One

A black Jetta pulled up outside my house and I jumped in without a moment's hesitation. Hopping in a near stranger's car didn't even crack the top ten list of crazy things I had done in the past month.

In December I had been living in downtown Phoenix in a condo I'd owned for six years, working at a job that I'd held for nine. Life in my thirties had become more or less stable and all together predictable when, in a the span of a couple of weeks, I traded in my hand for a new one. By early January I was living in Seattle, 1250 miles from most of my friends and all of my family. I spent my days working for a new company and my nights struggling to find furniture for my near empty apartment. Save a few key items, most of my possessions had been sold or given away.

When Samantha, a friend of a friend offered to show me around town, I jumped at the chance. As I hopped in to the passenger seat I took a moment to gather myself. I hadn't really taken the time to think through what was going on tonight. Was it a date? Was it just some girl throwing the new nerdy kid a bone and hanging out with him once? Was she just doing a solid for Mandi, our mutual friend and then I'd never hear from her again? It was best that I didn't over analyze. The more analyzation that takes place, the more likely I am to say something disastrously stupid(See: This entire blog).

While eye contact has never been a staple of the nerd repertoire, I took a moment to greet her and do my best not to look like a complete shut in. Her pictures hadn't done justice. Samantha was super cute. Her face showed her expression like a teleprompter, and right then that teleprompter read, "I'm a little nervous, this is slightly awkward". After a quick hello, she shifted in to first and we were off. Her eyes stayed fixed straight ahead as she drove, and the new lack of eye contact made me slightly self conscious. I double checked my zipper and made a mental note to check my breath next time I found myself alone.

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As of May 5th, we will have been dating for exactly one year. In 365 days, Samantha has:

• Made the somewhat gloomy and constantly overcast city of Seattle one of the happiest times of my life.
• Surprised me in new and exciting ways, every day.
• Made me seem social and somewhat personable at times, despite my best efforts.
• Listened to all of my terrible stories.  Most of them more than once.  The ratio of times that she's heard my, "And that's how I met Shaquille O'Neal" to the number of times that I've heard her, "And that's how my band ended up opening for Weezer" is ridiculously lopsided in the wrong direction.
• Regularly sat and played a video game with me that she had no real interest in playing, just to spend some time with me.
• Convinced me to buy a dog.
• Listened as I explained some ridiculously nerdy concept(Programming, Star Wars, Video Games, etc)
• Had this entire blog bound as a book.
• Made me a better person.

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A lot of people ask me why I stopped writing in this blog.  There are a lot of reasons I guess, but I think the easiest thing to say is that I just don't have time to write life anymore.  I'm too busy living it.