Hot Girl Summer

Ya’ll trying to date during this pandemic SUCKS! Surprisingly, I have dated more during the pandemic than probably ever with 4 first dates in about a year, but it’s still been hard. Now that I’m fully vaxxed and things are reopening, it got me thinking about how fun dating was back in the day like in high school/college when I would go on a date with anyone who asked and went into it with no expectations, just a shared meal, movie, or round of putt-putt with someone. So I decided to date like that again this summer, even though I’m 36, and dub it Hot Girl Summer – because why the eff not?! My mom recently passed away and I’m really not in the mental headspace to date someone seriously, but fun? That I can have.

Back in December I joined Tinder and I got a lot of matches and talked to a lot of guys, as you may remember from QuaranTinder, but that was really just a trial run because I heard Hinge is really where it’s at. So once I was actually ready to start going on dates in May, I downloaded Hinge and got to swiping. Within a couple of days I had my first date scheduled for that weekend. We’ll call him The Quiet Guy, he is 29 and hot and I tried my hardest to avoid all of the get to know you questions he was trying to ask me during the days leading up to the date so we’d have something to talk about. We met at a nice restaurant, ordered a bottle of wine and had a decent conversation – honestly it was a good first date. He seemed like a nice guy, reserved and quiet, DEFINITELY more mature than me, but didn’t really seem all that fun. The other caveat to my Hot Girl Summer is that it is not the time to get into a relationship, it’s a dating multiple guys, having a super fun time all the time type of summer and this guy just wasn’t that. I’m OK with being the more fun person, but I need guys who can let loose a little bit this summer. I think if I brought this guy to Beer Olympics with my friends he would probably tell me how immature we are, even though we’re 7 years older than him, and refuse to hold me up while I was taking my turn at doing a Louisville chugger.

Anyway, I’ve got a doctor, stand-up comedian, teacher, mountain man, romance novel model, and a guy who promises to be reassuring in the queue, so Hot Girl Summer is still on track. I told all of my friends about my plans for Hot Girl Summer and Gigi and Betty were supportive of it, but are really just ruining my buzz every time I tell them about someone by trying to over analyze them and their suitability for me. “The Teacher” is very clearly self-absorbed, most of his photos are shirtless selfies, but he is truly one of the hottest human beings I’ve ever seen, so good for him. This is what Hot Girl Summer is all about, not whether or not he will be a good long term boyfriend. So my Hot Girl Summer escapades are going to be aired out here since we’re just starting and I’m already about to lose it if I hear, “He won’t be good long term,” one more time. In the words of Kyle Cook, “SUMMER. SHOULD. BE. FUN.”

Here’s what I know about the guys currently in the queue:

The Doctor, 29: Right now he is probably my favorite. We’ve only exchanged a couple of messages, but his photos do show a fun side, he’s really witty, and lives in my neighborhood.

The Stand-Up Comedian, 31: This guy is really tall, like almost 7 feet tall. So if we went on a date, it would be comical because I’m 5’4″. I really don’t know if this one will go anywhere though. I made a joke a few days ago asking if he does stand-up comedy in public or if it’s just an at home in front of his dog type of thing and haven’t gotten a response yet.

The Teacher, 30: As I mentioned before, this guy is probably by far the most attractive guy I’ll ever come across in real life or on an app and he does seem very fun based on his profile and Instagram. We just matched this morning and have yet to talk, so we’ll see how the actual conversation goes if/when it happens.

The Mountain Man, 36: This guy is really cute and one that is actually the same age as me, but we matched on Tinder when I first joined back in December and he never responded to my lame pick-up line on there. So when he invited me to start the chat on Hinge, I simply said, “I already started the chat on Tinder and you never responded. I’m pretty forgiving though.” Well, that was 2 days ago and still no response, so this one might be a bust too.

The Romance Novel Model, 35: This is another verrrrrry attractive guy, so much so that he’s been on the cover of multiple romance novels, which I find highly entertaining. We’ve made a pact to read one of them and share our thoughts, book club style, on how we think the author portrayed him as the character. For being super hot, this guy actually seems to have some substance to him, but it’s been a few days since I’ve heard from him – so this might be another one that disappeared into the dating app black hole.

The Reassurer, 29: This guy’s profile is actually really cute. In it he promises to give reassuring hugs and says that he’s loyal and kind-hearted, and I believe it. We just matched today as well, so there’s yet to be a conversation, but we’ll see how it goes.

So we’ll see how this weekend of Hot Girl Summer goes and we’ll meet back here next week!

