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December 01, 2004 - Wednesday, 3:23 p.m.

Well� today I stepped out of my comfort zone. There is a guy here at work. He works in the cafeteria. I�ve talked to him most days I go in for breakfast or lunch. His name is Mark and he�s a chef with Sodexho. (They run our cafeteria). Anyway, over the last three or four months he�s imparted a lot of information to me, and he�s found out a fair share about me. At first I was a little put off by the fact that he was a Chef, and seemingly like Gary. However as I got to know him, it became apparent that they are different. I know that he is divorced, twice, but has an amicable relationship with both women. The first woman he had a daughter with, that is now 16 years old. The second woman came into their marriage with two kids, a boy and a girl� like 12 and 14 years old now. After the second divorce he kept her two kids, so he is currently raising three kids on his own. He bought his house about a year ago this past October, and it is a brick house near Penrose Main. Cooking is a passion for him, as well as his family, it seems. He seems very sweet. Anyway�. About a month or two ago we were talking about houses and I�d mentioned I was doing the brick work on the outside of the house and he offered to help me. I basically said, �Oh that�s nice; I�ll let you know.� I let it just sit in the back of my mind, unsure what to do with it. Knowing I�d been lobbed the ball, and that I was delaying the return. I�ve been thinking about it a lot recently. Realizing that he remembers my name and always makes a point of using it two or three times every time I see him. At first I thought he was just like that to everyone, but noticed more and more that he was always very nice and very friendly, but almost always uses names like �sweetie�, �honey�, and �m�lady�� and rarely peoples names. I don�t know� maybe he�s interested. Really, I�m not good at telling these things. But more and more I�ve been thinking, I think he is interested� and more surprisingly that I�M interested. So, armed with one of my business cards, with me cell phone and email address written on the back, I gave it to him at lunch today with a �if you have any time and can still help me � give me a call�. He immediately took the card and put it in his shirt pocket and asked if I wanted to get that done THIS weekend. I fumbled, �Ummm� I don�t know, I think the weather has to be warmer� or something like that! I am hoping that he gets the message that this was more about ME giving him MY phone number, then it was about ME getting help. I guess we�ll see.

Nice volley, M. The ball is in HIS court now. He opened the first door by offering, and FINALLY, I hope, he sees an open door. Now it�s time for me to nervously wait. :o)