M-Square and I had a huge fight this week. He's going through a really hard time at work and being very non-communicative. I was supposed to fly down to see him on Septemer 24, but he was going to work that weekend. And then I wanted to fly down next week to see him but he's just way too stressed from work and other things going on his life.

I was so pissed at him. He says I leave him too many voicemails and it's like he's talking to me so he doesn't feel like calling. Then when I finally talk to him he's like so stressed out and says I'll call you back and never does. The boy is just so wiped out every day. He's hired three new employees and training new people is very stressful to him. He said the new people never show up for work on time and it pisses him off.

I stopped calling him at work because I knew he was training new people, so I don't get to talk to him during the day. Lack of communication just totally freaks me out. I think he's also having a hard time with the owner of the company, who brought M-Square in to take the company international. But it's hard I think for an owner who's had his own business for 30 years to all of a sudden bring in another person and expect to give up control, even if the new person is a long time friend of his. His boss wants do two seminars as well and wants M-Square to help him do it. He said something about maybe doing the seminars in New York and Florida.

M-Square has a degree in physics and can explain the science of the products they're selling. He's been a pharma rep before, and taught seminars to doctors on drugs so he's good at leading seminars. But this is a new field for him and it's a totally different thing than getting docs to use and buy drugs.

So my baby boy is all stressed out and says he feels pressured by me and I just about lost it on Tuesday and was so ready to break up with him. I called him on Tuesday after not hearing from him for a whole week and he said something like "didn't I tell you that?" and I just got riled and didn't know why. When I finally figured it on Wednesday, it was pretty silly.

I got mad because I hadn't heard from him for a week and then we he said he'd told me something already it was like "who the hell are you talking to, what woman has my exact same voice that you think you are talking to me?" I was jealous and didn't even know it. Then I had to call him back and grovel and beg for forgiveness.

I know the guy isn't seeing anyone else. I just hate that he doesn't call enough and he hates that I leave too many voicemails. Then he said that I don't give him a chance to call me. I felt bad when he said that because other guys have said this to me before.

I finally figured it out that he was thinking I didn't trust him enough to call me and it was really getting to him. He gets enough of that "no trust" stuff at work and now he has to deal with it with me. But I spoke to him and we made up and then I was happy again. He just needs his space because he's so stressed at work, and I think I was focusing too much on him and not enough on my own life.

I've stopped writing and I've stopped job hunting. I was becoming way to co-dependent and not being the independent person I normally am. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, but at least I got it now and we're still together.

I'm just happy we're still together, but disappointed that I can't see him. With all the work stress he's under, it's taking a toll on his health and he can't sleep and he's not eating right. He says he comes home and tries to read but can't relax and totally does not feel like talkking to anyone. I so know what he's going through. Work stress is really, really difficult. He says he misses me terribly and he's afraid of losing me, and I guess me wanting to break it off just doesn't help things much. He says he's under a lot of pressure at work and having me stress on him is another pressure-stressor in his life.

My poor boy! He always sounds so exhausted and whiny when I talk to him. He doesn't want to be that way with me, but he says he can't help it. I think I just have to calm down and get back to my own life, because not writing and not job hunting is making me unhappy as well. I also stopped working out, which never, never helps.

I was amazed at how easy it was for me to become so co-dependent on him, which is unhealthy for me and for our relationship. I feel bad too because my total instinct is to mother him and make his pain go away, and I know I shouldn't do that. He's an adult and doesn't need me mothering him and care-taking him like that.

But this is hard because I want to see him and I can't. My idea of heaven would be to just lie in bed all day and have sex with him all weekend, but in his state of mind and health he said it probably wouldn't be very satsifying. I'm sure he has performance anxiety running through his head as well.

But at least we're still together and holding on, and that's the most important thing. Work stress can't last forever and hopefully soon he'll be better soon and I can fly down to see him. My therapist said I need to take things one day at a time with him and be in the moment with him until his work pressure eases off. She said work stress is everyone's number one stressor with relationship stress running a close seocnd, so he's got a double whammy with me in the picture.

