Connecting on a newfound level.

In addition, one of the many things I learned from this weekend, or perhaps I should state that I was instead reminded of, was not to jump the gun while attempting to learn or read a person. This was made apparent to me on my first night in Strasbourg, on several occasions. I did this with one of the bartenders at the bar we spent our night in, I did this with myself, I did it with the two guys I traveled with, but most importantly I did it with a girl I've only recently met named Bridget. Perhaps it was all the intangibles that, in my eyes, were the only thing that encompassed her as an individual; AT THE TIME, all I knew was that she was a few years younger than me, when I met her she was kind of seeing someone, she's exceptionally attractive (physically), and the biggest thing that stood out to me was that she too, was in the Army (usually that's an automatic strikeout for all the obvious reasons.)

It is fair to say that most people, including myself, go by a predetermined checklist while either qualifying or disqualifying someone of the opposite sex; we do this through a process of elimination, or perhaps by attributing our own preconceived notions about them. Both the former and the latter were certainly the case with her. Is that unfair? Yes, but at the end of the day we know what we want/don't want and like/dislike. In my book, Bridget constituted everything I don't look for when qualifying a woman, therefore, right off the bat the prospect of becoming attracted to her had absolutely no kind of real probability. Furthermore, I did not invite her on the trip with prospects of hooking up with her or making any moves, but instead because after having a short conversation the night we met, I mentioned my upcoming trip, and she seemed interested. I figured I would just be going with people from work.

The night we arrived in Strasbourg, we as a group went out to a pub nearby our hotel. We all had several drinks, chatted a bit, and made it a considerably low-key night.  Somewhere in between of it all, Bridget and I were outside of the bar talking, and per usual, if you feed me a few drinks and put a good looking girl in front of me, I will more often than not make a power move. Check. I interrupted her in mid-sentence, pulled her in close to me and kissed her....or tried to haha. She backed away a bit and said that she didn't want to be that kind of girl I would hook up with on a first night basis. haha yeah at first I thought she was feeding me that LMR (last minute resistance) crap women usually do to make themselves feel like lesser sluts than they truly are. Yeah, I was wrong. After actually talking about it and setting the record straight, things were cool and not awkward so we just kind of moved past it.

My initial thoughts on it were pretty, blasé, I guess you could say. Nevertheless, the remainder of our trip was completely engulfed with us interacting through both meaningless and meaningful yet deep and real conversation, several laughs, and truly getting to know one another as people. In retrospect, I think her giving me the stiff-arm is where I was initially struck by surprise...a refreshing one at that. Maybe I've just become so accustomed to never being denied from the women I want; so much that it was a reawakening of my long-drawn-out and dormant sense of appreciation for women that actually value themselves and what they have to offer. By the end of our trip, our interaction had evolved into one in which we both openly stated our newfound attraction for one another. By this point, I had learned that Bridget is the kind of girl that in fact is made up of many things I look for, things I deeply connect with on a personal level, and she can be interacted with in manners contrary to what I had been told previously. 

On one hand, it's crazy to think that the last person I've felt truly attracted to, the way I do now or close to it, was Megan...about 2 summers ago. Even with Megan, nothing ever came of it because of my hesitant approach to it. I'm at a point where I'm not really sure what to make of it all; it's actually kind of amusing because it's almost as if I'm 16 again, crushing on someone this hard. I can't really even remember the last person I've connected with in such a way, without actually having hooked up with her. Today after going to yoga together, we spoke of our stance on it all again, and although nothing concrete really came of it, I think I've found a little more comfort in knowing that we're on the same page, and just hesitant to actually rush into anything. 

On the other hand, what's even more strange is that I considered that this may all be a product of an exceptionally rewarding and amazing weekend spent traveling with good people. However, 3 days separated from it all, my emotions on this matter are just as strong. Hell, it's still completely and realistically possible that nothing will even come of this either, but what I do know for certain is that I plan to take away several lessons from this. I'm sure many of you will want more details about this, and particularly her, however, I would feel more comfortable if we spoke of it when I call you all. hahaha yeah also, I'm sure some of you are probably laughing your asses off since this is completely unlike me, but I assure you, it's caught me blindsided as well. More updates soon, for now I'm going to take things as they come and see where it all goes. Merci :)