QuaranTinder Bachelorette: Episode 1 – Introduction

I know I am not alone when I say finding productive things to occupy your time during the dumpster fire of 2020 is difficult. It’s more difficult when you have to actually quarantine and find things to do to keep yourself from going crazy. As I mentioned in my last post, my mom has cancer, so the actually staying away from people and quarantining is not foreign to me. However, I have been with my family up to this point and not really alone.

My parents aren’t together, so when I decided to see my dad (after we hadn’t seen each other in months) on Christmas day I knew that meant at least a 14 day quarantine and covid test before I could see my mom again. Around Thanksgiving I got the genius idea to sign up for a dating app to help occupy this newfound alone time. Because why wouldn’t I?

Let me preface this by saying, I’m familiar with dating apps but have never been on one. So the idea of it was nerve wracking and exciting all in one. I’ve mostly avoided them because I didn’t want to deal with seeing people I know in real life on there. It was a valid concern, I’ll explain more later.

So even though my actual quarantine didn’t start until today, I decided to start casting for my very own version of the bachelorette right after Thanksgiving. My plan was to talk to guys in the masses and try and set up as many virtual dates as I could while doing my quarantine. I’d talk to them and just like on the Bachelorette, send someone packing every few days and unmatch once I knew they weren’t for me.

I decided to go with Bumble because it seemed classier than the others and there was no question about who would message first. For those of you that don’t know: after you match, the girl has 24 hours to send a message to the guy or the match goes away, if the guy doesn’t respond within another 24 hours, the match goes away. So staying active on it is a must to actually get conversations flowing.

I live in a bigish city, but still managed to swipe through all the guys in my preferences within a few days. From that, I had 12 matches and wound up messaging 9 of them. From the 9 I sent first messages to, 5 responded. Of those 5, 3 continued on into actual conversations – it was a solid start, but not really enough to form my own posse of men vying after my heart.

Ben – a 36 year old actor who recently moved back to the area to be around family.

Jordan – a 32 year old nurse that hates bacon and is allergic to basically anything furry.

Zach – a 33 year old single dad and quite possibly one of the most good looking people I have ever laid eyes on.

I’ll say, these conversations were pretty good and I was pleasantly surprised. I fully expected to encounter some real assholes, but these guys were all nice and respectful.

After about a week of messaging within the app, Jordan asked if I wanted to text. So we exchanged phone numbers and off we went. After a couple of days of texting, he asked if I wanted to go to dinner. I explained my situation and that with COVID, I didn’t feel comfortable. He seemed understanding, but dropped off. Bye Jordan.

Around the same time, Zach asked if I wanted to meet up for a drink. I told him the situation, he was understanding and said we could each make our own and talk over FaceTime – so we set the date, which never actually happened. He ended up having his son the night we were supposed to talk and asked if we could reschedule, which also never actually happened. I went to respond to a message he sent me one night and got this weird “away message” that Bumble provides when someone puts their profile into snooze mode. It basically told me he was prioritizing himself and taking some time away from the app, so he wouldn’t get notified about my message until he un-snoozed. Awesome. I looked again the next day and he had deleted his profile. Bye Zach.

Ben never acted like he had any plans to take anything off the app, and he also never asked any questions about me and only talked about himself, so I ended up unmatching with him. Ain’t nobody got time for a narcissistic pen pal. Bye Ben.

I went from 3 guys to no guys very quickly, so I decided it was time to enter the big leagues and I downloaded Tinder.

Almost immediately I realized the swiping aspect of Tinder is more complicated than Bumble and that got me into trouble early. You get 1 super like a day and that’s basically supposed to make your profile stand out to the person you superliked. For starters, it tells them you superliked them and you can attach a message to it if you want. The tricky part is that a right swipe means yay I like you, a left swipe down means bye no I don’t like you, but a left swipe up is a superlike. I did not know this.

The pre-mentioned Zach came up as one of the very first people I needed to swipe on. I thought long and hard about this because while I would like to look at him some more, he could have asked for my number before deleting his bumble account and didn’t, so he must have not been that interested. I decided to swipe left, take that Zach. Only I swiped up and left instead of down and left. I didn’t know! So here we are, moments after I’ve created my new shiny profile and I already accidentally used my only superlike on someone who has already rejected me once. I decided to start over and deleted my profile. I couldn’t bear the humiliation of looking so desperate to have superliked this guy after everything. I also fully realize these are dating apps and not that serious, so I know you guys, I know.

On my second go around with Tinder I started reading about the various benefits to the version of the app you can pay for. You can see who likes you. You can make your profile so that only people you’ve liked can see it. You get 5 superlikes a day and something called a boost, which I think makes your profile more visible.  So I decided you know what? Let’s do it for the sake of the QuaranTinder Bachelorette. I paid the money and it was worth it, so worth it.