Haven't posted for awhile ... but I've been busy!

There was a free bluegrass festival in Golden Gate park last weekend and I attended both days. I saw Joan Baez, which was sooo cool! Her voice still sounds great and she sang a Bob Dylan song called "A Hard Rain Gonna Fall, which was just amazing.

Then on the way home I stopped to watch Doc Watson, who sang the first country song ever recorded. I love old country music!

On Sunday, a few friends showed up and we saw The Austin Lounge Lizards, Dolly Parton, and listed to a couple songs by Ricky Skaggs! You haven't lived till you've sung "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Imagine" with Dolly. Dolly looks really great for her age. She wore a rhinestone covered turquoise dress and she kept saying how all her instruments were covered with rhinestones.

The bands didn't play long. It is a free concert after all, so most sets were about 45 minutes. Ricky Skaggs was amazing, and I saw guys dancing to his music. The park was filled with so many non-San Franciscans, with all the southern folk weearing clothing proclaiming which southern state they were from.

Dolly's buses had Tennessee license plates, which means she drove all the way here from there. That's a long way to come to play a free concert in foggy San Francisco.

On Sunday morning I did a 7K Bridge to Bridge Walk, which my company was sponsoring. They paid for all their employees race fees and we wore company t-shirts to the race. I walked with a fellow employee and did the 7K in about an hour an 10 minutes. There was also a 12K run at the same time.

It was a jam packed weekend and my body was so sore from the 7k walk and standing for about four hours and dancing at the free concert. But I had fun and there's nothing like a free concert. I don't think I would have paid to hear Dolly Parton, but now that I've seen her I think I would pay to hear a three hour with her. I would definitely pay money to see Ricky Skaggs again. Emmy Lou Harris also played on Sunday at the end, but by that time I was so beat I just wanted go home and take a hot bath.

Just to prove I'm not a total Dead head. I also downloaded "Last Resort" by Papa Roach, "Almost Blue" by Elvis Costello, "Hash Pipe" by Weezer, :Wild is the Wind" by Nina Simone, "You and Me" by Lighthouse, "Toxicity" by Disturbed, and "Numb" and "Aerials" by System of a Down.

i-Tunes is dangerous. I was bored on Sunday and bought seven, count them now, seven versions of "Scarlett Begonias, by the Grateful Dead. God only knows why I need seven different versions of the same song because although I like the Dead, I am so not a Dead Head but this is one of my favourite Dead songs.

Still, I didn't downloand a whole concert just so I could get an 11 minute version of my other favourite Dead song "Fire on the Mountain". I have such good memories of being at a Dead concert with a couple of friends the year before Jerry Garcia died. We were at at the Fillmore Stree Fair in Pacific Heights first and then drove to Mountain View to the Shoreline Amphitheatre smoking hippie lettuce the whole way.

We had really, really great seats because I got in line at 6 am to buy the tickets. We were fifteen rows up from the stage. I was with two friends, one was a recruiter for Silicon Valley firms and the other person was a shrink. We just sat, smoke tons more hippie lettuce and just danced.

The whole front section was practically empty and then "Fire on the Mountain" came on just was I was seriously stoned and peaking. It's such a great song to dance to when you're that high and flying.

I know I'm going to have break down and buy a whole concert one day just for that song so I can relive my Dead concert memories.

Yes, I am very serious about leaving the SF Bay Area to be with my man. God, I never thought I'd ever say that, but "love" or whatever I'm feeling right now for this guy is slowly changing me. I did decide a couple of years ago that I'd be willing to give up living in the City and County of San Francisco if I met a guy who didn't live in the City, but I didn't think I would ever be willing to move out of this area.

At least it's the Los Angeles area, and it's a city and I'd just be living in the suburbs of Los Angeles. That's not so bad considering I could have met a guy who lived outside of California. That would have been hard if I had to leave California and move to a state without a large metropolitan city.

