It’s time once again for the annual ulcer-creator, my office’s open house. Woo.

Although I always enjoy the evening, it’s so much work to actually get there that I spend the first weeks of December dreading the whole thing. (Maybe next year I’ll keep this in mind and have it in November. Or January. Or some other offbeat time of the year.)

This year, however, getting ready for the open house reminds me of the preparations for last year’s. I was working like mad to make my mom’s cranberry fruit-nut bread (like the descriptive title?) when I decided on a whim to e-mail this Stephen Deken guy. He’d already asked me on a quasi-date to lunch, which I figured was a “hey-you-live-in-st.-louis-so-do-i” buddy kind of thing. We’d met at JournalCon in October, and e-mailed a few times in November and the beginning of December. But I thought, hey, might as well try to get to know him a little better before having to actually eat in front of him!

So, I e-mailed him. And accused him of being a Christmas punk. (Punking out of all of the Christmas rigamaroll, I mean.) Thirty minutes later, a reply. A reply wherein he states that he’ll be making cookies over the weekend. No, really.

What’s your favorite, he asks.

I was sunk.

As I’m about as slick as gravel, I managed to wait an entire five minutes before writing him again. (Can you say “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”…)

Five minutes later he wrote me back. And the coolest thing was, he didn’t “end” the conversation. He just let it hang there.

I managed to wait 10 minutes before I wrote him back this time.

Open house bread was burning, but I was humming. And the stress of the open houses faded immeasurably at the stress I felt about Stephen and I having our first date!

Alas, this year is a little different. No e-mailing the prospective boyfriend in between batches of bread. No knot in my stomach when I hear the little “ding” of my computer telling me I’d received another e-mail. But the knot I get in my stomach when I’m rolling cookies into balls while Stephen nibbles on my neck is an entirely different story! I do believe I’m the most blessed girl on the planet. Open houses are nothing when I’ve got Stephen here with me.

Smiling,
michelle