I have a crush, better yet a blog crush, so we’ll call it a “blush”. Before I get ahead of myself out of giddiness, let me backtrack a bit. In previous posts I’ve mentioned a relationship in college with a guy who I referred to as The Baseball Player.  Now, it seems like another life, but for anyone who knows me well, the name “Jed” signifies “the guy Laura fell in love with at first sight”…and for my Midwestern Belles, for reasons other than it was cliche to date someone named “Jed” while living in Arkansas.  The truth is, he was this super All-American guy who had an insanely charming smile and knew exactly what he wanted in life.  I didn’t just fall hard, I jumped like a Cirque de Soleil acrobat into the 1.5 million gallon water tank in the Vegas production “O”.  Only…well, you can imagine.  Friends and family would caution me not to fall too hard, but I was deaf to their warnings.  It was the first time in life I had met someone who I was crazy about (this, from a Belle who wasn’t the “crazy about” someone type), and this someone was crazy about me too.

It was destined to fail from the beginning.  We were in college.  We lived 120 miles apart (which in college might as well have been in another country).  But mostly, in retrospect, it was destined to fail because he wasn’t crazy about ONLY me, and this Belle has never been one to share a Beau.  So it eventually ended.  I cried.  I gained the equivalent of 50 Papa John’s pizzas, 30 2-Liters of Diet Rite & Segrams 7 mixed in a Big-Gulp cup, and multiple servings of Coconut/Peanut Butter/Chocolate/You-name-it Pie from Stoby’s drive through.  It was a long six months of making memories worth repressing before my Breakover began, but first heartbreaks are always the worst.  Once I had fully recovered, we went on to become friends and still stay in touch to this day.  I should politely add that he is married to a beautiful Southern Belle and has created the kind of All-American family that you see on magazine covers.  It’s the image that makes you swoon in admiration one moment, and gag yourself of picturesque perfection the next.

But back to the topic of my “blush”.

The past couple of years I’ve read the occasional blog post by The Baseball Player.  For the most part, it seemed like a bunch of super-fit, marathon running, body perfect musing… that well, let’s face it, reminds you of all the super-fit, marathon running, body perfect musing you HAVEN’T been doing the past few years.  I never really questioned how he got started, and it certainly never occurred to me that he ever had flaws (rose colored lenses Belles), however, when he recently mentioned that he would be coming to Chicago for his brother’s “Do Life” Tour… I was curious to see what it was all about.  So I clicked over to his brother’s blog for more info.

And then I met Ben.  Well…  In blogosphere speak anyway.  Now before you start making Arkansas jokes about “keeping it in the family” and “uncle daddy” cracks, I must remind you that 10 years have passed since I dated The Baseball Player.  Not only that, but I, of all people, know what it’s like to compete against a sibling in the romance department and have no interest in being on the other side of the fence.  That being said…

I read his most recent blog post and I found it completely unrelated to fitness.  ???  Huh, who knows?  Regardless, as I do with most friends (friends of friends, brothers of friends, brother of ex-boyfriends…err) I sent him a quick message to let him know I was a college friend of his brother’s and that he was welcome to crash at Casa de Belle while in Chicago.  My place doubles as a hotel for friends visiting Chicago and a halfway house for some friends moving here… it seemed like the “Southern Hospitality” thing to do.  After sending the message I clicked on a link to the side that read: “Start From The Beginning”.

This Belles, is where my blush began.

I’ve read for hours and hours leading up to this blog post.  And yes, I realize this means I might have technically been ”read-working”  part of the work day (aka “reading AND working”) but never mind that detail… WHO was this cute guy writing my thoughts and using my humor and more importantly, how had I not discovered him before now?!