M-Square is just really, really great. He's cute, he's way smarter than me, he gets me and we get along very, very well. Plus, he's just so spiritual. It's a combo that is hard to give up just because I don't want to leave San Francisco. In a perfect world I suppose, I would have preferred to meet someone who lived here but it didn't turn out that way. I like to think that the universe has a good reason for me to leave the SF Bay Area, and M-Square is my readily available ticket out of here.

And for whatever reason, it kind of does feel like it's time to leave this place. I'm not sure why, but I do get the feeling I need to live somewhere else. But you know, who knows. M-Square and I are just beginning our relationship and who knows what the future will bring, but I'm just happy that I'm not so stuck in my ways that I wouldn't contemplate making changes to be with a guy.

And love is definitely changing me weekly, daily, hourly. There are ideas I had about love that are just being shaken to its core with this guy. Like maybe it's okay sometimes to compromise when you're in love, and if you're really in love, compromise isn't such a bad thing and doesn't even feel compromise. Compromising feels more like being flexible and adjustable, and doing whatever it takes to make the relationship work and for both people to be happy and peaceful.

I mean, I've had thoughts about this guy that I've never had or if I did I don't remember having them. Like I want M-Square to be the person I look at and I want to hear his voice the moment before I die. How weird is that. He's the person I want to have around me as I leave this earth. And the thought of leaving him even in death just freaks me out and make me cry. I seriously do not want to lose this guy ever, and I guess right now I'm willing to do certain things to make sure that we're together for a long, long time.

I joined Weight Watchers at work because I can't control my eating and I've gained about 15-20 pounds since last year. With the new job and the bad breakup with red-haired guy, the pounds just started coming back.

I can only barely fit into my size 8 Tommy Hilfigger jeans, and this really freaks me out. My size 8 Ralph Laurens I can't even wear. At least I didn't gain all the weight I lost, but still. I've thrown out most of my smaller clothes, so I have no choice but lose weight again. It's amazing what five extra pounds can do the fit of your clothes. My clothes could handle a 10-15 pound weight gain, but not a 15-20 pound gain.

Today was the first day I really starting counting my points, and I'm amazed at how hungry I am. My body really got used to surviving on more calories. I've been working out, but I just couldn't get back into the rhythm of counting my calories. Oh well, sometimes you just have to try something different.

The WW group at work is on Mondays from 12 noon to 1 pm. The people are really nice, and there are a couple of people there I know from projects I've worked on. I like the leader of the group. She's a nice woman who has a passionate love affaire with potato chips, who has kept her weight off for 20 years.

Most of the WW group at work are seriously overweight women. I saw one woman who really doesn't look like she has a weight problem, but then again my therapist doesn't think I have a weight problem either. I did feel kind of weird walking into the group with my totally tight size 10 very short silk miniskirt, when most of the women there look like they're size 18 and up. It made me wonder what they thought of me.

The WW group at work reminds me of that fat farm/spa I went to in Utah. Most of the women there were really huge, and they just stared me and the other women there who were smaller. There were other women who were thinner than me and we were all in the same exercise group, so at least I wasn't the thinnest person there.

I just want my clothes to fit and look attractive for M-Square. I can't believe I'm having a quasi-boyfriend relationship at this weight. At least with the red-haired guy I felt attractive and thinner and my clothes pretty much fit. Now I'm with some guy whom I really, really like and I'm a blimpie. How ironic is that?

M-Square is great though and hasn't mentioned the extra weight. I told him I needed to lose some weight, and he said with us the physical stuff doesn't and shouldn't matter. But I think it does. The extra weight just does not make feel attractive. If he wasn't so positive about physical looks not being important, I don't think I could have been intimate with him.

But he's from Southern California where he's exposed to that whole Hollywood thin look, and I just don't want to feel and look like a whale when I'm with him. I know looks don't matter but it's affecting my self-esteem and will be impacting my pocket book if I have to buy bigger clothes, so I've got to take the weight off.

