Mar 16 2006
There’s More to It
Like I said above, there’s more that goes into my decision to move to Las Vegas. The moving part was pretty much inevitable, but why Las Vegas? I don’t gamble, I don’t drink too much (a beer here and there is about it), I don’t go clubbing, and I really don’t care for pretending to be all that, like so many visitors and people moving here do. I do like having something to do past 6pm, but honestly, a few choice places to eat will suffice.
So back to the more part. That all started a little over a year before I made the move, when a man with piercing blue eyes moved in across the hall from me. I remember the day he moved in - I was on the phone with my mom, peering out the window at what was going on in the parking lot. “Hey mom, just peeking outside, new neighbor is moving in. Looks like a single dad, he’s got a couple of kids helping him. Ooh, he’s cute.”
Well you can guess what happened. We got involved. It didn’t take long; I found out later that he would peer out his window at me from pretty much the minute he moved in. He was everything I said I didn’t want. He was shorter than me - only by an inch, but still - and of course the single dad thing. I never ever wanted to date anyone with kids. But I fell for him. Did I ever fall for him. I don’t need to go into the gory details of our relationship, but it ended pretty much just as quickly as it began, and I was devastated. It should have been easy to pick myself up and get on with things, but he lived across the hall from me and still saw him on a daily basis. Here’s a tip: never get involved with someone you live so close to. After months of agony for me, we finally got to a point where we could be friends again. It was still really hard for me, since I still wanted to be with him. I thought he was The One. But I sucked it up and let the friendship take its course.
So what does Mr. Piercing Blue Eyes have to do with my move to Las Vegas? Simple. He has family here, and during our discussions about my decision to move, it didn’t take much for him to persuade me to pick Vegas, since I had already decided on the Southwest. The fact that his mom had a room for rent made it easier - then I wouldn’t be all alone in this big bad city. Plus I figured it would be the best way for us to stay close, since the way he worded things, us not being together was only “for now.”
Flash forward to today: I no longer live with his family. That only lasted a year. And I’m no longer friends with him. That I think I knew had to end long before it actually did. It was my decision, I don’t think he was happy with it, but he had a choice. He chose to accept my decision instead of fighting for me. I realize now that he was holding me back from, oh, I don’t know exaclty, but he was a roadblock. Or rather, a scenic detour that led to a dead end. Time to turn around and pick another road.
