Squash Ladder/Footrace

As I mentioned the other day, I've somehow ended up juggling four men this month. Trust me when I say that this has never happened to me before & I'm not sure I can handle it. I'm usually a one-man kind of girl, but somehow I've met four interesting men in one month.

In direct imitation of Londongirl, I've decided to instate something like her squash ladder. However, I can't remember all of the rules & I ran track for a decade, so I'm going to style it more like a footrace. And in answer to your obvious question, no, I haven't identified what the "finish line" is & yes, you should get your mind out of the gutter. ;)

So, here we go. For convenience & privacy, their nicknames are their occupations.

1. The Accountant: Absolutely the front-runner. We've seen each other twice in the last few days, our first date lasted five lovely hours, and he continues to give me butterflies. I know - it's weird that an accountant gives me butterflies. ;) However, we've only known each other for about a week & he has a very recent break-up behind him, so I feel like I need to proceed with caution.
2. The Bouncer: Met him on a bad date with The Pilot a couple of weeks ago. We started chatting, realized we had a close mutual friend, he found me via her Myspace page, and we're going out Thursday night. We'll see how it goes.
   
3. The Pilot, a.k.a. Date #2 from a few weeks ago: Contrary to my first impression of him, this guy ended up nicer than I thought he'd be. However, he's still pretty immature (case in point: I mentioned my sister is married & he said "Eww.") and very cocky, so I think it's best to downgrade us to just friends.
   
4. Former Army Guy, a.k.a. Date #1 from the same night: I went out with him the following week, on what turned into a double date (my GSBB was out with a date @ the same restaurant, so we combined dates after our entrees & played trivia). However, I just never got that excited about him, nice guy though he is. I called him last night to tell him that I'm fine with being friends, but am not feeling a spark romantically.
   

It's not as useful a tool this week as it would have been last week, since I've already begun to cull the list. However, it's still useful in a way. My mother made an excellent point over the weekend. I tend to have a "damn the torpedoes - full steam ahead!" mentality with relationships. I get super excited about someone & that's it. I'm his, he's mine, and every other man in the world is out of my sight line.

While there's nothing wrong with doing that in a serious relationship (in fact, you absolutely should), it's risky to put all your eggs in a fairly new basket. As I mentioned, I think The Accountant is the bee's knees, but maybe going on a date or two with The Bouncer will help me temper my expectations a little. Wish me luck! ;)