But boy am I not in the mood to eat less nor am I happy about having to watch what I eat agan. The leader of the WW group at work is right. I'm always going to have to be vigilant about my weight, and not use food to medicate my stress levels.

I wish I was at the 49er/Dallas game. I remember being at 49er games when they would announce the scores for Dallas games, and if Dallas lost the whole stadium would erupt in a cheer.

That was an exciting but disappointing Oakland/Philadelphia game. The Raiders almost pulled it out, but they lost the game on penalties and bad kicks by Janikowski. Too bad.

I haven't posted for awhile because it's been such a weird two weeks. But here's the news.

I decided M-Square and I should have a discussion about serial monogamy last week. We live in different cities and you know, I've been burnt in the past when I haven't had this kind of conversation. You can't assume that just because you've had sex with soemone that they're not going to have sex with someone else.

What I thought would be a five minute conversation, took like almost three hours. Talk about baggage on both of our parts. Geesh! M-Square was like so offended that I had to even have a conversation like this with him, and I got kind of pissed that he was offended. So then I had to tell him about the stupid boyfriend who was cheating on me because I didn't have this kind of discussion, and then I had to hear about his ex-wife who constantly accused him of having affaires when he wasn't.

After we spewed our respective stories, I laughed and told him this is what is called "baggage". He laughed too and we both agreed that we wouldn't date other people and if we did we would have to tell the other person. In the end, M-Square was happy that we had the conversation.

Honestly, the disucssion was so hard but I felt like I needed to have it. I'm not planning on seeing anyone else, but I wasn't sure about him. He said he's a one-woman man, a statement I've never heard from any guy before.

I'm not even sure why the no screwing around conversation was so difficult, because when I was visiting him over Labor Day we didn't have a problem discussing the future and whether he would move up here or I would move down there. That was a five-minute conversation with him saying "the Bay Area has great sports but he didn't think he could live up here because it's too cold." I told him that I had already thought about who should move and that I would be the one to move because he has a great job and one I think is his life purpose. I even told him that my main pre-req for a job is the company has to have an office in LA, so if and when I move down there I could stay with the same company.

I wouldn't mind living in Southern California. The weather is warm and M-Square and I would live in the OC, because he grew up in that area. He said we'd either live in Laguna Beach or Newport Beach or somewhere in that area. We wouldn't be in a city, but LA is only an hour drive away.

I think there's been a ton of weird energy since Saturday when the full moon came out. People at work have been really stressed and two people today said to me that all we do at work is put out fires and be in crisis mode. Too bad all this frenetic energy hasn't translated into market share and increased revenue.

I haven't done a political rant in a long time, but I think it's such dandy, dandy karma that right as Eileen Ackerman, the superintendant for the San Francisco school district resigns due to political pressure from the left wing flakies on the school board, the San Francisco school district announces a $1 billion shortfall.

I think those left wing numb-nuts who got Ms. Ackerman to leave have a ton of explaining to do, because they were obviously too busy doing political infighting to watch the school budget. I love when people's personal agendas take over and leave the public high and dry.

FYI. I was asked by a friend to have my blog do an RSS feed, and it's doing that now. Not sure what this all means, but I think it's supposed to help other websites know when my blog has been udpated. I haven't been posting daily but I guess I'm going to have to keep up now.

M-Square knows I have a blog, but he doesn't know the address. He promised me that if he ever ran across it he would tell me. And when that lovely day happens, I probably will have to stop blogging about him and our relaitonship. If I knew he was reading my blog, I wouldn't write anything about him. I would feel like I had to censor myself and I don't want to do that.

Maybe my friend Jon was right when he told me "never tell potential loves that you have a blog." They'll just read it and get freaked out. So far M-Square hasn't talked about my blog in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping he's forgotten I even have one, although that's unlikely because the guy totally remembers everything I've ever told him. He did promise to tell me, but I wouldn't blame if he kept that little secret to himself so he could read what I think about him.

