Harry Potter and the handcuffs of hypocrisy

Or: How I nearly wrecked my job, nearly ruined a movie (for the row behind me) and managed to start dating again in one fell sweep.

A few years ago I went to London, I went with three of my friends, and we went on the weekend of Valentine's Day. The reason we went on this specific weekend is the simple fact that it marked the third consecutive year of singledom on Feb14thh, and we had decided to treat ourselves to theater-tickets and a weekend of friendship, sightseeing and fun. And it was fun. Bitter, dejected andmisanthropicc fun, but fun nonetheless. I even went so far as to have four t-shirts printed with a short comic strip detailing what exactly should happen to the kind of people in an actual relationship. Details not important, but the phrase "dead before you hit the ground" was certainly mentioned.
This general idea of what should constitute a hanging offence in the dating arena was quite descriptive. I despise people who feel the need to explore the back of their partners mouths in every available circumstance, be it in a bar, a movie theatre, at a bus-stop, where-ever. And more than one of my dates and boyfriends in the past three or four years have found that overzealousness and enthusiasm might seem like a great plan, but they don't really stand up against the veritable WALL OF ICE-QUEENNINESS(tm) I can throw up when I don't feel comfortable. And I rarely feel comfortable around people who are more than generally zealous or enthusiastic.

Fast forward to a few years later (one year and a handful of months later, to be precise) and I am being set up for a date-like situation by a co-worker of mine. It wasn't a blind date, as such, because he was setting me up with a friend of his whom I already knew from a party a couple of months previous, but still it was somewhat of a "let's see what happens here" sorta situation.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, what exactly happened was, well, snogging. I think we managed to behave ourselves in a nice flirty manner for about two hours, and then starting to make up lost time for the two hours after this. This is something I NEVER do. I DO NOT snog in public, I AM NOT snogged in public, and I sure as hell NEVER ignore the other people around me, not even when I am with someone I kinda like. Friends of mine who heard about this evening were amazed.
The co-worker might have been amazed as well, but I think "annoyed" or "furious" might have been better descriptions.

Dating commenced. We had a normal quiet evening in my favorite pub here in Amsterdam (Tara...for those interested) where al that happened was talking, and no snogging. Then we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I can only say I was happy I had already seen it a couple of times, because I would've missed about 70% of the movie otherwise. Once again, one of my personal rules had been broken and I found myself kissing during more than just the previews. Bad...bad me.
Since then we have for as far as I can tell managed not to be too much trouble for our surroundings. This may be because we have kept inside during our dates up till now. This then again might have something to do with the fact that I spotted a pair of handcuffs on my first visit to his place and I'm a sucker for the more binding types of metal.

I am now, apparently, dating. Even worse, I am now, apparently, in a relationship. Something that would've freaked me out a couple of weeks ago but now seems to be swimming along nicely. I am going to introduce him to my mother and brother, and to my best friends, and a plan has already been made for me to be introduced to his parents, And I already met some of his friends, who seemed quite nice.

Interesting situation this. I haven't been dating or in a real and healthy relationship for a good long while now. And I must say, it's nice. It's nice to lay on a couch and listen to someone's heartbeat, or to feel two arms around you when you are trying to cook dinner.
And this guy provides general feelings of "hmmm...nice" at a regular basis, I must say. I'm not going to sit here and gush about my new boyfriend, cause I will slit my wrists if I ever have to read this again, but he is great, 'nuff said.

Next time, in all likelihood, I will write something about the terrible ordeal of having my supersweet but slightly overprotective friends meeting my sweet but unprepared boyfriend and then proceeding to tear him apart.
That is, if my brother leaves them something to tear...
Argh....