Holy crap, an adult relationship!

While I was getting ready for work today, I got a call from my boyfriend Max. He'd been offered a new position at the company that he works for, which would involve higher pay but longer hours, and wanted to run it by me before he said yes. He also has an interview tomorrow at another company and wanted my advice on some things. I was all kinds of happy that he had called me before making a decision, and promptly thanked him for being so considerate. He was a bit confused as to why I was thanking him, and explained that it was a normal thing to do when making decisions that will affect both of our lives. Not having known me since I was thirteen, he couldn't possibly have known that this sort of behavior was not at all normal for one of my previous boyfriends.

As anyone in my family will tell you, I have for most of my dating life been a giant loser magnet. Any idiot within a 50-mile radius seemed to know this, and was immediately attracted to me. Take my first boyfriend, for example. His name was Rich, and although I was misguidedly attracted to him, looking back I can see that I was wrong from the start. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this at the time, and we dated each other for several months until I finally broke up with him when he stole $50 from me to support his drug habit, of which I was completely ignorant. Then there was my high school boyfriend Adam, who my mother affectionately refers to as "donkey boy," he having behaved like a total ass when he broke up with me for my best friend. He then tried to get me back when she told him to screw off. Nice guy. Fast forward to my college years and Sean, the greatest idiot of them all. Of course, I was partially to blame for the travesty that was our relationship, having put up with him for a grand total of four years. Not only did he cheat on me, stick me with the rent half the time, and generally behave like a complete jackass, but he had a bit of a drinking problem, if by "a bit" I mean that he was a raging alcoholic. One of his favorite pastimes was to go out, get completely drunk, and call me at 3:00 a.m., having done something brilliant like get lost on his way home from the bar. He also had a tendency to argue with me when I finally found him, and then try to run naked from our apartment building (no, really. I know it sounds like I'm embellishing, but he actually did this). One night, he even managed to set our couch on fire in a drunken haze.

There were any number of random in-between boyfriends of varying degrees of stupidity, so when I met Max (our mothers set us up, mine being motivated to get me away from Sean) it was, obviously, rather a huge change to date someone who actually acted like a human being. Although he freely admits to sometimes acting like a six-year-old trapped in a man's body, he treats me like I deserve to be treated, helps out around the house, and acts like a prince when it comes to our relationship. He's also one of the sweetest people I think I've ever met and I'm crazy in love with him...Yeah, I'm keepin' 'im.