BIGGER announcement

You know when you need to make a decision, but don't know what to do? So you wait for some sort of sign, whether it be from God, Allah, or the higher power of your choice? And just when you're stuck in the middle, something happens that practically makes your decision for you? Like this weekend, there was a dress I wanted, but wasn't sure...I finally decided to buy it, and when I took it up to the cashier, ended getting an additional 30% off. I knew that I was meant to buy that dress. You know what I mean, right?

So, many of you are aware of my unique living situation. Well, I just got an email from the owner of my condo (I rent). I know the unit has been for sale for a while, and I was even thinking of buying it. Then I sort of unconsidered it, just because I don't know how long I will be in the area (could be one year, could be ten, I just don't know). Anyway, back to the email...it goes something like this:

"We have accepted an offer on the condo. They would like to move in within 30 days. I know your lease isn't up until March. We are willing to give you 60 days, and a free month's rent."

Needless to say, it looks like I am moving. And I must say, I am totally excited about it.

Big announcement...

I've decided to take a dating break. While getting ready for my last few dates, I realized I wasn't excited about them. At all. It was like I was getting ready for a job interview or a trip to the grocery store. Wait, that's not true...I really like grocery shopping....mainly because I use coupons and save a ridiculous amount of money doing so. Like last weekend, I saved 51%. Wait, where was I...

Oh, the dating break. As long as I'm not having fun/getting excited about going on these dates, I'm never going to enjoy them, no matter how great the guy is. So to be fair to both myself and the guy I'm meeting, I think it's better if I just don't go out for a while. How long will this last? I don't know. I didn't renew my Match subscription this month, but that's not to say that someone seemingly amazing won't email me tomorrow and pique my interest. But as of this very second, I'm hanging up my dating shoes for a while.

Don't worry, dear readers, I'll still blog little musings from my single life. I would hate to disappoint all four or my loyal readers :)

Little details

Sorry in advance for the long post...

On Saturday I had a lunch date with Flight 2. Flight 2 is, what do you know, another Air Force pilot. He actually lives a couple of hours away, but wanted to make the drive to meet me. The first thing I noticed was that he is really cute. He was very nice, polite, etc. He did seem to get confused easily. For example, consider the following conversation:

Flight 2: "So, what do your parents do?"
Me: "Well, my stepdad is a retired fire chief."
Flight 2 (looking very confused): "What does that mean?"
Me: "Um, it means he was a fire chief, but is now retired."
Flight 2: "Oh."

This sort of thing happened several times, where I found myself explaining things that really required no explanation. But okay, I can deal with that, maybe he was nervous or something.

At some point, fairly early in the conversation, I mentioned that I might be going to Utah for a karate tournament. He asked me what I thought of Utah. I told him I liked it, and have a lot of friends there, who are Mormon, and I mentioned that I like Mormon people for a variety of reasons. He said nothing. Fast-forward to about 3o minutes later. He was talking about something entirely different. He then decides it's a good time to throw in that he's Mormon. Okay, so I do like Mormon people...I grew up with a lot of them, and they are all very nice, hard-working, friendly people. But I'm not Mormon, nor do I wish to date someone who is. On match.com there is a place to put your religion, and "Christian-LDS" is an option. He decided to put "Christian-Other." At this point I was just sort of annoyed...it's like people who don't put they have kids in their profiles. Don't want to mention it in your profile? Fine! How about in one of the many emails? Like when you said you lived in Poland for a couple of years, that would have been a perfect time to add that it was for your LDS mission. Just a thought.

I could have saved him 2.5 hours (each way!) in the car and the $30 that lunch cost. Within a couple hours of our date ending, I got two texts and a phone call (I missed the call, and he didn't leave a message). This is one of his texts: "I hope you don't mind me observing you're very beautiful. It's not just your pictures." Yes, he's a nice guy, but religion is just one of those issues where I'm not going to negotiate.

