off to benjamin button

For the uninitiated, I know that this whole "Benjamin Button" concept probably seems a little weird. What does this mean? You're thinking. Is she going to start aging in reverse? IS SHE DATING BRAD PITT!?

Thankfully, no. In the movie -- and I'm not ruining anything here, I don't think -- Benjamin and his lady love meet in the middle of their respective opposite aging cycles. So a few weeks ago, in the very first instance of what has now become a daily effort on my part to use the phrase "Let's Benjamin Button" in place of absolutely any situation where "meeting in the middle" is appropriately used, I asked Mr. Second Chance if he'd be willing to Benjamin Button it this very weekend.

Obviously, he said yes.

Actually, first, I'm pretty sure he said: "Benjamin Button?" Unimportant.

What is important is that we're meeting in the middle to spend the weekend together -- the middle being in the great state of Kentucky, since he's up in the wintry north at law school. And I know pretty much all I've told you about Mr. SC up until this point is that we dated in college, he was Boyfriend No. 2 in the infamous exit interviews, and that we ran into each other at a wedding a month ago and have been talking non-stop ever since.

I met (and instantly developed a crush on) Mr. SC in high school, and I'd say by the time we ended things completely in the fall of 2006 we'd become pretty well practiced at breaking each others' hearts. Or at the very least, accidentally stepping on them in steel-toed boots. But we kept coming back to each other, and when I look at that on-and-off again pattern I wonder what it says about us. Part of me thinks, well, there had to be a good reason I just couldn't shake him. And the other part of me points to the "off-again" piece of the puzzle and wonders the same thing: why did I keep trying?

Seeing him at the wedding was blissful. I already wrote about and I'm not gunning to make you barf today. At that time I didn't know how much of that feeling was the high of nostalgia and how much of it was real. But in the past month, as we've been catching up, I find that feeling hasn't really waned. We'd initially discussed the possibility of getting together over his fall break, which is in October. And while that could well still happen, I knew I needed some answers sooner.

So naturally, I feel like a lot is riding on this weekend. But I've been doing a decent job of putting that out of my mind, in hopes of just being in the moment of our time together with the firm belief that if I can manage that, I'll get the answers I need soon enough.

And clearly, you will be the first to know.


cheers,
elizabeth