ALERT THE MEDIA!!! MONICA ACTUALLY WENT ON A DATE LAST NIGHT!!

THE ITALIAN called Sunday as i was laying on the couch trying to recover from the crazy weekend of training. this is THE ITALIAN i met at a dear college friend's wedding in NYC last May. and by ITALIAN, i don't mean Italian American. we're talkin' ITALIAN FROM ITALY, LIVES IN ROME, ITALIAN. oy vey.... or should i say, mamma mia...

he's in L.A. for work (he's an architect), and had called the bride and groom for my number. he actually wanted to take me out to dinner that very Sunday night, but seeing as i could not move anything from the waist down, and because i have a rule that you gotta work a little harder for me than calling for dinner the same night (sorry, i don't care if you are ITALIAN and only in town for a minute), we made plans for last night instead. i met him at his hotel in Beverly Hills. red flag i know, but worse than how i couldn't move, y'all know how training for Ironman can make you fall behind on the house work. there was no way i was going to let an Italian architect through the doors of my filthy ramshackle of a tear down disguised as a fixer upper of a house only to then have his leg humped by my two filthy and misbehaved dogs. yeah, um, no, i'll pick you up at your hotel....

we went to dinner at BLD which i'd been wanting to try for a while, and i let him order for both of us. there's nothing sexier in my book than a man who can order food!!! we shared small plates and a bottle of Spanish red while we rehashed meeting at the wedding. i thought it was all the bride's doing, but it turns out that he asked her who i was. he said he had thought of me often since then and was sorry he hadn't contacted me sooner. ok, now i'm blushing!! since i hadn't seen him or spoken to him since the wedding, i had no idea how we'd get on. i feel like such a bore to most with all my talk of Ironman. really, that's about all i've got goin' on right now, and who wants to talk about that all night?? but he was totally impressed, and being that he's Italian, we talked on and on about cycling and him growing up riding a bike in the Tuscany countryside. it made me want to go back to Italy so bad!!! we went on about photography, family, architecture, food, politics, you name it. we didn't shut up for two seconds, and next thing you know, we'd closed the place down. i asked if we could go by and take a look at his building. turns out there was a crew there working on an overnight treatment to the steel facade. i could tell it was torture for him to just drive by, and next thing you know, we're out of the car, his jacket is off, sleeves are rolled up and he's ordering the crew around and running cables to draw more power. ok, now i think i'm falling hard!!

i didn't know where the night was headed or what his intentions were. either way, he was certain to get the 3rd degree from our bride and groom friends just like they gave me when i was in town for the marathon in November!! turns out he's now relocated to NYC from Rome and asked if i'd be getting to the Big Apple anytime soon. sorry dude, i'm not going anywhere 'til after Brasil in May. he invited me to stop off in NYC to celebrate on my way back home. careful bro, don't poor it on too thick too quick!!! his next project is in Vegas where he'll probably spend the majority of his time through the rest of the year. he hoped i'd be able to come out to visit or if he had any free time, make it back to L.A. hmmmmmm???? guess who's got a half Ironman in Vegas in April??? he was thrilled. said he'd make sure to be in Vegas for the race and couldn't wait to see me in action, and if i could still walk, i had to promise to go dancing with him afterwards to celebrate. he remembers how we danced at the wedding......CAN SOMEONE PINCH ME???

so now it's the next day and back to training reality. i've got a slight hangover from the bottle of Spanish red we shared, and i definitely fell off my 8 hours of sleep routine (and that's all i'm sayin' 'bout that). it's nearly 1pm now, and i have yet to get either one of my two workouts in which includes another 1k time trial swim. how'd i let this guy get me off track in one night??
guess we have a new character to add to Miss Monica's dating debacles: THE ITALIAN. he now joins Mr. Creepy Mc Creeperson, Mr. Totally Opposite but Totally Rad, and oh, let's not forget Mr. Ex-Boyfriend who just called the other day to let me know he's moving back to Cali. when it rains it pours i guess....