Before ya'll think I've REALLY gone off the deep end after this break up and gone all Private Benjamin on your ass, calm down. I got rid of all my camo when the trend went out in 1998 - but that doenst mean that I can't appreciate a man in uniform.

So – there’s stuff going on – a lot going on. And I’ve avoided talking about it until now. I didn’t mention it back in January probably because of all the breakup madness and I didn’t want to say anything that might have jeopardized any chance of reconciliation. Pathetic, I know.

Ok, so I’m dating someone. I haven’t wanted to admit it. Not that there’s anything clandestine or embarrassing but because I was afraid of being labled an emotional skitsophrenic. Posts all over the emotional map – ‘I miss the Russian’, ‘I have a date Friday night’, etc. I was also afraid of loosing my license to rant about the ex if there was a new man on the horizon.

So we shall call him ‘the Army Guy’. We met over New Years and, needless to say, it took me by surprise. He asked me out for drinks at the Brickskeller (my suggestion, as he was new in town) – and, I’m not gonna lie, it was the first night I hadn’t checked my phone obsessively or thought about the Russian all night long. And it was nice. We had a lovely conversation, no goodnight kiss – and he said he’d ‘call me’. Well, we all know what that means. And so I was fully prepared to never hear from him again, which I wasn’t TERRIBLY broken up about since, after all, bawling my eyes out before bed was still a nightly ritual.

Well surprise, surprise – he did call. And not the standard ‘macho man’ requisite three days – he called me the next day to let me know what a nice time he had. He then txted on Tuesday to suggest we go out that Friday night. So the man took me out for drinks, then to dinner at the Charte House – a beautiful restaurant in Old Town overlooking the Potomac, bottle of wine, dessert, coffee – the whole bit. Then it hit me – ‘this guy is no shit, old-fashioned courting me’. I won’t give you the whole run down of the past two months in one post – but lets just say the pattern continued.

The man knows what he’s doin’. Phone call after every date to let me know what a good time he’s had, he cooks for me, wines AND dines me, and did I mention amazingly hot!? Day after Valentine’s Day (I had plans on the 14^th if you recall) he picked me up from work, and there were two dozen roses waiting for me on the seat of his car, followed by an amazing dinner he had apparently been preparing for days. What can I say? Man’s got skills. He's Mr. Martha - the man DVR's cooking shows and HGTV. But he wears a uniform and can shoot a gun and is obsessed with his grill....its kind of hot.

It’s nothing SERIOUS, I’m not in love and I’m not about to change my status on Facebook, unlike certain Russians assholes who feel the need to announce they’re ‘in a relationship’ to their entire social networking community after 48 hours of knowing someone.

But I do LIKE him. I’ll fill you in more later, but I wanted to bring you up to speed before July comes and I’m ranting, raving and crying over a man ya’ll have never heard of. Then you'd REALLY think I’d lost my mind!

Frankly,