“Eating words has never given me indigestion.”

- Winston Churchill

We all want to be thought of as being this unique person - a person who can march to the beat of his own drum, one who can rise above the stereotypes set upon us by others.

Today, though, I must admit that I am obviously just a typical guy.

You see it has been more than a year since I began my intrusion into your Sunday newspaper and yet, I somehow forgot our anniversary.

Sorry.

I'd say we should just kiss and make up but I'm not sure I'm ready to take our relationship to the next level.

It's hard to imagine that a little more than a year ago the powers-that-be granted yours truly the freedom to unleash my opinions on the world. I guess that would make you, kind reader, the innocent bystander of whatever thoughts have spilled out onto these pages.

So, as we start our decent into the fall season, I am feeling a bit reflective and shall take this opportunity to look back at the year that was.

For the most part, these past 12 months have been fairly decent.

There have been the ups (got a job and a new apartment) and the downs (lost a job and had to move).

Then, of course, there is the usual stuff we all have to put up with: going to work, paying the bills, and, of course, the joy ride that is traffic in Auburn.

Of course, my love life has been a recurring topic, which, by the way, is always fun to share with a few thousand strangers each week.

Now, there have been people asking me over the course of the year why exactly it is that a guy like me is single. Well, the main reason - or at least the two main reasons - are the fact that I am pickier than a guy on death row figuring out what his last meal will be.

That alone should give you some indication as to how I see marriage.

The other reason for my extended bachelorhood is the fact that I'm lazy as a cat.

Well, maybe lazy like a cat is the wrong phrase to use here. No, I'm more like a cheetah, I suppose. (There's a switch now, isn't it!)

You see, I'll pursue a woman hard and fast, but only for a short distance; after that I have to go after slower game.

So that's me, a picky cheetah. Now some may see this as a bad thing, as though having a particular standard is wrong. But the way I see it, it pays to be picky.

For those of you who think I'm getting a little too choosy, ask yourself this question. When you go to the vending machine do you just hit random buttons or do you browse the shelves of candy first?

See, it pays to check out the selection before committing yourself.

So thanks for stopping by this page each week to look in on how I'm doing.

There's always more to write, so I hope to be seeing you next Sunday.

Auburn native Bradley Molloy's column appears here, each

Sunday, in The Citizen. He can be reached at lovonain@hotmail.com