At 6:23pm, reality sucker punched me!

We all have our own little thoughts and passages about life and its various aspects. When it comes to dating I have three rules, The "Ruthie" law which is "I will try to be me while attempting to better myself, The "Helena" factor which is "No matter how busy you are, you can always find 2 mintues in your day to call someone and just check in, and (the recent) Eric effect which is, "If someone wants to be with you, they will keep in touch with you as much as you would with them." I bring these up because my last 24 hours have run the gambit. Once again, whenever I feel my life is getting "hum drum" something comes along and puts a little spice into it. This little spice is named "Jenny".
At 6:23pm, I was taking my garbage out. I remember the time because I was going to catch a movie later. As I walked out my door I bumped into an attractive girl named Jenny. She was just hanging out and looking at the view with her cocktail. I stopped and talked to her, thinking it would only be a 5 minute conversation about getting caught up with our lives. Instead, we pretty much covered each of our lives for 2 hours. She is really cool. Laid back. Soon, with the sun nearing the vanishing point, we decide to go to the bars. We bump into a few of her male friends who join us. When we sit at the bar we both order are usual drink, we both like Jack and Cokes, her male friends were clearly trying to hit on her. I just sat back and enjoyed my drink. She would once in a while look at me and roll her eyes about the conversation they were having. Around 10ish, we left and went to get a slice of pizza. They we went back to the apartment building and each called it a night. I was already tired because I had been studing for a test, she was a bit tipsy and needed to lay down. It was then that I decided to invite her hiking with me the next morning. She agrees.

Now that I look back on it, I should've NOT have invited her hiking. Why? Because in our conversations earlier she had mentioned that she was going to break up with her boyfriend. This should have been my red flag! She was upset about the way she was being treated by her and wanted to drink her problems away. However, me being a single male, fell for my own stupidity. I should've let it go, and asked her to hang out another time. However....

The hike begins by her inviting a freind along. Her friend, a nice person, was an extremely indoor person of the "Nightlife/Van Wilder" type who doesn't wake up before 10am. The hike was quiet, and dull. I had missed the conversation from the night before. And clearly Jenny did not want to be doing this. So we ended the hike early. Jenny said she had things to do and left. When I left a few minutes ago to check Emails I noticed her car is still gone. I have to conclude that she is driving to her boyfriends, who lives an hour south, to be with him.
So why do I bring up my three rules above. Well, with the Helena rule. The history behind that was there was this girl..."I liked" named Helena. To make a long story short, she would take advantage of that to help her own needs, and me, being a dingbat, let her get away with it. She only called when she needed something. One day, she stopped calling. Her last phone call to me was to let me know she was really busy, and was so sorry she hadn't had a chance to call. Then she didn't. I worked a 14 hour a day job once, but I knew that if you really liked someone you would MAKE the time to keep in touch with them.
I know I'm being over-dramatic about the "Jenny" thing. But I hadn't thought about my rules in a while because I haven't dated in a while. I don't expect Jenny to be anything more then the fun night from last night. But it's times like that that wake me up to what I like/hate, miss/meet about dating.

"So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time is differentI mean
I really think you like me." ~ Bright Eyes