Last Tuesday I had a phone job interview and I was so unfocused. I don't think I did very well. Never schedule a job interview after a wild weekend with a guy you absolutely adore. Oh well! I think I need to send out more resumes.

I called M-Square afterwards because I was kind of freaked out, and he was his usual sweet self. Damn! I kind of really wanted this job. But maybe the other company I originally wanted to work at is where I really need to be. Some guy from work sent out an announcement saying he was leaving to take a job at that place. He only sent it because he'd been at my comnpany for 20 years. M-Square said I'm not even trying that hard to get a job and I'm getting called for interviews, so he thinks it's a good sign that I'm very employable.

My work week after my fun Labor Day holiday was hell. It was supposed to be a short week, but it sure didn't feel like it.

M-Square called me every day after he got home from work, which was so sweet! But I couldn't talk to him because I was too busy debriefing with my friends. Poor guy! I think he was bummed at me for never being around, but he had a busy work week as well plus he was tired from our weekend. I guess I wiped the poor guy out!

I'm having another Bridget Jones moment. M-Square just called to thank me for the weekend and to say he had a great time, then he said "I miss you already!". Aaaahhhh!

I told M-Square my pajama top smelled like him so I'm not going wash it right away because I want to keep smelling it to remember our weekend together.

This is what Bridget Jones from Bridget Jones II would say about my weekend - five glorious shags!

My weekend was amazing! I was expecting somebody who looked like Tommy Lee from Motley Crue, and instead I got a blondie boy Vince Neil type but with blue eyes ... which is like so Southern California surfer boy!

It's hard when you're meeting someone for the first time after chatting away and emailing for two months the way we did. There are so many expectations about what each person should look like, be like, it takes awhile to settle yourself down.

I knew within five minutes, like I always do, that the sex part was going to be really good. My sexdar is almost never wrong. I thought it was going to be really good just from talking to him on the phone, and then seeing him in person just confirmed my feeling. After an hour together while we were walking around King Tut exhibit, I got excited when our hands accidentally brushed, but then M-Square said he was trying to send me signals. I picked the signal up but I don't know, it was confusing to me because I had just met him and I didn't think it would work that fast.

We were so comfortable together, and yet not comfortable together. It's hard to explain. As the day progressed I became more comfortable with him, and by the end of the night I was pretty much lying with my head on his shoulder and caressing him, which was so cool. M-Square is a pretty touch feely king of guy and I really did want to hold his hand as we were going through the King Tut exhibit, but I felt it was just too soon.

King Tut was exhaustive. LACMA did a great job of crowd control by having timed exhibit entrances, but there were three times when the exhibit just got way too crowded. M-Square hates crowds so it was hard for him, but he was good and managed to keep it together until the exhibit ended.

Then he did something really sweet and thoughtful by buying for me scarab green earrings made of limestone with a little amethyst. The sales woman in the exhibit gift shop was so nice. She picked out the really nice ones for me, and M-Square helped me pick one out. I wasn't expecting a present from him this soon, but he said he really wanted to buy me something from the King Tut exhibit so I told him he could buy me earrings. There were a couple of women trying them on, and we were talking and they were going to buy them so I had to have a pair as well.

His place has steps down to a beach in the Laguna Beach area, so we did the Southern California date thing and walked on the beach hand in hand as the sun was setting. But then I spoiled it by somehow stepping in dog doo, which just annoyed me because I felt like Will Smith in the movie "Hitch" and was doing all the wrong things on my first date.

Walking on the beach at sunset was so nostalgic for me, especially when I saw these boys sandsurfing. I sandsurfed as a kid with a wooden round disk, but these young kinds had mini surfboards that were flat and you could throw on the sand as the waves are hitting the shore and surf on the water retreating back to the sea. Those kids were so cute, and they knew we were watching so they put on a good show.

More to come ... but I flew home on the 1 pm flght today very happy and still into M-Square as much as ever if not even more.

