After witnessing the marital union of dear friends in August 2022, I decided to reactivate my online dating profile on an app called 'Stir.' Twenty minutes after I reactivated my profile, O sent a message that said, "hey stranger, where have you been?" I will admit that he and I had shared a few messages prior to me deactivating my profile, so it made me smile when I read his message! :-) Of course, I responded quickly and he sent me his number so that we could talk about my sabbatical. Usually, I do not text someone off of the app so quickly but I felt comfortable with him, so I did one better...I called! He picked up the phone and told me that he had checked the app daily to see if I would respond to his messages and was happy that we finally connected. After alot of laughs, we planned our first date. I lived in Frederick and O lived in Silver Spring, so he drove to Frederick to meet me at BJ's Restaurant. I was running late and O called a few times asking if I was gonna come. I guess since it was our first date, he wanted to be sure! Little did I know he'd worked, gotten a haircut and drove in rush hour traffic to meet me (and arrived on time!) and I worked from home and had an 8-minute commute to the restaurant and still ran late! :-) Needless to say, I made it to BJ's and we had a wonderful time. I must add that O was not shy during dinner. He asked me at least "21 questions" about my past, present and future goals. We laugh now about the "interrogation" I was subjected to on our first date! I must say that we enjoyed each other and made plans to see each other again that weekend. Little did we know, our lives were about to change forever :-)