My Monday Man in March.

Tom and my first date was lunch at a great little restaurant on West Street called Luna Blue. He came into Annapolis from Gaithersburg, about an hour away. That is a little farther than my 25 mile radius request, but what the heck, it's only lunch. We sat and talked very easily for 2 hours. At the start of lunch Tom told me he was just getting over a cold, and I remarked, "good that takes the pressure off a first kiss, now we can enjoy lunch", and that's exactly what we did.

It is a little scary how much we have in common. We both drive Elements, our phone numbers end in the same four numbers, we both have a love of the outdoors, the list goes on and on.

Our next date was a 20 mile bike ride the following Monday. Afterwards we cleaned up, yes, separately, then headed to lunch. Another great day.

The following Monday, are you beginning to see a pattern here, I nicknamed Tom my "Monday Man", we meet in the middle at Columbia Mall, had breakfast at Panera's and talked for 5 hours. I think it is important to be able to communicate with someone, and the day at the Mall pretty much proved we had no problem there. Another week... This Monday we head to Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. I met Tom at his house at 7:00am, and we have a 2.5 hour drive to our destination. Now I know nothing about Old Rag, but what I have read. The first 1.5 miles is pretty much straight up. I explain to Tom that this is my first hike since waking from hibernation, he just laughs at me. On this hike there is a rock scrambled that is really fun, but it's challenging. I ask about 2 hours into the hike straight up, "when does the scramble start"? Tom in his very funny way says, "As soon as you feel like you can't put one foot in front of the other, that's when the scramble starts". hahahaTom has a great sense of humor, although nothing is funny on hour 3 uphill. When we hit the scramble it was a nice break from the hiking straight uphill. I want you to note the snow in this photo, well we wanted to beat the crowds. No problem there,we only ran into 3 others on the mountain. A young nurse actually hiked with us for most of the trail. It was a long day, but one of the best I've had in a long time. We stopped for milkshakes on the way home. Before leaving that morning Tom put a roast and some veggies in a crock pot, and we were greeted with the rich aroma of the finished product.

After the first bite I think I asked Tom to marry me. Who's funny now?