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Well, after about 18 months of being crapped on, I finally feel like my luck is starting to turn in the right direction again.

I was lying down to take a nap Wednesday afternoon, when I got a call from a HR guy at CenterPoint Energy. I ended up having a phone interview for the same job that I had received a rejection letter for two weeks ago.

The position is Corporate Communications Manager, and quite frankly, my skills would be a perfect fit there. I think I was able to convey that to the guy who interviewed me as well.

He said he will let me know by early next week if they want to bring me in for an interview.

</fingerscrossed>

This was obviously the huge breakthrough I was hoping for in the job search. It’s not a sure thing by any means, but it’s a step in the right direction.

As exciting as this is, I was already feeling things were looking up for me recently. That’s because there is a new prospect that is putting up Buster Posey-type numbers in AAA right now.

I’ve mentioned this girl by name before in the blog, but because it’s more fun to have nicknames, I will go with her new name for the foreseeable future.

The new prospect is half-Korean, so her nickname will be Yeh-Peu-Dah.

Yeh-Peu-Dah and I first met in October at Jenny D’s birthday party. Yeh-Peu-Dah has been Jenny’s roommate for three years, but because I didn’t hang out with Jenny that much outside of work when I was married to Tejada, I hadn’t ever met her. Corey had told me about her, though. He thought Yeh-Peu-Dah was someone I would be interested in.

We didn’t talk much that night, but I definitely thought she was pretty and seemed to have a good sense of humor. I didn’t really think much about it again, until Jenny and I went to go see my little brother in the Grinch Musical after Thanksgiving.

Jenny and I were talking about my reintroduction back into the dating world, when she had a bit of an idea.

“I think you should go out with my roommate (Yeh-Peu-Dah),” Jenny said. “Not yet, though. You aren’t ready. I’ll tell you when you are ready.”

Around this time, Yeh-Peu-Dah had purchased a new Android phone. All of us in my group of friends have been playing WordFeud (basically scrabble) and Yeh-Peu-Dah and I played several games throughout the week. WordFeud has a chat feature, so we’d talk a bit on there.

As the weeks went by, the WordFeud chat eventually turned into texting. We usually had a few text conversations throughout the week, especially after I got laid off. She was always good at providing words of encouragement.

We started texting more often as the calendar rolled into 2011, and I decided that I wanted to get to know Yeh-Peu-Dah a little bit more. But knowing what Jenny had said a few weeks earlier, I was afraid to ask Yeh-Peu-Dah out.

That’s when I came up with a brilliant idea. I invited Jenny and Yeh-Peu-Dah to go see a movie one night when I was on their side of town. I figured this way I could talk to Yeh-Peu-Dah some more, while keeping it a friends thing with Jenny there.

A couple of hours before the movie, Jenny had to cancel, meaning it was just Yeh-Peu-Dah and I. Well…this worked out quite nicely.

We ended up having a good time, and that resulted in some more frequent texting over the next week.

Jenny made it pretty clear the next week that she thought I should ask Yeh-Peu-Dah out on a real date. Clearly she thought I was “ready.”

Here was my dilemma, though. I really liked hanging out with Jenny and Yeh-Peu-Dah. They live on the same side of town as Tejada, so I would go do something with them sometimes after I had dropped Boogie off.

What if I asked Yeh-Peu-Dah out and she wasn’t interested? What if we went out and there was no connection? Either of those scenarios would make it kind of awkward to hang out with them, which didn’t make it worth the risk in my mind. For that reason, I didn’t think I would ever ask Yeh-Peu-Dah out on an actual “date.”

Corey and Jenny must have seen something, though, because they went into full matchmaker mode. Jenny said a comment after a basketball game that made me realize her and Corey had been talking about it when they went out to lunch the day before. Meanwhile, Corey was doing his best to motivate me to actually ask Yeh-Peu-Dah.