Moving on...I had another date Thursday evening. This is a guy I started talking to right when I first got on match, but then we just sort of stopped emailing. He emailed me again and suggested we finally meet up. I didn't know how much of a match we were, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Why are we not a match? Well, little things in his profile, such as:

"My match does not have a subscription to People magazine and wonders if anybody really watches the Bachelor."

"I haven't had a TV for 15 years..."

Anyone who knows me knows I love my TV. And People magazine. In fact, just Friday I applied to be on the Bachelor. Yes, I'm serious. Anyway, we met up for a drink. I don't have too much to say one way or the other. He was nice, but sort of, hmm, what's the word...stuffy? Like I could imagine him sitting in a leather chair smoking a pipe, wearing a sweater vest. The date was more good than bad though...

...until the end. As we were finishing up, he asked me out again. This is the first time this has happened, and I have to say, I'm not a fan. Talk about putting someone on the spot! Luckily, I was busy all weekend and am out of town the second half of this week...he told me just to call him when I get back. I'm still thinking about whether I will or not.

Yes, those are real pictures...of me 15 years ago.

You know when there's a movie that you want to see, and then there's a ton of hype about it, so you get really excited, and then when you finally see the movie, it doesn't live up to the hype? And you're mad about the hype, because had you just seen it pre-hype, you would have really liked it?

Earlier this week I started emailing back and forth with a guy I'll call LL (Liberal Lawyer). From his match.com pictures, I could tell he was cute, and from his emails, I could tell he had a great sense of humor. Eventually, we were using our personal email accounts, and his happened to be his work email. So I did what any online dater would do and looked at his work's website, where there was a profile of him. And a picture. A picture which looked VERY different than the pictures on his match profile. Now, on match, he had one head shot and the rest were sort of far away shots where you couldn't see his face. The picture on the law firm website looked like a totally different person, a person who was at least 10 years older than the person in the match pictures. I asked him about it, and he admitted that the picture on his match profile was "a few" years old. Okay, fine. So we agreed to meet up for coffee.

You can say I was a little surprised when the guy walking up to me looked like an OLDER version of the already older version of his picture. As in this guy was bald (okay, maybe still in the balding stage, but he was well on his way). His profile said he was 6'0", but he was probably more like 5'10". And that cute, funny personality that he had over email? Apparently it doesn't show up in person.

Now, I'm well aware that people lie about themselves highlight their strong points in their profiles. I mean, the pictures I have of myself are good pictures and not what I look like every day. However, the point is that I can look like those pictures, any day, if I wanted to. LL, on the other hand, is not going to grow two inches and a head of hair by spending a few extra minutes getting ready. Had LL's pictures been more realistic I probably would have liked him more, because I wouldn't have had to get past the shock value of meeting up with someone who looks totally different from their pictures. And you know what? He looked fine the way he was in real life, but because he "hyped" himself up, I found myself very disappointed in the real thing.

If I have to date every last man in this town....

...I will! Or already have, maybe.

Ragboy...hmmm...Let's just say I am pretty certain that he's not on match to find the woman he wants to marry and have 95 babies with...I think his interests are more, um, immediate. I got a text from him Tuesday night. He and some of his friends were at a restaurant. He invited me to join them (what's with the group dates?). As I was thinking about it, he texted me: "im drunk. u cld take advantage of me." I texted him back and told him I thought I could take advantage of him even if he wasn't drunk. Never heard back, and I'm assuming I won't. I'm a little bummed because he was really hot and it's fun to look at him. On the flip side, I don't care too much, because like I said, I think we have distinctly different goals as far as dating goes. If by chance he asks me out again, I'll go, but I'm not going to pursue it.

Side note: Am I the only one who spells out all words and uses correct puncuation when texting?

Random tidbit...

I know they are common names, but does anyone think it's odd that I've gone out with two guys with the last name Smith and two with Anderson? Also, two guys named Dave and two named Nick? Oh, and one guy has the same name (1st and last) of someone I went to high school with. Interesting.

Gee, that wasn't awkward at all!

