Monday, I checked my e-mail and saw a message from Aneila to call her, but the message was from last Sunday. I did so, and she said it was during deadline, so to call her later. Well, I couldn't when she said to that day, as I had to cover a basketball game at that time, and we kept missing each other until Friday morning.

When I did get her Friday after I got done with my workout, she asked me to go up to her office in Waverly to meet with her face-to-face. After I finished my shift that early afternoon, I grabbed some lunch and headed up to the Waverly Newspapers office, but had to wait for her to finish talking to a source. When she finally got to me, she told me there's another possible opportunity for me. She doesn't have full details yet, as it isn't opening up until Wednesday of this week, but it's for an auto racing publication Community Media Group owns and bases at the Cedar Valley Times office in Vinton.

I have done one auto race when I was in Britt, because the News-Tribune co-sponsored the race and one of the trophies for the day's race festival. I also watch NASCAR Sprint Cup and Indy Racing League races on TV every once in a while, so I think this would be a good challenge for me. I'm not sure if this publication focuses mainly on the local racing scene across the state, or if it will have me covering the big races -- the NASCAR Camping World Truck, Nationwide, and/or Sprint Cup series and the IRL.

It's going to consist of a lot of travel, which is something Jenny is afraid might keep me from her for extended periods. We're really developing on our budding relationship. I've spent the last two Saturday nights in her bed (the first night just sleeping, the second, that's our business), as well as a few other days just being together over the last month since we finally got together. I even sent her a dozen assorted-colored roses through ProFlowers.com, and she made me cookies and got me a card. She was surprised when one of her fellow nurses told her the roses were for her from me, and got a bit of a pick-me-up because she had struggled to get to St. Luke's Friday night due to some moderate snow fall, and she had some difficult patients she had to attend to.

As some of you may know, my love life has been non-existent during my 35-plus years on this earth. I’ve tried and failed too many times to count, between junior high classmates turning me down for slow dances at school functions, high school classmates playing the tease, not even trying in college, and multiple scam attempts through Internet dating sties.

All that started to change recently. As some of you who have read some of my blogs on Y! 360° in the past know that I tried to get together with Jenny Wahl, a registered nurse now living in Dysart. Previously, her hire at a Dysart nursing home prevented us from getting together in October because she had to work there right away after finishing her normal night shift at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.

Well, a few weeks ago, Jenny decided to change her schedule at the nursing home so she would have more free time and have the chance to get together with me. She currently works second and third shifts at the home Tuesday and Thursday nights, and since my current work schedule combined between Pizza Hut and the Cedar Falls Times usually allows for my Mondays to be free (at least during the fall and winter seasons, spring depends on the schedule and summers I usually would have a ball game to cover), so a Monday night was the most logical time to meet up.

For Jan. 5, Jenny and I decided we would try again to meet. Unfortunately, she didn’t get enough sleep that morning after her shift, as she had some issues at her house she needed to handle. We postponed it for another week (I mean, we waited three months, what’s one more week?) and finally got together Jan. 12, despite a blizzard that blew through the Waterloo area that day.

We had dinner at the Olive Garden, and then we spent a little time at the Isle casino. She went to the Wizard of Oz slot machine, her favorite, and I played blackjack. She won, I lost, but at least we both had a good time together.

I then invited her to a holiday party we had for Pizza Hut the following Wednesday, Jan. 21. It was dinner at Famous Dave’s barbecue restaurant and a Waterloo Black Hawks hockey game. She got to know the people I associate with, as well as spend more time with me. She was leery about both my co-workers and the hockey game. She was afraid that they would be really rowdy, and she didn’t know if she’d enjoy the game.

Jenny told me afterward that she enjoyed the game and thought my co-workers were cool. It may have either cinched the deal or negatively affected our then-short-spent relationship. At the time, it only seemed to help us take another step forward, because she enjoyed the event and our time together.

Last weekend, she called me after she got back home from a few errands up here and asked me if I wanted to go to a movie with her Monday. I agreed, and we went to see “Frost/Nixon.” After a delay because she wanted to try to get a cheap car for her aunt, we went to dinner at Fazoli’s and then watched the movie – on her dime. She felt it was her time to pay as she invited me this time. The movie was excellent. The company was better.

As I drove her back from Crossroads Theaters to where we left her car behind College Square Mall, we chatted about us and the movie and stuff. And then, when we were ready to part, she leaned in to kiss me! I wasn’t quite ready for that, so I asked if we could do it again. She obliged.

Tuesday night, after I got done with my coverage of the Cedar Falls-Dubuque Hempstead girls’ basketball game, she texted me from the nursing home, and we went back and forth for a bit about how we would want to spend more time together, and how we are starting to feel for each other. The previous night, she mentioned she was going to go ahead and resign from the home and would type a letter of resignation. I asked her during our text session that night if she’s had it written. She wanted me to go down to help her with that. As my next free moment was the following afternoon before I had to go to Pizza Hut, I decided I’d do it then.

It’s a 40-minute or so drive, approximately 30-some miles, from my house to Jenny’s, but it’s worth it. When I got there, her dogs – Toto, a Cairn terrier that looks just like his namesake from “The Wizard of Oz,” and Missy, who looks like a Yorkshire terrier – came to the back door to greet me as I entered, followed by Jenny. She was some the worse for wear, as she had only a few hours’ sleep after a 16-hour shift.

