Blooming Women
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  • Happy Birthday, Blooming Women! One Year Today!
  • Blog—Maniacal Musings—Becky Lyn Rickman, Managing Editor
  • Blog—Jessica's Journey—Jessica VanVactor, Guest Contributor
  • Blog—My Armenia—Carol Rickman's Blog
  • Dealing with miscarriage
  • My Story
  • Circles
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Being Single
  • 5 Stages of divorce recovery
  • The Circus is in Town
  • (You're covered with) The Fingerprints of God
  • Thunder Roared and Love Soared
  • A Period Piece
  • A sneak preview of the Gertie sequel!
  • Six Steps to Cultivate your Femininity in the Business World
  • Chore Zoning or Don't try this at home!
  • The 50 with Meredith Morse—Opera Singer
  • The 50 with Jessica VanVactor
  • Memorizing Joy
  • AT LAST! My interview with Shan White, Life Coach for women in transition
  • Questions and statements we don't care if we never, ever get asked or told again (am I right, girls?)
  • The Date
  • Moonshadow's Spirit
  • Broken Writer + Hypnotherapy = Amazing Trips
  • The "R" Word
  • The 50 with Carol Shepherd Rickman
  • Triumph During Transitions
  • A Kentucky Afternoon
  • Mothers
  • 10 things chemo taught me
  • What if . . .
  • Forgiveness—A poem
  • Mantegories (n. from the Latin; man+categories)
  • Insomnia 101
  • Blooming Bud Interview: Sierra
  • Masterful Mindsets
  • It's in the bag!
  • Important lessons for children: Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can
  • Nursery rhymes, and times, and slimes, and grimes, and crimes
  • Things I learned as a single mom
  • Sadie's Soapbox: Dating
  • The Dress
  • 8 Things That Have Surprised Me About Having a Large Family
  • The gift of longing
  • The Semicolon Project
  • Most embarrassing moments—culinary edition
  • MilitaReality—a brat's perspective
  • About those elusive wisps of thought
  • Being there
  • The Giving Mom
  • How I still haven't learned to keep my smart mouth shut!
  • If you give a mom a cookie . . .
  • Cacti and Geraniums
  • The Three Gardeners
  • Beauty is as beauty does
  • Words for Sabra
  • Arm scratching in Baltimore
  • Pornography didn't kill our love and friendship . . . I did . . . and how we got it back
  • Hardening off our little bloomers
  • The Wonderful, Magical Women of Blooming Television
  • Shake it like a Polaroid picture!
  • 25 Date Nights (that aren't dinner and a movie)
  • Hills Like White Elephants
  • Maryland Beaten Biscuits
  • The night we thought the house was exploding
  • A mysterious case of goosebumps or "What is that on the wall?"
  • Militareality—Real stories of military wives
  • Finding my metal in wood
  • Another blooming bud interview
  • Chariot of Fire
  • Secret gifts of love
  • The best prank I ever pulled was . . .
  • Connie
  • Dating and other hazards
  • Favorite childhood memories
  • When God speaks . . .
  • Zanie gets into another sticky situation
  • No-see-ums: A little useful information
  • I love my kids, but . . .
  • Meg's poem
  • Another blooming bud interview
  • Some of my favorite herbal recipes are . . .
  • I love my cat, but . . .
  • I love all creatures, but . . .
  • The thing all girls and women must see and know . . .
  • The Great Chicken Debacle
  • The Powerful Influence of Brothers
  • How I feel about blooming is . . .
  • Sometimes grandma is up—other times she is simply upside-down
  • Anyone out there as anxious as I am?
  • Some of my funniest childhood memories are . . .
  • You might be addicted to Harry Potter if . . .
  • This month's survey:
  • Another Blooming Bud interview
  • The most valuable life lesson I've learned is . . .
  • The greatest blessing to come out of the most painful thing I ever experienced was . . .
  • The most powerful influence on my life is . . .
  • The thing that could have broken our family, but didn't was . . .
  • The funniest thing that ever happened to me was . . .
  • The time my dad really surprised me was when . . .
  • NEW FEATURE: Interviews with Blooming Buds
  • ANOTHER NEW FEATURE: A survey
  • The most valuable life lesson I've ever learned is . . .
  • My most embarrassing moment was when . . .
  • What really puzzles me is . . .
  • One of the most fun days I ever had was . . .
  • The most scared I've ever been was when . . .
  • The people who have been the biggest influence on me are . . .
  • I like to relax by . . .
  • The best way to do . . .
  • My most embarrassing moment was when . . .
  • The most fun I ever had was when . . .
  • When I grow up, I want to be . . .
  • What really puzzles me is . . .
  • The most amazing bargain I ever found was . . .
  • Those annoying things kids do and what they mean
  • My shameless self-promotion
  • The thing about getting older is . . .

