This is the physical representation of a hopeless romantic's latest attempt at love...or more accurately, an unopened Christmas gift for my (now) ex-girlfriend.

To give you a bit of a back story, I'm young and recently out of college.  I lived with a roommate for a while after graduation, but for financial reasons I had to move back home with my parents.  I was able to find a job luckily, but all of my old friends have moved away.  I live in a somewhat rural area and meeting new people is always a challenge, so I did what any internet savvy twenty-something would do in my situation...I posted a personal ad on Craigslist (and it was an awesome ad indeed).

Most of the responses I got back were from women I wasn't really too interested in, or there wasn't good chemistry, but then I get a response from Kate and I'm blown away.  We begin talking, first through email, then instant messages, even a phone call or two.  Eventually we decide to meet up and went on a cute little shopping trip, she even bought me lunch!  I've never had a girl buy me lunch before, so I was quite impressed.

After this we start talking practically nightly, many times for 2-3 hours straight.  Though I couldn't tell you what it was, there was something I really liked about her.  A week or so goes by and I take her out to dinner and we had a great time.  I can honestly say it was the best second date I've ever had, and probably the best first kiss too (and second, third, etc).  I drive her home, we say good night, and promise to get together again soon.

At this point, I'm pretty sure I could get used to this.  We make plans to get together again soon for pizza and a movie at her place.  I purchase and prepare the Christmas gift listed in this auction for whenever we see each other again.

...this is where it goes downhill, or more accurately, jumps off a cliff.

Due to a family emergency, she needs to go away for a couple of days, postponing the pizza date.  I keep touch with her while she's away with an occasional text message just saying hi and to find out how things are going, but there's no late night multi-hour conversations.

The other night I'm happy to catch her on instant messenger and she drops a bomb on me..."i'm sorry if i've been super distant, well i also got to thinking, and i'm not sure if i'm really ready to be dating, i'm sorry to say, because you're awesome, i just don't want to end up being a big ***hole and leading you on." {cue car crash sound effect}  I'm totally confused.  I take a little bit of time to try to figure it all out and I just become more confused.  The chemistry is there, the romance is there, even the waitress at the restaurant said we were cute together...but for some reason, this short lived romance is officially over.

So now things are back where they started

...on the internet.  I've got a gift sitting here in shiny gold wrapping paper with a bow and a card addressed to Kate.  If you want to know what's in the box I'd be happy to tell you, but for the sake of presents everywhere, I'm not going to mention it here and give away the surprise.  I'm starting the auction at $35, the price I paid for it, because if nothing else I'd at least like my money back.  The winning bidder will receive the present in it's current state and if I'm in the mood (or if you ask nicely), a copy of the original Craigslist post and/or the logs of our IM conversations to complete the hopeless romantic package.

And ladies, if you're interested, I'm officially single...

 

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On Jan-04-09 at 21:40:14 PST, seller added the following information:

So after thinking about it a bit I think I've decided to mail the gift to her...I guess I'm kinda hoping she'll have a change of heart. In any case, I'll leave the auction up for amusement purposes only and the unopened gift will not be sold.