I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind

It has been a very fun weekend, but one that hasn't been without its "confusing" moments.

I spent Friday and Saturday night going to concerts. I LOVE to go to live concerts, and it's not something that I've done enough over the past few years. I hardly went to any shows when I was living in Boston, and it's taken me a few months of being back in Raleigh to get started again.

Over the next few weeks, there are around 8 concerts that I would like to see. This weekend just kicked off the festivities.

Friday night was amazing, because I got to see an old college favorite - Athenaeum. I first heard Athenaeum on a late-night radio show in New York. It was one of those shows where they played almost the whole album and interviewed the band. I was instantly hooked. I bought the CD, but none of my friends really knew who they were (this was back in 1998-9). The first week of college, my new friends asked me if I had ever heard of the band Athenaeum, and if I wanted to go see them play at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill. I hadn't known that they were a NC band. Over my four years in college, I saw them play many times.

I am absolutely in love with the lead singer, who is adorable. He's got the cutest smile, swagger, and a sexy sexy voice that sings "moody" songs.

The band split a few years ago, and the lead singer and guitarist formed another band called MG4. In a few weeks Athenaeum is opening for Daughtry, so they planned a reunion show in Raleigh to re-familiarize themselves with their songs. I got to reap the benefits!

Seeing them play again brought back so many great memories. My crush on the lead singer was rekindled (even though he's married). I enjoyed great music alongside friends who I haven't seen in years.

Now for the confusing element.

Over the past two-three months I've been spending time with a friend of mine who I've known since Freshman year of college. We've been friends through the years, though we've never seen each other or talked regularly. We've been through periods where we've both been single and attached. And things have always had an element of flirtation. I'm going to call him Flirt on the blog, because he is certainly that.

These past few months it started to confuse me. Almost every week we've had some sort of standing "date" whether it be a movie, lunch, dinner, watched a DVD at my place, etc. No matter what we've done, we've had fun and we've flirted. But nothing has happened. I found myself crushing, which as I've posted about before, is familiar territory for me with my male friends.

After I signed up for Match, I found out that he was on there as well. We've talked about it as the two of us have gone on dates, but I've been on many more than he has. I've also started seeing TK more seriously, and Flirt hasn't gotten to that stage with any of the women he's met. As things have progressed more with TK, Flirt has stopped asking me about it.

Flirt and I went to the concert together on Friday. We also had dinner beforehand. A few weeks ago I met his mother when the three of us went to a stand-up comedy show. So at dinner he said, "My mom wanted to know why I'm not dating you. She said, 'She's cute, smart, and funny. What's your problem?'"

"What did you say?"

"I said, I like having female friends."

"You're not dating me because you said no*"

Smile.

"...I just like having a few platonic female friends. They're hard to find."

Saturday afternoon I picked him up. We had lunch with his mom and then I drove the two of us to my parent's house (2hrs away). We went out for Mexican with my mom and then met up with her friend for a Sister Hazel concert (which was also amazing). At one point she leaned over to me and said, "Flirt is lying to you. The way he looks at you and smiles at you...there's no way he's not interested. Maybe he just doesn't want to screw things up."

I don't know what's behind those looks. But I do know that it's those sly looks, the blue eyes, and the great smile that are undeniably charming.

We stayed the night at my parent's last night. For the past few hours he's been in the living room playing video games with my brother. He's gotten along with my family in a way that I'm not sure that TK would at first.

I don't want you to think that I've forgotten about TK...because I haven't. I've talked to him everyday, and I miss him (since I haven't seen him since Thursday). Why is it though, that when you do meet someone, chances are there's someone else in the picture that complicates things just a little bit? I guess it's the chase that's fun with Flirt. It's also "easy" in a different way than it is with TK.

The past few weeks have truly been amazing with TK. I've started to let my guard down and "let him in." I haven't seen a lot of Flirt lately, so I thought I had shut the door on all of that. But I guess I knew that this weekend would stir the pot.

Oy.

* The week when I first started Match and went on 4-5 dates, I also went out for lunch, movie, and coffee with Flirt. When he asked me how my dates were, I said, "Even though I met some interesting people and went on all those dates, I was looking forward to seeing you more..." The rest of the afternoon he proceeded to flirt, and at one point asked me what I was thinking. I said, "I already told you, and you didn't respond." He said, "Well, I just decided not to run with it..."