dating and other hazardous activities

By Anita Wright, Guest Contributor

So, regarding stories of extreme humiliation. I can deliver. This one is from The Wasn't Chronicles of my life, as in, it wasn't him and it wasn't him and it most assuredly wasn't him. I still don't have a him except Him (God) and for now that is quite alright with me.

But I digress. 

After the break-up of my first disastrous marriage, I needed an evening out. Now my divorce wasn't final and in my faith, that means no dating. I bent the rule a little in the name of a good cause and decided to attend an American Cancer Society fundraiser singles dance. I didn't date. I just attended. But driving there, I made up my mind to dance with anyone that asked me. I figured it should be a fairly innocuous event. 

I arrived and had to walk through a wall of smoke to get into the "smokeless" dance, as it was advertised. That should have been my first red flag! I was a little nervous going in, and carefully surveyed the room, finding a table uninhabited, I planted myself there. It was nice getting all dolled up, a break from the jeans and flannel shirts I had to wear for carpentry school. 

It didn't take long for someone to ask and I held to my rule and obliged him. His name was Chen and he almost came up to mine. Chen liked to get intimate with strangers and when the music blessedly ended, I had to peel him off like a girdle and step out of his arms. It was not pretty. But I was gracious and thanked him for the opportunity to get my groove on.

Next up was Michael. Michael was nice and tall and muscular . . . and young. But, rules must be obeyed. As we were dancing, he asked me how old I was. 



"Really, Michael? Who raised you? Apparently you were never taught to never ask a woman her age. But because I don't care about such things, I'm 38. How old are you?"

"28."
 
"Taxi!"


"No, come on, dance with me. It's fine. I don't care."


So we danced and I learned that he was a carpenter himself. He did remodeling. We talked about framing and drywall and 22-oz. waffle-head hammers. It was enthralling. Then (duh, duh, duh, duh) he asked me out. 


I was flabbergasted. Utterly taken aback. I had not dated in 17 years. I told him I couldn't really date yet, but that he could maybe come to dinner and meet my amazing children. I know now how many single mom dating rules (SMDRs) I broke that night. 

After the dance, he walked me to my car and told me he'd see me the next evening at 5:00 and that he had something really important to tell me then. 


"Really? Why don't you just tell me now?"


"No. I want to wait. Tomorrow night I'll tell you."

More red flags.

The next day I prepped the kids on the fact that a man was coming to dinner and we cleaned and prepared a nice meal.

5:00. No Michael.


5:30. No Michael.


6:00. No Michael.


7:00. Michael calls. He lost track of time. He'll be there shortly. Click.


8:00. Michael arrives. Dinner is over. The kids are already involved in a movie and have no interest in meeting someone so rude. 

"So, Michael. What is it you wanted to tell me?"

"They're here."

"They're here? Who's here?"

"They're here. All around us and they look just like us so we don't know who's us and who's them."

I stifled a laugh. Gracious hospitality had departed hours before and slammed the door behind her.

"And by them, I'm assuming you mean aliens?"

"Yes. I know because I've talked to NASA and other agencies and they confirmed."

"So, the guys at NASA found time to talk to a little carpenter from Rochester, NY? That's impressive."

"You're mocking me."

"Yes. I am. There's the door. Lose my number."

As he walked toward the door, he noticed a family photo with my oldest beauty who had blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes, unlike the rest of us.

"I can't help but notice that one of your children doesn't look like the rest." 

I quickly caught on and surmised that he was implying I had been abducted, impregnated by an alien, and given birth to a half-breed. 


He left. I locked the door. The kids and I had a good hearty laugh. I excused myself for the night and went out in the backyard to study and refresh myself on the laws of dating as set forth in the Single Mom Dating Rule Book. 


Copyright © 2014 by Rent's Due Publications

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