We went into her living room, and she got out her laptop to have me write her letter. I did my best to sound like an aggrieved R.N. wanting out of a not-so-pleasurable work environment, yet be professional about it. I started with some flowing words about the people she cares for, and then asked her for specific problems she’s had with management. After it was all said and done, we had a nice, professional, one-page letter that she eventually put in the director of nursing’s mailbox at the end of her shift this (Friday) morning.

Anyway, between Toto’s tongue attacks on my face, Jenny and I spent the next couple hours sitting on her couch in a bit of a cuddle, me holding her, and we talking about us. She thought I might be a bit on the quick side to further us along, but she wants to take it a bit slower, which I agreed we should. Ever since I had that little incident with Sarah (back in March), I decided whenever I get into another relationship, I’d let her set the pace. And so far, Jenny’s pace has been a bit moderate but guarded.

She did enjoy me there with her, me embracing her, touching her face at times, and she told me later this was a big step for her to let me into her world, let me into her house. She likes me a lot, maybe more, but she wants to be absolutely sure. She mentioned she had to break off an engagement because her ex-fiancé was immature. She didn’t get into too many details, and I didn’t pry.

After I got off work from the Hut that night, we had a long phone conversation that lasted until about 2 a.m. She wants me to be able to express myself to her without reservations, and that if she is offended or otherwise doesn’t like what I say or do, she’d let me know. I’m going to try to do that, yet not be overbearing.

We talked again earlier this afternoon before I covered the Cedar Falls-Waterloo West boys’ basketball game and she had to get ready to go to St. Luke’s. First, we vented about our days at work, and then we talked about when we might get together next: possibly tomorrow night after I’m off work. She plans on going with her father to Wisconsin where her younger brother lives in an assisted-living home, but plans on being back home by the time I’m scheduled to be off. We don’t have any plans for any activities. We might just hang out together and watch some TV or a DVD, or just be together.

I think this is a promising start to this budding relationship. Wish us luck!

I had wrote back on Oct. 19 that Anelia Dimitrova had called me two days before to inform me of the opening at the Cedar Valley Daily Times in Vinton. For the next seven weeks, I’ve been working at getting myself in position to get that job, with interviews and working part-time doing assignments for that paper during the first part of the winter sports season.

Well, unfortunately for me, the unforeseen happened: Ownership decided that now was not the time to take on a new full-time employee in the current economic climate. I had asked Anelia last Friday as to a status update on the job, after I asked about a redo of going back up to Waverly to show my proficiency in page design. I had gone up Dec. 1 to do it, but the computer they wanted me to use that day was occupied by the society editor, who usually uses it on Fridays, but since it was the day after Thanksgiving didn’t do it that Friday.

Anyway, Anelia informed me if I was willing to return to doing work for Pat Racette for both Waverly Newspapers and the Cedar Falls Times. She said ownership was uneasy at this time to have me move down there and then lay me off within a few months if this current economic condition worsens. So instead, she came up with a plan to keep me in the fold, albeit part-time, but fill the open position in Vinton without jeopardizing anyone else.

What she proposed, and ownership accepted, was move regional sports coordinator John Jensen from his post as Oelwein sports editor to Vinton as city editor. Brett Myers, who had moved from Vinton sports to news, moves back to sports. Dick Fridley, who is currently the Waverly sports editor, will move to John’s Oelwein position. Finally, Pat will add the Waverly sports duties to his own with Cedar Falls. Anelia said I’d be Pat’s “right-hand man.”

She had said that solves two problems: 1) The papers keep their current editorial staff, and 2) I can still take care of Mom.

The latter doesn’t appeal to me at all anymore. In fact, I was hoping the planned move to Vinton worked out so I could get away from this house and be back on my own. And then, Jenny and I can finally get together and see where things go between us. This shuffle is going to complicate things, as I’ll still be about 30 to 40 miles from her, and her schedule with the nursing home in Dysart and at St. Luke’s in Cedar Rapids leaves her no time to be able for us to get together, combined with my schedule at Pizza Hut and the newspaper. Well, Jenny did tell me once she’s considering quitting the nursing home because she doesn’t like it there and the management isn’t all that accommodating to her. She just took the second job to get extra money for traveling and kicking around, while St. Luke’s pays her house payments and other necessities.

I also want to get out of Pizza Hut after working there for now four-plus years. A fellow driver told me that I should be making more money as a driver than I would as a reporter, but I believe with my hours at the Hut, my money-making opportunities are less than his. Plus, I believe I’m wasting my education doing this. I went to the University of Iowa for 4½ years to be a sportswriter or equivalent, not to deliver pizzas for $7.25 per hour plus tips and fuel reimbursements. If I wanted to do what I do, I wouldn’t have gone to college!

Well, I guess I’ll have to ride this out and see what happens. Who knows? Maybe one the economy starts to improve under Pres.-elect Obama after Jan. 20, they might decide to sign me on full-time, and maybe they’ll have me take over the Cedar Falls sports and have Pat do Waverly by itself. Only time will tell.