In the beginning (aka pages 264-259) it was amusing, and yes, very relatable.  And then on page 258 (aka January 24, 2009) he posted this video and I realized that I was developing a CRUSH!  There I was, staring at my screen and blushing at a 2 year old video of a guy I had never met before!  All I can say is BEWARE BELLES, because he will make you blush too!  I kept reading and reading… months went by as I experienced him achieve goals along his weight loss journey, identifying with his struggles, thoughts, feelings, neurosis, etcetera… and all with absolutely NO mention of a romantic interest.  I was well into 2010 when I couldn’t take the suspense anymore… DID he have a girlfriend?  WAS he single?  IS he the “blush” of my dreams???

Seeing as patience has never been one of my finer virtues, I gave in and jumped to April 20, 2011 and started reading backwards from there… in search of any mention of a relationship status.  And there it was.  And there she was.  And for a moment I was SUPER bummed when I read that they met IN CHICAGO, (I guess someone has to get lucky in this city)… but then I remembered Ben was never meant to be anything more than a “blush”.  This is life, not a movie, after all. And besides, they already made the movie “You’ve Got Mail” so it wouldn’t even be original.  After a few more pages of posts, I found that I was genuinely happy for my “blush”.  I mean, we’d been through so much together these past few hours, I couldn’t just abandon him at the first mention of a real life girlfriend… hell, we hadn’t even exchanged an email.

… oh but we had…or better yet, I had. Cringe.

I had completely forgotten about my open invitation to stay in Chicago and now I was questioning myself.  Was that weird?  I mean really, WHO DOES THAT?  Who opens their door to a stranger?  A handsome, witty, mildly hairy but adorable blogger from my home state of Arkansas?  As it turns out, I DO!  (I can’t say I’m surprised, I’m a fantastic hostess after all.)  And besides, I bet my blush Ben has gained so much popularity with his blog (especially now that I’m having all of you read it), that he knows some eligible Beaus I might be interested in!  How’s that for seeing the cup half full?!

So regardless of the fact that Ben will strictly be my online blush, he is without a doubt the most fantastic guy I’ve never dated.  Check his blog out at Ben Does Life and follow along with him on his empowering, motivating, and hysterically entertaining “Do Life” tour. Oh, and you can even become a fan of the Do Life Movement on Facebook.   I guarantee you’ll start blushing on Ben too…

Update: Ben’s Response!!!

The past few weeks I’ve looked at more condos and apartments than an amateur real estate agent. It’s one of the downsides to being an overly particular Belle.  Not only that but I’ve fallen in a pattern of always looking for something a little bit nicer, a little bit newer, a little bit bigger, etc.  I’ve come to the conclusion that when you have so many options, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s really important to YOU (as opposed to what’s new, trendy, updated, upgraded, etc.)   This time around, however, I think I’ve finally chosen a perfect place for a Belle to call home.

Moving is always a little bit emotional for me.  I’ve never been very good with things coming to an end, whether it be a relationship or a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.  But as it turns out… I seem to have a problem with letting THINGS go as well.  That’s right, a Belle has a lot of shit, specifically in the Beauty Department.  Over the years I developed (what I thought was) a healthy obsession with finding the “best of the best” when it came to all the products I used.  With makeup, much like with shoes, I’m a quality over quantity kinda gal.  Only, I forget to get rid of quantity when I find quality…so moving seemed the perfect opportunity to do just that.

So after several days of purging products that were 3/4 full and retired to the back of my etagere, I feel like a new Belle.  Or maybe I just feel like myself again?  Keeping all the things that weren’t right for me had started to weigh me down.

Now that I’ve unpacked the last box of belongings in my fabulous new place, I feel whole again.  Only this time my life/place is filled with a lot less of the things that aren’t a reflection of me, and only things that are.  Which leads me to question, what type of things do you unknowingly (or knowingly) accumulate?  Are there more product junkies out there?  Or is your vice shoes… handbags… tote bags?  I can’t say I’m cured; Lord knows I’ll be a victim of the “O List” for as long as they publish it… but going forward I’ll make it a point to add things to the “Go List” when something new takes it’s place.