OK... here is what I've learned since my younger days of love.   I've bumped against many if not most my old girlfriends.  One I'm happy to say is still a great true friend.  But what I learned from past loves.. is that time vindicated me. 

You know that thing you tell yourself after you break up, "I was the best thing that ever happened to her."  And then you just go on with life never looking back, never really knowing if all that was bravado or truth.   Well time is an amazing thing. 

I'll be smiling from here until the day I die.  What I've learned is this.  Life is no test drive.  You don't get second chances, you only get the hard lessons.  Some of us have harder ones to learn than others.  If your real smart you actually learn a lesson from what you lost, passed up or gave up. 

Those of us that survive those lessons... well...  I'm here to tell you I'm too busy living to be surviving. 

Which will you be? The survivor or the one too busy living?

I first heard this song just before a trip to Mexico.  I had it on my headset through-out the trip.  I got an easy going feeling every time I would listen to it.   I cannot recommend Love and the Russian Winter by Simply Red enough.  If you like the feel of this song, you'll love this release.  For me the songs lock in good memories. 

I recall standing near the baggage conveyor after my trip.  I was listening to it aloud with other's waiting beside me.  My mate on the trip was standing idly by.  Little did she know I was thinking of all the women I had ever been with while listening to the words.   I thought of how lucky she was to be with me.  And the feeling at the time was mutual.  It's good to have memories like that.   Now I feel the power of freedom in my life in ways I once rejected.  Life is good. ;)

I'm leading with the words to this song today as they are what is most important. And seem to express where I'm coming from in my life today.  Enjoy the tune.

WORDS FOR GIRLFRIENDS

Do I feel jealousy when you're free without me
Maybe
Do I feel that my love will stay with you forever
Hopefully
In memoriam of my lovers will you sleep with me forever
Oh most certainly I never did doubt you

You surround yourself with trinkets like they're meaningful possessions
Baby
Like some squirrel in the garden with expensive permutations
Save me
They'll outlive you in the end will be your final realisation
Oh most certainly I never did doubt you

Words for girlfriends parading as songs
To be living with songs yet without you
Words for girlfriends parading as songs
'though I never ever really did ...   more »

You're In For it Now

You're in for it now
Fate has lingered and I propose a toast
Destiny has been commissioned to find you and...
You're in for it now!

Fate will have you somehow
Stumble into the arms of change
Toss and turn you around, and...
You're in for it now!

Destiny's beside you
Forcing your hands behind you
Destiny's beside you
Forcing your hand --- behind you...

You're in for it now
Fate has lingered, no room left to boast!
Destiny has been commissioned to find you and...
You're in for it now!

It's the key to your fate if you can brave it
It's the pain of your past if you can take it
You've crossed the line, incommunicado
Up to your shirt-tie lost without bravado

Destiny's beside you
Forcing your hands behind you
Destiny's beside you
Forcing your hand --- behind you...

You're in for it now.
You're in for it now.
You're in for it now!

Wednesday Week

Being Sure, you and I
The hope of the beginning will last to the end
Deceiving ourselves
We're moving but in place

It's the middle of our dream
It's a Wednesday Week
So if our meeting was the beginning
Will parting be the end?

The answer of course must be
To deceive ourselves
Like the Wednesday of a week

You know... every now and again I find myself with a minute of down time.  Could be at the YMCA waiting on someone to give up a weight set where for some reason they offer Internet access in the gym room ...It could be in town waiting on a client where thankfully I can pick up someone's insecure network for surfing myself, or simply waiting in line at the bank where I'll dial up the web on my PDA.   You can't do much in terms of productivity, what do you do?  Read the best of Craig's list for a laugh.  Take for instance this post about how to decode women's personal ads:

Ø 40-ish..................................49.
Ø Adventurous..........................Slept with everyone.
Ø Athletic................................No breasts.
Ø Average looking.....................Moooo.
Ø Beautiful..............................Pathological liar.
Ø Emotionally Secure..................On medication.
Ø Feminist...............................Fat.
Ø Free Spirit.................................Junkie.
Ø Friendship first.......................Former Slut.
Ø New-Age.........................Body hair in the wrong places.
Ø Old-fashioned........................No B.J.'s
Ø Open-minded.........................Desperate.
Ø Outgoing..............................Loud and embarrassing.
Ø Professional................. ..........Bitch.
Ø Voluptuous...........................Very fat.
Ø Large frame...........................Hugely fat.
Ø Wants soul mate.....................Stalker.

