I've got a masculine face

Dude, I've been pounding out the work this morning. If it weren't simply a matter of typing on a keyboard and sleuthing contact info on the Web, I might actually be sweating.

I have a great image of you and your Dad eating the flesh of the cow. Talk about traditional manly activities. I haven't had a steak in a while, although I had a bite of deer last summer when I went whitewater rafting in West Virginia.

Yeah, marriage creates a whole new dynamic with the women-folk. I was pretty chummy with the women at work before I got married--I didn't date any (well, one, but in another department, a long time ago), but I hung out with a group of them at lunch. After I got married, I sensed a kind of change in our relationship, at least as far as they were behaving. They no longer seemed as friendly with me. They weren't mean or anything, just not as chummy. It made me think that, on some level, before my wedding I was still in the mating game, at least. This isn't to say I ever got the sense that any of my coworkers were trying to take me away from my fiancee, but I wonder if some of them, at least subconsciously, were waiting in the wings in case it ended of its own accord. Then again, this could just all have been my big fat ego imagining things.

I'm with you on the ego-boosting. I like when a pretty woman laughs at something I say. There is no bigger boost. And yes, the chase is painful, but there are few bigger natural highs. I've never jumped out of a plane, but I imagine it doesn't really compete. I was never very good at chasing women (well, at least at getting women), but it certainly felt good to have that sense of possibility, of new love, or at least of potentially getting laid.