The Game: To play or not to play?

So I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket and I don't want to jinx myself like I talked about last week but I'm beginning to feel more and more like my new-found love-interest is taking on a larger role in my life than I expected him to at this point. And it's hard to transition. You know, you go from like single-ready-to-mingle, I-live-only-for-myself-and-don't-have-to-answer-to-anyone - to all of a sudden being like i-should-invite-him-to-my-non-profit-event-in-3-weeks-just-to-get-it-on-his-calendar-holy-shit-what-am-i-saying-that's-three-weeks-away! It's quite unnerving.

I mean think about it. You're 100% all about yourself. And then all of a sudden you find yourself wondering what he's doing on a certain weekend WAY far in advance because you want him to do something with you. Before, you would have been like - oh i'm definitely going to drive up to charlotte on a whim to visit my friend, and now you're like, oh but what if he want's to do something that weekend. It sucks. And I know exactly what Leigh would tell me if I asked for her advice. She'd be like "make your plans for charlotte - do it, he needs to learn to ask you out way in advance if he wants to spend time with you." and i get it. Really I do. But it's not like Chandler isn't planning in advance with me. He's actually amazingly good at planning things in advance with me. So I kind of feel like I owe to to him to give him a week's notice if I'm going to go out of town or something. I don't feel obligated, but I kind of want to tell him to give him the opportunity to make plans with me instead. And then I get all up-in-my-own-head being like "maybe I shouldn't be so available and I should turn down his dates every now and then, just to keep him in check". But then I'm like, that's just stupid. This is the first guy in a LONG time that's actually NOT playing games with you. He's very upfront. Told you he liked you and doesn't want to fuck things up on Saturday night. All green flags. No red yet. So why even do the whole "game" thing to yourself AND to him? It's stupid. Then I hear Leigh in the back of my mind - reminding me that I need to make it somewhat of a challenge for him.

What do you think? I know that everyone always gets to that point when they say "gah, I'm so sick of playing games, it's so childish and stupid" but secretly, those people are the ones who play the games more than anyone. So I don't want to sound like them and be all "gah, I'm so sick of playing games" but really, truthfully, I am. And I really don't know if I need to play games with Chandler. He's pretty straight with me. He's consistent. He contacts me in some way every single day. Even while on a bachelor party weekend. Even when I'm 3000 miles away in Vegas. The contact didn't fall by the wayside even for one day! That's plenty more than I can say for my last "boyfriend" And true, maybe we're kind of in the honeymooning stage - but not really because we've taken things pretty slow considering it's been a month since we met. But I guess we're still in the exploration stage of things. Getting to know each other just enough to realize we want to see each other again while still keeping some things about ourselves mysterious and vague. So I guess in THAT regard it is still a game. We're not putting all our cards out on the table just yet.

---------- Side note: I just got a Wine Carafe from one of my coworkers because I kicked ass at the company scavenger hunt yesterday afternoon and won. WHATUP ------------

Ok, back to the blog. So have I given you all enough information to warrant some comments? Do I try to play some games with Chandler or am I past that part of my life (or at least for this relationship)? Please weigh in. Berryfine, Leigh, Ash, etc, I'm lookin at yall!