http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124 I can no longer hide. I can no longer avoid what is really going on around here. I can no longer pretend like I just suddenly lost interest in my blog, the one place I could always find comfort over the years. I have to confess&hellip;I met a man. No better way to make your mind go blank and your jaw hang slack, huh? Not for me anyway. The thing is this is not just any man. He is one of my best friends. I met him in 1980 at Thompson Jr. High. He would act silly to get my attention, and I would laugh and pat on him, but I never agreed to &lsquo;go with him.&rsquo; By the time high school started I was picking him up everyday and delivering back home. While at school he would follow me from class to class carrying my books. (Who does that in the 80&rsquo;s??) He hated all my boyfriends and would complain, but he still tolerated me talking to him about them. By our junior year I had begun to look at him differently. We went to the Winter Formal together and a few other dates, but I was worried about losing him as a friend, so I cut it short off with the &ldquo;Just Friends&rdquo; speech. Every year he would sign my yearbook and tell me how much he loved me. I just laughed and said, &ldquo;Oh Oscar!&rdquo; As we got older we stayed in touch at first. He came to my wedding and to visit me when my son was born. We tried to stay friends, but every so often he would look at me and say, &ldquo;I love you,&rdquo; so I began to pull away. Even my friends would tell me, &lsquo;Oscar really does love you, do you know that?&rsquo; and I had to admit I did. It just made me sad. We were both married and struggling. There were many dark days ahead for both of us, and I began to avoid him when I saw him. I couldn&rsquo;t face him anymore. I would see him sometimes, walking down the street near my house and it would break my heart. I wanted to stop him and take him for a ride just like we did in high school, but something always stopped me. Things went on like that for over three years. Then, two weeks ago everything changed. I went to the Nile to see The English Beat with a group of friends. It crossed my mind that Oscar might be there, but I was having too much fun to think about it. I was in the middle of dancing to the first song when Oscar suddenly appeared from the crowd and headed straight for me. He looked great. I have never been so happy to see him. He walked right up to me and grabbed me into a great big hug. Right then everything changed. Oscar told me later that several friends had called him at work telling him to get down to the show. He resisted at first, then found someone to cover his shift and walked down to the Nile. He was escorted in the backdoor by friends and fans shaking his hands shouting, &ldquo;Yeah! Oscar&rsquo;s here!&rdquo; He said he felt like a rock star. Then his best friend appeared before him and said, &ldquo;She&rsquo;s here.&rdquo; Oscar said he didn&rsquo;t hear anything after that, he just made a bee line for me. The rest is history. Well, not all the rest. It&rsquo;s only been two weeks. We&rsquo;ll see what happens now, but it&rsquo;s looking promising. I think my lack of blogging might be a good indicator of how distracted I am. Either he is with me, or I am sitting at work staring at my computer trying to remember how to do my job. Today seems to be a good day. At bit of the fog has lifted. Oscar chastised me yesterday when he learned I hadn&rsquo;t been blogging. I do feel badly. I just haven&rsquo;t been able to think of anything else, and I didn&rsquo;t really want to write about Oscar because I know my brother is going to read this, and I don&rsquo;t know! How weird is that? Oh well, I guess there&rsquo;s just no avoiding it. I am smitten and my mind has turned to jelly. Toast anyone? I can no longer hide. I can no longer avoid what is really going on around here. I can no longer pretend like I just suddenly lost interest in my blog, the one place I could always find comfort over the years. I have to confess&hellip;I met a man. No better way to make your mind go blank and your jaw hang slack, huh? Not for me anyway. The thing is this is not just any man. He is one of my best friends. I met him in 1980 at Thompson Jr. High. He would act silly to get my attention, and I would laugh and pat on him, but I never agreed to &lsquo;go with him.&rsquo; By the time high school started I was picking him up everyday and delivering back home. While at school he would follow me from class to class carrying my books. (Who does that in the 80&rsquo;s??) He hated all my boyfriends and would complain, but he still tolerated me talking to him about them. By our junior year I had begun to look at him differently. We went to the Winter Formal together and a few other dates, but I was worried about losing him as a friend, so I cut it short off with the &ldquo;Just Friends&rdquo; speech. Every year he would sign my yearbook and tell me how much he loved me. I just laughed and said, &ldquo;Oh Oscar!&rdquo; As we got older we stayed in touch at first. He came to my wedding and to visit me when my son was born. We tried to stay friends, but every so often he would look at me and say, &ldquo;I love you,&rdquo; so I began to pull away. Even my friends would tell me, &lsquo;Oscar really does love you, do you know that?&rsquo; and I had to admit I did. It just made me sad. We were both married and struggling. There were many dark days ahead for both of us, and I began to avoid him when I saw him. I couldn&rsquo;t face him anymore. I would see him sometimes, walking down the street near my house and it would break my heart. I wanted to stop him and take him for a ride just like we did in high school, but something always stopped me. Things went on like that for over three years. Then, two weeks ago everything changed. I went to the Nile to see The English Beat with a group of friends. It crossed my mind that Oscar might be there, but I was having too much fun to think about it. I was in the middle of dancing to the first song when Oscar suddenly appeared from the crowd and headed straight for me. He looked great. I have never been so happy to see him. He walked right up to me and grabbed me into a great big hug. Right then everything changed. Oscar told me later that several friends had called him at work telling him to get down to the show. He resisted at first, then found someone to cover his shift and walked down to the Nile. He was escorted in the backdoor by friends and fans shaking his hands shouting, &ldquo;Yeah! Oscar&rsquo;s here!