Path of Least Expectations

I'm stunned. I'm astonished. I'm whatever other word you can think of that is a synonym for shocked.

EC knows how to use the phone....on a regular basis!

Yes indeedy, the boy (sorry - man) has managed to call me everyday since our meet n' bowl. I'm not talking creepy stalker calling with heavy breathing into the phone, but, cool 'hey how are you, how was your day' calling. What do they call that? Mmmmmmmm, mature? He definitely doesn't seem scared to reach out and touch someone - and I mean that in the AT&T commercial way, not the you-are-a-big-fat-perv way.

I'll tell you - it's the little things that make me happy.

It's incredible how my last two relationships have led me down the path of least expectations. I see this happen to a lot of women in their late 20s and 30s (not to mention 40s, 50, and so on - but once you hit 70 it's ok to just look for a man who's breathing on his own). We get treated like garbage so long that when a guy comes along that actually respects us for the kick-ass women that we are, we are flabbergasted. All of those expectations that we started off with in our late teens and early 20s have gone bye-bye and we are just thrilled to find a man who can get his digits to hit "Rachel Call" on his cell phone at times other than 2:15 am.

I've often wondered how women end up settling. I've been fortunate thus far that all my closest friends have actually married men who are good for them, but, I've also seen the women who end up with a D- when they are an absolute A+. And I could never figure it out.

I guess it ties back to the whole concept that I talked about a couple weeks ago about how women's self-worth is often based on men. And although I feel it's a crock of crap that we do accept that, it does enable women to settle.

Now PLEASE don't get me wrong. I'm absolutely NOT saying that EC is "settle" material. (He appears to be just the opposite from the little I know of him.) I'm just making a point that something as normal and should-be expected as calling on a regular basis is actually pleasantly surprising to me right now.

The path of least expectations has led me here and hopefully, at some point, EC or some other man will continue to surprise me (and I will continue to understand that as a kick-ass chick I deserve to be treated as such) and will put me back on the path of the expectations that I started this whole dating odyssey with.

But for now, I'm going to sit back and watch the cell say, "EC Calling".