunday forevermore (as he suggested the last week of Lent via text), to just not talking to me for a month. I have discovered that this is pretty standard for him.

I have seen Constantine one since Lent ended. We met up for Thai food and a chat after work one day a few weeks ago. We talked about his work, he asked about my volleyball. He seemed to think that the reason I was no longer persisting in texting him was because I spend all of my time playing volleyball. He’s not entirely wrong there, so I did not disabuse him of that notion. But it felt very different. A nostalgic sort of vibe that did not bode well for friendship in the future.

Occasionally I come across a pun that is too good to not share. Once in a while Constantine replies.

Not with a bang, but with a whimper. (TS Eliot)

Regret is a losing battle.

 

My Girls

Times are busy for my crew these days. People are moving up, moving in, or just moving. Most of my girl friends are getting new jobs, experiencing major and minor life upheavals, while still trying to carpe diem while the diem’s good.

 

 

Though it was a tad irregular, choosing to spend a few of my 40 dates with my girls was incredibly fun, and very positive. I think I need to incorporate that more into my real life. Perhaps I should kidnap Liz, so that we have time to catch up and to show her a little friendly appreciation. Lana and I should check out another sporting event of some kind. Maybe cricket.

 



Smart money was on my
becoming a harmless crone.
Now all bets are off.



Lent was a great reason to spend time with my girls, and it did give us something exciting to talk about. But now that it’s over, I might have to start making up reasons, and maybe even making up topics too. Who knows?  

 

The Future

What does the future hold for me and Kevin? Well hell, I don’t know. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

I’m going to try to be a decent person, try to apply the lessons I learned from Lent, try to live my life as though there is an audience I’m trying to impress. Just keep swimming.