&rdquo; He said he felt like a rock star. Then his best friend appeared before him and said, &ldquo;She&rsquo;s here.&rdquo; Oscar said he didn&rsquo;t hear anything after that, he just made a bee line for me. The rest is history. Well, not all the rest. It&rsquo;s only been two weeks. We&rsquo;ll see what happens now, but it&rsquo;s looking promising. I think my lack of blogging might be a good indicator of how distracted I am. Either he is with me, or I am sitting at work staring at my computer trying to remember how to do my job. Today seems to be a good day. At bit of the fog has lifted. Oscar chastised me yesterday when he learned I hadn&rsquo;t been blogging. I do feel badly. I just haven&rsquo;t been able to think of anything else, and I didn&rsquo;t really want to write about Oscar because I know my brother is going to read this, and I don&rsquo;t know! How weird is that? Oh well, I guess there&rsquo;s just no avoiding it. I am smitten and my mind has turned to jelly. Toast anyone? en-us Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:55:46 PDT Ahh sweet! :0) http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142773 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142773 Ahh sweet! :0) There's nothing better than having someone love you totally and&nbsp;TRULY....it's almost scary.&nbsp; It still freaks me out that my husband loves me so much after almost 15 years...as I do him. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142782 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142782 There's nothing better than having someone love you totally and&nbsp;TRULY....it's almost scary.&nbsp; It still freaks me out that my husband loves me so much after almost 15 years...as I do him. <font size="2">R/L~ real life~ is always preferable to V/L~ virtual life. Sounds nice to me,I haven't been &quot;jelly&quot; in a good long while, but it is a wonderful feeling that one never forgets.Enjoy!</font> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142783 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142783 <font size="2">R/L~ real life~ is always preferable to V/L~ virtual life. Sounds nice to me,I haven't been &quot;jelly&quot; in a good long while, but it is a wonderful feeling that one never forgets.Enjoy!</font> <p>Glad to hear that the guy is giving you some happiness. The heck with the blog--go for it!</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142785 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142785 <p>Glad to hear that the guy is giving you some happiness. The heck with the blog--go for it!</p> Dabbling in happiness. Never a bad idea. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142786 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142786 Dabbling in happiness. Never a bad idea. <p>Ok great story .....good for you......I am just waiting now for the haters to argue on this blog.....always a black cloud in that silver lining.... good story ......gives me hope that all the girls who said they just wanted me to be their friends.....got alot of follow up to do .......enjoy bliss not blogs </p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142790 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142790 <p>Ok great story .....good for you......I am just waiting now for the haters to argue on this blog.....always a black cloud in that silver lining.... good story ......gives me hope that all the girls who said they just wanted me to be their friends.....got alot of follow up to do .......enjoy bliss not blogs </p> Thanks all.&nbsp;&nbsp; I have never been so happy or in love.&nbsp; I'll keep y'all posted. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142793 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142793 Thanks all.&nbsp;&nbsp; I have never been so happy or in love.&nbsp; I'll keep y'all posted. Congrats dear lady and I hope you have a great time in store for you. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142801 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142801 Congrats dear lady and I hope you have a great time in store for you. Congratulations.&nbsp; As one who had 48 years with a great helpmate I know how you feel. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142805 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142805 Congratulations.&nbsp; As one who had 48 years with a great helpmate I know how you feel. Good luck and congrats, BakeTown.&nbsp; :)&nbsp; Thanks for the update. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142810 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142810 Good luck and congrats, BakeTown.&nbsp; :)&nbsp; Thanks for the update. <font size="3">Sweetie--I gotta tell you, that is awesome.  Never too late to feel like a teenager again is it?  Not to mention how you have already coverd the unconditional part of life.  Although I do not know you, I am so happy for you.  </font> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142817 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142817 <font size="3">Sweetie--I gotta tell you, that is awesome.  Never too late to feel like a teenager again is it?  Not to mention how you have already coverd the unconditional part of life.  Although I do not know you, I am so happy for you.  </font> I forgot to mention... he's pretty gosh darn happy too!&nbsp; :-)&nbsp; yay! http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142824 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142824 I forgot to mention... he's pretty gosh darn happy too!&nbsp; :-)&nbsp; yay! You're walkin' on sunshine... woh oh!! And don't it feel good?! :) Yay for you guys! http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142859 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142859 You're walkin' on sunshine... woh oh!! And don't it feel good?! :) Yay for you guys! <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Your story gave me the tinglies and put a happy tear in my eye, bake.&nbsp; Thanks for sharing and good luck to you both.&nbsp; Sometimes we have to go through some unpleasantness so that later we'll recognize and appreciate the good stuff when it comes along.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142954 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/baketown/15124/#c_142954 <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Your story gave me the tinglies and put a happy tear in my eye, bake.&nbsp; Thanks for sharing and good luck to you both.&nbsp; Sometimes we have to go through some unpleasantness so that later we'll recognize and appreciate the good stuff when it comes along.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>