Reflecting back on my "Rules"

Of all the posts I have written, one of my favorite posts is what I have learned from my past relationships. I have all of these "rules" that I follow from past experiences. Yes! I actually practice what I preach.

Let's reflect. Number one is about not living in the same city as your parents or your partner's parents. Check. Not only do I not live in the same city as my lovely mum and dad. I live 500 miles away. I love them, though. As for him - you have to cross a state line, so we're all clear.

Number two is about not dating someone who has been married before. As far as I know, I have followed my own advice these days. But I have to admit that I have a different feeling about that rule. I think it's ok to date someone who was married before if they didn't have kids with their ex and they have no contact with them. Like a starter marriage. That would be totally fine with me. Because it's practice for a "real" marriage.

Number three states not to date someone with kids. Again, as far as I know, I have followed this rule since writing that. Although, sometimes I do see children who look a lot like this guy I am dating.....

Am I putting my friends first? I guess so. That would be rule number four. I would say I do make an effort to stay in touch with them on a regular basis. I attempt to have those "girls nights out" with 'em. When one of them called me to talk about a huge dilemma and I was having lunch with my dude, I took the call and listened for 25 minutes.

I have to say of all the rules, I am the best at number five. I absolutely refuse to let a guy do anything "manly" for me. This means that when I bought a curtain rod and a curtain for my picture window, where all of Madison can see me as we speak, I had to figure out how to hang it myself. When I say that this was a very much needed fixture, I am not joking. Let's just say that it is very possible that every senior at the senior center across the street has seen me in the nude. Well, due to rule number five, I had this rod and this curtain in the box for about four weeks, until I decided that I didn't feel like learning how to mount it. So I returned it. So now every resident of my condo building, every senior citizen, every UW student, and every person going to the farmer's market or any place on my street, for that matter has probably seen me in my birthday suit. Oh well. I'm not modest. So, let's just say I am following that rule.

We can check off number six. Since publishing that post, I am pretty sure I work harder.

Ditto with number seven. I am sticking to my age.

And with number eight - what can I say? I think this is the first birthday I have celebrated since my senior year of college where I didn't feel like I had to do anything special. Because I get to do special things that I love doing almost every week.