How accidentally punching a dude in the groin turned into true love, and other life lessons

Hello, readers! Miss me yet?!

I'm pretty sure the past five blog posts have started with me offering an apology for not writing as often as I should and promising to do better. I'm not going to do that in this one because clearly I don't keep promises very well. What I will do is offer a brief explanation, albeit a lame one.

The past month or so has been a bit of a personal emotional rollercoaster for me, which culminated in a three-month follow-up with my primary doctor a few days ago. (Details about that to follow at a later date.) I've been allowing myself to get too stressed out about my weight, my health, my finances, my messy house, and really any other minor thing that can start eating at a person after a while. This caused me to abandon blogging mainly because I couldn't be bothered to do it. Any time I would think about sitting down and writing something new, my brain would go, "Eeeehhhhh, better not. Let's watch Netflix instead."

But I've decided to snap out of it and refocus my goals for the rest of the year. Returning to this page to purge my brain of all these worries and cares probably will be a cleansing activity, and following through with writing new posts will help me stay motivated to complete other activities. (I just bought a new pair of boxing gloves, and I'm going to my first yoga class next Monday! Eek!)

While I could dedicate this post to my continuing weight loss journey, I'm not going to. I have another appointment or two to get through before I'll feel ready to share what diagnosis and future plans. (Don't worry, it's nothing major.) Instead, I want to write about something a little mushy but much more interesting. To me, anyway. It might not be interesting to you, but if that's the case you can stop reading. *blows raspberry*

Five-ish years ago, I started working in the kitchen at Hy-Vee. My sister got me the job and I was excited to be working with her. But she quickly ceased to be my favorite coworker when I was introduced to a goofy guy wearing a smiley-face tie who always seemed up to no good. His name was Chris.

At the time, let's just say he was 'unavailable.' Which wouldn't have mattered anyway, because back then my fail-proof method of dealing with crushes was to avoid them like the plague and forget how to talk when they were within speaking distance. Yeah ... I wasn't a good flirt. (I've now learned from multiple sources that I sometimes came across as bitchy and stuck up when I was younger. But really, I just never knew how to interact with handsome fellas like a normal person. I was shy! Is that a crime?!)

So, I was content to admire him from afar ... until one fateful day when everything changed.

I tend to swing my arms when I walk. One night at work I was passing by a doorway I thought was unoccupied, when all of a sudden someone comes bounding through. Before I could stop it, my fist made direct contact with his crotch. I'm assuming it was painful, given the amount of time it took for him to regain composure after doubling over. I wanted to look for somewhere to hide, but all I could manage was a rapid-fire "Oh my gosh, I am so so so sorry!"

Once he got over the initial pain, he could have decided to laugh it off and let the rest of the night commence without incident. If only. Instead, he taped a plastic to-go bowl to his crotch and loudly announced his presence anytime I got near him, complete with beeping truck noises and arm flailing. (I could be making up that last part, but I wouldn't put it past him.)

I was mortified. But also secretly pleased, because hey, this cute and funny guy is finally paying attention to me! Still, that day will go down in infamy as one of the moments I will never be able to live down.

That, and the time I tumbled down the concrete stairs at a Central football game when I was a freshman. My friends called me Roly Poly the rest of the year. Man, I was just the coolest.


Anyway. The months went by, he eventually became 'available,' yada yada yada, a handful of years later and here we are.

I'm writing all this mushiness because I'm SO thankful that that humorous night has led to where we are today. While I know my indecision and weight frustration and emotions are probably difficult for him to navigate, he does so with ease and grace. He always knows the right thing to say when I'm feeling down and he always makes me feel beautiful, important, and special.

You'll never know when or where you might meet the one person who is the exact person you need in your life. For me that's doubly true. Chris and I didn't start dating until almost a year after the "incident", and in that time any number of things could have happened to push us off course. But it didn't.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there are some parts of my life that I don't like, but those will never take away the fact that I have so much to be thankful for -- starting with my husband. I also have a loving family, supportive friends, a steady job, a cute little house, a safe neighborhood, and a welcoming church I can finally call home. It's time to start focusing on the positives again!