Roommate

A very good friend of mine is also a divorced dad with 2 kids. We met several years ago during a media project we were running for BCBST and we've been friends ever since. D is a good guy, which is why he's probably never really been single either. He wants to get remarried and is with a girl he thinks is 'the one.' I hope it works out for them.

D is a sales rep for a building products company in the midst of one of the worst economies in history, but he makes it work. He stays at my place when he is in town, and those nights usually end up with D throwing up in the driveway and the declaration that we will never drink that much again...which lasts until the next time he has a meeting in Nashville. Business is improving, he's getting engaged, and has decided to move to Nashville permanently. He asked me yesterday what I thought about having a roommate for a while. I said sure because...well this is after all the Summer of Yes.

I have only had non-nuptually obligated roommates one other time in my life. I was 19 and it was for the six months before I got married. It did not go well. One guy had chronic nosebleeds and the other guy couldn't keep a job...both relatively normal occurrences for guys in Alaska actually. Both guys would spend their days carving random designs on the wagon wheel coffee table we had in the apartment. They would carve for hours. We found out later that the girl who gave us the coffee table had actually only 'loaned' it to us....she was not happy and said we could keep it. She also recommended a place we could put it. This time there are no nosebleeds or wagon wheel coffee tables and we are both employed...so I'm hopeful things will be different.

So the Summer of Yes begins with a roommate. I have plenty of room and I think his kids will like the neighborhood when they come to visit. We have a neighborhood pool and I have a little theater room in the house which my kids love. Its Mayberry actually...with a commute. I don't know what to expect with this. As 30 something guys, will there be issues surrounding laundry detergent, food, cleaning? Let's hope not.

That being said, I think a few ground rules may be in order:

1: If you drink my beer, be sure to replenish the stock above the level you found it
2: The dryer is to be used for drying clothes and the iron is to be used for ironing clothes
3: The two functions in rule #2 are not interchangeable
4: If you throw up in the driveway, don't wait for a steady rain to wash it away
5: If you drunk smoke, do it outside and don't burn anything down
6: Don't touch my 1952 Gibson J25 under any circumstances
7: The kegerator is a dangerous machine...use it wisely
8: Under no circumstances should you ever wake me up unless you somehow violated rule #4
9: Dont refer to our roomate situation as the 'wolfpack'
10: (I'm leaving one space blank because I'm sure I'll need to fill it in later)

Any good plan needs a few rails to run on - including the Summer of Yes

Summer of Yes

The worst winter ever officially recorded in Nashville has finally ended! Three months of bad weather, snow days, broken office heaters, and amazingly horrific driving is hopefully coming to an end...and it got me thinking....

The last 3 months or so have not only been out of the ordinary temperature wise, but for me personally there have been changes in my life that have brought me to a place where I'm excited about the future and the possibilities for what's next. I turned 37 this year and it was the first time a birthday came and went and left me feeling like I was actually getting older. I spent some time looking back on the last 15-20 years or so of my life and realized a few things...

I started dating a girl when I was 17...we got married when I was 20...and got divorced at 33. Along the way had 2 great kids, started and sold a business, did a ton of traveling, drank a lot of beer, and met some great people. But in all of the good and bad of the last 20 years or so, it occurred to me that I have never really been alone. After the divorce, there were a series of girlfriends - great girls who I was lucky to have in my life - but I never took any real time to reflect and enjoy my life as just a member of the human race and not as someones husband or boyfriend, or even as 'dad'...and while I've done quite a bit, lived a lot of life, it has always been within the context of something other than me.

So it brings me here...I spent the last 2 years dating a beautiful Kentucky girl who any guy would be lucky to have. She wanted to get married and I didn't. I could go into all of the complexities of how that played out but its senseless and can really be summed up with one phrase - it didn't work out. So rather than joining match.com...or hanging out at the Boundry...I've decided to make the most of this time and do something I've never done before...be single. I'm sure I will date a little, but I think that is part of the experience of being single...so to dating I'm saying yes too.

The Summer of Yes is an experiment and challenge to myself...say yes to the adventure of being alive. Enjoy my kids, my friends, my job, and all of the amazing people I have in my life for the sake of enjoying them...and say yes to new opportunities, adventures, and things I've never done before...or haven't done enough. There will be road trips, baseball games, traveling, and plenty of beer to balance out some exercise I hope. This is my Summer of Yes.