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Graduation was awesome. :)
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*Something that I learned recently: Only 7% of face-to-face communication is the words that are spoken. This makes me seriously concerned that any of this written stuff is coming across properly at all! In a phone conversation, it only goes into the 30-40% range. In retrospect, I see it's true, but wow.*

I'm just a guy making it through life, enjoying my kids, my friends, and my job, trying to meet a nice girl to spend time with. A friend of mine recently observed that human beings are designed/built/evolved to crave companionship. I agree; no matter how well or poorly one's life is going, it just seems better if one has a partner to turn to and share it with. So, here we are. Welcome! (Another friend, my best friend, thinks I'm crazy looking for anything but various sorts of fraud on the Internet... Ebay? is the Great Satan. I think he's wrong, but I've always been far more optimistic than he.)

Let me preface this by saying that I stink at selling myself. These are my thoughts on the topic, but they're hardly comprehensive... I just don't do well forcing myself into two dimensions. Perhaps you can think of me as that really nice wine with the plain label that a friend turned you on to. (I have a couple of those, myself.) Additionally, all my photos are very recent. The goatee comes and goes, and is currently "goes." Prolly gonna stay that way a while... I seem to be tired of it. :)

I'm an INTJ (sometimes intp), for those of you into Myers-Briggs typing. I am, however, a very OUTGOING introvert. I have a blast when I'm out with friends and people in general... I'm shy at times, but usually "not so much." I just need my personal downtime to recharge. I get along with most people, though the level of involvement varies, of course. I get along with my ex-wife and her current significant other, and I'm pretty good friends with the one she left me for and subsequently left. Drama's really over-rated, isn't it?

I love to go to the mountains or on a bike ride, I also like to go out and have a beer or watch a movie. I don't mind doing that with a TV and a DVD... otherwise the tube just isn't on that much (I miss the few shows I WANT to watch half the time because I just forget to turn it on). I have a dog, a cat, and sometimes other pets. I will go far out of my way to help others just because I like to. (Is that altruistic or selfish?) I've had people tell me I should be a stand-up comic, but I know you can't make a career from a half-dozen really good rants... :) In my own time, I'm definitely an artist (albeit a poor-ish one), I love to go out dancing at a few select clubs, I enjoy reading, I go to the Ren Faire every summer... I'm probably over-educated (Chemistry, Molecular Biology, and Computer Science previously... now in a police academy), but I seem to get by. There are few topics on which I can't hold my own in a conversation, unless we diverge into current "culture" or sports. And I can usually fake it then. :-)

I love Mexican food, it's as much a staple as anything around here... I eat vegetarian a measurable fraction of the time. I love a good steak. I adore sushi. I get as much enjoyment from the food when I travel as anything else. I live for new, "pure" flavors and styles. Good beer is heavenly, but so is a great white tea. To balance all that, I work out a few days a week. It also helps with work, so it's a win-win-win.

Honestly? It'd be nice to have "that particular someone" to hang with, spend time with. In (your) current absence, I still fill my days pretty well. With two kids (16 and 10), a new-ish dog from the shelter to train/teach, and a one-eyed cat, it's more amazing that I get to the end of the day with any time left to sleep! (kidding) Besides, I've been a single dad for over 8 years now, and if I was going to 'settle' just to have someone else around or maybe the stereotypical single dad reason: to have someone to take care of my kids? ;-), it would have happened already. Write if you see a resonance, and I'll do the same. Fair enough? And, as it HAS come up, I *will* make time for someone else... it's not like my dance card's *completely* full. :) Oh, and I'm not averse to having more kids, and I'm perfectly happy with those I have already, if that's the way it works out. Any new ones would have to be with someone I intended to stay with forever, of course.

Speaking of rants: I've seen too many people grow old before their time from deciding they have reached an age where they are "all grown up." I am not that person. I have no intention of ever being that person. Learning, growing, and just plain enjoying life is too fun to give it up until it's torn from my grasp.

PS: Some kind of "edge" is always fascinating. Artist, athlete, just romantic? Maybe a little more driven than average? I have had such trouble predicting who will trip that tingle meter. {sigh}

And on the topic of religion: I am striving to be a good, moral, ethical person. I don't blaspheme in anyone else's church or holy place, and I don't disparage anyone else's religion. Personally, I find myself on a very secular Zen path. I'm learning the lessons I need to learn to the best of my ability, and I hope to leave the world a better place than I found it. Every day. My kids are Catholic, and I've taken them to Mass more times than I can count, so it's not at all that I don't appreciate the role of others' religions in their lives... I just don't see myself converting. Don't expect you to follow my path, either. Seems fair, yes?

This depends entirely upon the person with whom I am going out. It would be silly to take someone who'd prefer coffee out on a long hike, don't you think?

Female
Must not have messaged users looking for intimate encounters or sex.
Must not be looking for Other Relationship
Must not be looking for Intimate Encounter
Must not do drugs
Must not be married