Of course, I’m always impossibly slow on making a first move. Plus, I still wasn’t completely sure Yeh-Peu-Dah was interested in me that way.

Finally, I pulled the trigger and asked her out. We ended up going out on the Sunday when the Bears lost in the NFC title game (I needed a good distraction that night). We went to a cool Korean food place and then to one of the local bars.

Keep in mind, this was on a Sunday, so Yeh-Peu-Dah had to get up and go to work in the morning. That didn’t keep us from talking until 4 a.m. It was actually pretty crazy how time escaped us when we were having great conversation.

We decided to have another date the next Saturday and we exchanged texts and HeyTell messages (kind of a Walkie Talkie app) throughout the week expressing our excitement of seeing each other again.

My original date idea was screwed up by rain, so I ended up having an indoor picnic for her at my apartment. She said it was the most amazing date she ever had, which of course made me feel real good.

At this point, we decided we were going to give dating each other a try. If it didn’t work, then we would go back to just being friends. However, there was too much of a spark to not see if there was something there.

We’ve seen each other a few times over the past two weeks. I met her for lunch one day before I went to pick up Boogie. We’ve also just stayed at her place and watched movies and talked.

Each time we see each other, we end up talking deep into the night. It’s surprised both of us with how 2 a.m. can sneak up on us without even realizing it.

All of our mutual friends now know that we are dating, and they all seem pretty excited.

The timing on this has actually been pretty interesting. Had I met Yeh-Peu-Dah when I was still married, we’d almost certainly be exclusively friends now. Most guys know that once you enter the friend zone, it’s very hard to move back into dating that person.

I know some of you are probably concerned that I am dating someone this soon. However, there are several reasons to not worry.

• This isn’t some girl that I met online and could potentially be crazy. She’s known a lot of my friends for more than 10 years. She’s been roommates with Jenny for three years. If she were a mega bitch, then this group wouldn’t be friends with her.

• My friends out here are well aware of my situation, yet they felt comfortable with me dating Yeh-Peu-Dah. If they thought I wasn’t a good fit for her or I needed more time to recover from Tejada, they wouldn’t have encouraged me to date Yeh-Peu-Dah. They wouldn’t want to see a situation that would result in either of us being hurt.

• Yeh-Peu-Dah is a much more stable person than I have dated in the past. She has a good job with a company she’s been with for seven years. She’s active in her church and really aspires to live a good life. She’s also a genuinely nice and caring person, which I am almost certain isn’t a front for a bitch underneath.

Going through this second failed marriage has helped me out in a lot of ways. It’s made me look at myself in the mirror, realize what my true faults are. That’s helped me work on correcting them, as well as made it much clearer what type of person would be a better fit with me.

While Tejada and Prior were two different people, they did share a few characteristics. They both were loud and overbearing. They were both very controlling, yet clingy at the same time. I’ve discovered none of those go well with my personality.

From what I’ve been able to tell thus far, Yeh-Peu-Dah has all of the qualities I think I need in a woman. She’s mature and is very much an independent woman. She’s great at her job, doesn’t do the clubbing scene and seems very laid back and not argumentative.

It’s still very early, but I’d say our personalities are a much better fit than what I’ve had in the past.

So what happens now? Well, based on both of our past histories, especially mine, we are taking things slow. We both agree it’s important to get to know each other and make sure there is a genuine connection and determine if we are indeed compatible.

We are having a great time right now, though. We make each other laugh and smile throughout the day. We also stay up late talking about everything from movies to life.

Starting the season in AAA, Posey hit .349 with six homers and 32 RBIs in 47 games. He got called up to the majors and ended up leading San Francisco to a World Championship.

Right now, Yeh-Peu-Dah is putting up similar numbers in AAA. At this rate, it won’t be long before she’s called up to the big league club.

From there, I guess we’ll see if she’s a star or a bust that ends up getting traded. I’m certainly hoping I’ve found a real franchise player.

Bear Down and Keep the Faith!