It is so hard to watch the news without crying. I didn't anything could be worse than 9/11 but now I wonder. So many lives lost, so many people having to relocate, anarchy abounds, this is what happens when civilizations goes. I've seen it in tv shows and movies but never thought to see in real life played 24/7 on the news.

Someone at work is challenging everyone to donate one day's pay to the people of New Orleans. Gas today for premium was up at $3.19 and regular at $2.99. I feel like people are scared and emotions are high at the consequences for our economy.

And in the midst of this I am so happy with M-Square and so excited to see him tomorrow. I feel ike we are really connecting after two months. It's been building ever so slowly and gradually that we each don't have time to panic yet about what we're doing. He is just the coolest, coolest, smartest guy! He is so quick on the draw and he remembers everything I've told him about myself, which is kind of scary.

He told me he thought my mind would be hardest thing to pin down, and I told him he was right. We are so alike and yet so different ... and we're both in transition which is kind of frightening.

I want it to work with him very, very badly! More than I've ever wanted it to work with any guy in my life. I'm even starting to think love doesn't necessary mean enslavement especially when you really love someone, and that compromise can be a good thing. But above all that kindess for another person's well being is the most important thing and that I have to remember this fact at every moment especially in this relationship with M-Square. We're so connected that I have to stay balanced because he'll feel it when I'm not, and probably more because I sometimes am so in denial about what I'm really feeling.

My prayers go out to the people of New Orleans and my friend at Wall of Sleep, and everyone else who is suffering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Just watching the news is so depressing and frightening. I've never been to New Orleans and now who knows if I'll be able to visit it now and see a real Mardi Gras. I think that there will be serious consequences for the US economy because of the possible damage to the oil refineries and the loss of a major city like New Orleans.

M-Square is so great! He said he wanted to make sure he talked to me tonight because he sensed that I was having such a hard day. He is the perfect sweetie! And at the end of our conversation, he said that he was glad that he got me stop thinking about work for awhile.

I brought work home. That's how busy I am. I still have a proposal to read before I go to sleep because we're having three vendor presentations tomorrow. And in between the three presentations, I'm having a meeting and possibly one more meeting at lunch time. This is the busiest I've been in a long time. And I'm kind of freaking out about it because I'm interviewing to leave.

Plus dummy me scheduled a dentist appointment tomorrow afternoon so I could get my dental checkups out of the way before I changed jobs.

My boss' boss wants me to fly to DC for a conference next week to take the place of a medical director who may not be going. I was kind of interested in going because it's fun to travel for business, but now I don't want to. I think the medical director is going to end up going anyway and I don't want to go to a conference where I'll be the only non-clinician in the room. That's just way to embarrassing for me to not have the depth of knowledge that a clinician might have. It's something I don't think you can BS your way out of either.

Here's my job hunting update. I've had three phone interviews with this one company, and they've all been very positive. This Friday I will have phone interview # 4 with the same company, and if that goes well then someone will fly in to interview me in person and after that they'll make a decision.

I have a friend who is pyschic and when I told her about this job, she said that she was picking up good feelings about it. I am too. I like the company philosophy, they are publicly traded and very team-oriented. I really want to go back to working for a company that is team-oriented and where's not that much infighting among divisions.

Even if I don't get this job, I've been getting great practice at interviewing and I am grateful for the opportunity. It's been a year and a half since I've had to interview, and I think you just forget how to do it. But I'm getting good at it now. I can work on my rap and see where I need to brush up on what I need to talk about to sell myself.

I'm hoping I get this job. I just want to get out of my current job and my therapist agrees with me. She thinks my current job, with the exception of my boss, is just chock full of toxic people who are negative. She thinks I need to get out as soon as I can.

And with an eye on the future, this company has an office in LA which makes me happy in case things with M-Square work out and I want to move to LA so we can really date and get to know each other. I'd move down to Laguna Beach or some place near there, get my own place, and then do the dating thing with M-Square. Having a job to move to would give me a sense of security and an instant social work group.

I'm adding the requirement that any company I work for has an office in LA, so if I want to move I may be able to just transfer within the same company.