Going back to 2006 there is this gem, the Craig's List Salary Guide:

Less than $30,000 = Loser! Put down the videogames, take a shower, and move out of your mom's house.

$31,000 - $50,000 = Cool. You're alright with me man. I hear you.

$51,000 - $70,000 = You're suspect pal. You're on my list. What are you some kind of smart person who learned how to do computers or something? My girlfriend is way hotter than yours.

$71,000 - $90,000 = Must be nice to come from a rich family who paid for your eduction. Epp epp! Zip it. I don't want to hear about how clever you are. You're a xxxking tool. Fucking bitch is what you are. Goddamn daddy's girl who never had to ...   more »

It's fast and it's furious
Hurts the way it should
Find em hiding in the corners
Pain someone else once took
If you worked at love much harder
They're putting pepper on the ball
The working waves of passion
The weight of it all...

Now! I looked hard, I looked silently
And I fell hard, she fell hardly
What happened to me, what happened to me
I think out loud... "What happened to me?"

Roses are red, roses are red
If we had a fight, I'd forget what was said
Roses are red, roses are red
If love is blind I'll get you out of my head

Now who's to know the reason why rascals find love?
Isn't something more important, to accidentally find the one
So who's fooling who? No don't change the rules
We're heading straight for danger and I mean you!

Roses are red, roses are red
If we had a fight, I'd forget what was said
Roses are red, roses are red
If love is blind I'll get you out of my head

I was a crazy cure which she believed
I was a flash on her she could deceive
Now she's a reckless hunter looking for me
And now I'm desperately focused to find myself King

You say you want me serious, don't you wish you could
I see you fear'n in a corner, love once misunderstood
If we ran from love much further, I suppose we've said it all
Yes we'll treat it like a fashion, I think we've done it all

Roads to wonder down
Are the ones to wander down
Time ...in the present stands still
I see her there
Elbows on the sill
And love is such a hard word
Hard words in my head
Hard words... are...
Hard to get, hard to get, hard to get.

The old is old and over
The new has just begun
And standing in the rain
Has never felt so much like the sun

With full intent and a minor accent
His words were few and far
Beyond the said, eyes intense
No need to wish on stars

Hard to get. Hard to Get. Hard to Get.

Roads to wonder down
Are the ones to wander down
Time ...in the present stands still
I see her there
Elbows on the sill
And love is such a hard word
Hard words in my head
Hard words... are...
Hard to get, hard to get, hard to get.

I hid my life to forget the past
Good things you know are never meant to last
These bad things we live through
The too do pass
Why's my mind so tight
You've questioned that tonight
I only need you to mend my desire
Into a finer momentum,
Oh the rogue I've become!

To find... A wise man
Look... for a fool
For in his mind
He's ruling you

Little known facts equal empty truth
This life is tight
This rogue will never lose
Convinced to leave
A tryst we had
I was that wiseman fool
What's it take to dream?
What's it take to go?
I need you
To mind my desire
Into a finer momentum...
Called love

So time's not yet givin my mind back to me
And I wish I wash again to have your thoughts for free
The deeper I get
The harder I am to find

To find... A wise man
Look... for a fool
The tightness tonight is killing you
Now tight young rogue
You'll find it tonight
The wise man you were...
Was never you  (for in his mind... for in his mind ... for in his mind...)
Was never you