Sunday evening I met up with Ragboy for some mini-golf. Let me start by saying that he is super cute. His profile only had one picture, and it was a head shot, so I wasn't sure what to expect. He is blond with blue eyes (side note: Did you know that writers of English often will still distinguish between the masculine blond and the feminine blonde and, as such, it is one of the few adjectives in English with separate masculine and feminine forms?). Faithful blog reader "Hopeful for Hope" noted that even though I always say I like guys with dark hair, I almost exclusively date those with light hair. Interesting. Okay, where was I...

Oh yeah. Mini-golf went well. I’m usually pretty good, but for some reason I was terrible. As in so-bad-I-didn't-even-care-about-winning BAD. Oh well. He suggested that we go have a glass of wine at this wine bar right down the street…then he said we could do that or go somewhere with TVs to watch the end of the Bears/Colts game. I also wanted to see the game so I opted for that. We hung out for a while and everything was going well.

About a half hour into the drinks/appetizer/football, his friend called him, which he didn’t answer. Then he fessed up that he had told his friend to call so that if the date wasn’t going well he could make up some excuse to leave. At least he’s honest! Plus I've done that myself, although the date would really have to be really horrible for me to use the out. Anyway, the friend kept calling, and I told him he should answer it because maybe something else was going on. Turns out his friend and friend’s girlfriend were at another bar near by and wanted us to go there. A little weird for a first date, but I was having a good time so I didn’t really care (side note: what is it with meeting up with friends on a first date? Check out this post.).

The friend was really giant. He played football in college and was like 6’4” 280 lbs. Big boy. He was also a bit older than Ragboy. His gf was probably around 40 but trying to be 20. Short shorts, tube top, etc. Super ditzy, but in the entertaining, not annoying, way. I was there maybe 15 minutes and they invited Ragboy over for dinner for the following night, and then looked at me and told him he could bring a friend. Haha…then later on in the night they just flat out invited me. They were also talking about getting married in 10 months. I asked them if they were engaged. Nope. I asked how long they had been dating... TWO months!

Now the awkwardness was really starting. First, they asked me how the date was going and to rate it from 1-10... right in front of Ragboy! They also asked if they would be witnessing any 1^st kisses…once again, in front of the boy. At this point we were all sitting outside. The friends started getting "friendly" with each other, so Ragboy and I went inside. As we were walking in he said “maybe we should kiss,” but I didn’t hear it like that…I thought he was making some joke about kissing the love birds, so I was like “no, I’m good.” By the time I realized what he had actually said it was a little late to admit my mistake. I know, no more awkward than the entire date, but still. Eventually he walked me out to my car and we hugged and I went home at like 12:30am, yes, on a Sunday....way past my bedtime.

I texted Ragboy the next morning to say thanks and to ask about the 8am workout he had scheduled...I got a text back, so that was good. I asked him how long he stayed at the bar after I left: "10 minutes. They started making ot again and the term akward is an understatement." Haha. He also texted me a few times last night. Still no invite for a 2nd date, but I guess the fact that we're still talking is a good sign. I'll keep you posted!

Yes, I'm still alive...

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. Sorry, folks!

Tuesday I had a lunch date with Pablo. Eh. Not good, not bad, just sort of neutral. He also looked very old for being 34, I'm more inclined to think he's 44. Nice guy, just nothing there. That's enough about him.

Tomorrow night I have a date with Ragboy. Why such a name? It just so happens that he has two ragdoll cats, just like I do. I know, a single guy with two cats. I already gave him some crap about it, haha. We are meeting up for some mini-golf. He claims he's very good, but I've also got mad skills. Am I supposed to let him win so he feels on manly and macho? Oh, just kidding, I would never do that. Although I think from experience I shouldn't do anything involving competition on the first few dates (see: Driving range date with Tex). I'm meeting up with a girl from my karate class to practice sparring right before my date, so hopeully that will get all of the "fight" out of me. Doubt it though :)