The end of the Saga

I have to finish this, or at least get further, because someone came to my blog from by googling "I broke up with him before deployment" and- this needs a happy ending, darn it!

But, it has to get worse before it gets better (that is usually the case, isn't it?) He went off to Ranger School, and I was going to regular school with a really hot firefighter. Seriously- it's that cliche. Really hot firefighter. I didn't tell Ranger Man about the Stupid Firefighter until he got back from Ranger School, and of course at that time he wasn't the Stupid Firefighter, he was still the dreamy hot Firefighter.

Shortly thereafter though, he became the Stupid Firefighter - and to this day, all firefighters are stupid firefighters- and Ranger Man was the one I ran to. He's the one I wanted to talk to. But still, I didn't want a real relationship, especially not after the implosion that was the Stupd Firefighter.

Ranger man and I would talk on the phone almost every night, about everything and anything. But I didn't want a relationship. He was too intense, I was avoiding anything commitment related. I would joke that it would be weird (in a nice way) to date someone who didn't want to marry me (ha. if only I knew).

One day, at work, far away from Army land, in to my office (which was shaped like a crane and thus rather fantastical in and of itself) waltzes this guy, older, true, but he was in ACUs and ... drumroll please ... He was wearing Ranger Tabs.

He was buddies with a couple of my coworkers, who had purposefully not told me that they knew this guys, and he was an SF reservist. I honestly didn't know what he looked like- all I saw were the tabs (ack, I just realized I'm one of "those girls"!).

The guy was 40. ew. I went out with him for a few months. LONG story short, it was miserable. ick- did I mention he was 40 and I was 22? so gross. He did have a cute puppy though... But I was closer to his kids' ages than to his. And, as my friend A so kindly noted... "You know his kids are checking you out when you go over there, right" ick, ick, ick.

So I finally (finally!) realized that the only darn reason I was going out with him were those stupid tabs. And that the whole time I was with SF guy, all I really wanted to do was talk to Ranger Man.

So, after having told Ranger Man, twice I believe, that I couldn't be more than just friends and him telling me that he couldn't not be just friends... I ate a bunch of humble pie and called him.

"I'm ready," I said. "You were right, let's do this."

And then, of course, this guy who was supposedly 'non-deployable' deployed. And changed his MOS. and the rest you all know.

Phew, a long entry, but a happy ending to the story, right?