The Original Plan

The year I turned 16 was the year my sister got married. It was during this time that I came up with my ideal marriage timeline.

First I would meet the man of my dreams, then after at least one year of blissful dating he would get down on one knee and propose. Planning the wedding would, of course, take about a year (or longer if my mother had a say), and then we would be husband and wife. After two years of marriage and travel and enjoying each other's company we would start a family and live happily ever after.

That was The Timeline, The Plan, the Cinderella fairytale that stuck with me for the next nine years.....

Fast forward to the age of twenty-five. After many dating failures I found myself falling hard and fast for a nice guy who worked at a local store. Weary after my latest failure I told myself this guy would be the last of the Red-Hot Crushes. The last of the guys I would play hunter for...
So when the newspaper advertised auditions for a movie he was making I jumped at the chance and tried out. Surely he would notice me now!! Well, I got a part, a small one, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was great just to be around him, even though he was busy and had little time to talk. And then I went on Face.book. And I friended him. And I found out....he had a girlfriend, a girlfriend of three years!

It was at this point I realized, rather pathetically, that this was not the first time I had found myself crushing on, and blindly pursuing a guy who already had a girlfriend, even if I hadn't been aware of her. Which then led to the inevitable questions:

Where is MY guy? The one NOT already taken. The one who was made just for me?!

I've never been able to answer those questions but they got me thinking. And two years (and no more Red-Hot Crushes) later I've come up with a New Plan.