I’ve been on the app for about a week and a half. So far about 3,000 guys have liked me and from that I have 14 matches, but the best part is I can just look through who likes me and like people from there, so I don’t have to mess with all the swiping and accidental superlikes.  I’m still working on the roster and seeing if I can spark enough conversations to turn this into a digital Bachelorette. Stay tuned!

Highlights from the next episode: The first virtual date, guys who know me IRL texting me after seeing me on the Tinder, an invitation to go on a trip, seeing Zach liked me and deciding to roll the dice and match with him.

Beef Stroganoff

Hi everyone! I know you haven’t heard from us in a REALLY long time. We’ve learned that as you get older you really like staying in and not socializing, so that doesn’t make for great blog posts. I can report that both Lucky and I are still single, so there’s that. We could have a full on relatable blog about being in your mid-30’s and being a dog/cat mom, but I feel our reach would only be to people exactly like us. I digress, I am really here because I’m in the midst of a dark time and still find humor/annoyance in spending all my time with my family. This seemed like the kind of messed up place to come to talk about it.

You all might remember about 10 years ago when we were hot and heavy on this blog that I had just graduated college and was living with my parents while I looked for a full time job. I did a lot of complaining about my roommates (parents), but here I am again, 10 years later, living with them. The situation is different, but the drama is the same. I moved in with them in mid-July because I was home shopping (side note: I was not a crazy that started home shopping BECAUSE of COVID, I was doing it before and that makes me sane). I hadn’t found “the one” yet and my apartment lease expired, so they were gracious enough to have me back to eat all their booberries. During that time my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Of course our family is devastated, truly do not know how we will all survive without her as a family or individually, but that’s a whole different story.
Since COVID is still very much a thing (leave and don’t ever come back if you disagree) and since my mom is very vulnerable to all sickness crap, we are heavily in the Q right now. So I am with my parents and sister all. the. time. My mom and I really noticed stepdad’s OCD ramping up after her diagnosis, like to the point where if he saw you peeling off a sock, he would have it swooped up and in it’s very own load of laundry before it ever hit the floor. It’s not just laundry, it’s everything.

Enter: beef stroganoff. A few weeks ago he made “beef stroganoff”.  I was not around when said meal was prepared, so when I went to the kitchen and saw it I proclaimed, “Oooo hamburger helper!” and was dutifully corrected that no, it was in fact “beef stroganoff”. When you google beef stroganoff the ingredients are always beef, noodles, mushrooms, and onions. This had beef, noodles, and some kind of sauce (maybe it was cheeseburger flavoring, maybe it wasn’t), but none-the-less, onions and mushrooms were not in attendance. For the next week and a half, all I heard at the 10 meal times throughout the day was that he was “going to have some “beef stroganoff”, would anyone else like some “beef stroganoff”? The “beef stroganoff” would be good with some gravy. Would I eat some “beef stroganoff” with some gravy?” You get the picture. I was a “beef stroganoff” girl living in a “beef stroganoff” world. If I ever get married I think that day will feel a lot like the day the last of the “beef stroganoff” got eaten, it was euphoric and I think I heard actual angels singing.

The day after I had that out of body experience, some of my mom’s old work friends brought food over because that’s what people do. Stepdad was gone huntin’ when this food arrived so I brought it inside and unpacked it. We were gifted with an apple pie, some kind of marshmallow fruit goop, and a big ass casserole. Stepdad came home from huntin’ and immediately made himself a plate of the casserole. After the first bite he announced to no one particular, “This “beef stroganoff” is delicious!” No. No. NO! Later that evening I made myself a plate, the ingredients for this “beef stroganoff” were hamburger, noodles, corn, carrots, and mashed potatoes on top. This was a swift exit from the pure delight I experienced the day before and threw me back into the land of “beef stroganoff”. 

Anyway, it’s almost dinner time. I’m making hamburgers beef stroganoffs.

P.s. Neal Bledsoe accepted my facebook friend request.

The Welcome Back Party

Herrooo old friends!!! I’m going to be totally honest and tell you that I have no good excuse for going AWOL for a hot minute. Lucky and I have been talking for a few months about resurrecting the blog because we’re both kind of in the same place in our lives and we’ve got some things planned in the next few months that will probably be semi-entertaining to read about, so we thought better now than never! I just know I really haven’t been up to much the last couple of years and my life would have been SO boring to read about, unless you’d love to read about me trotting around the country drinking with my friends or recaps of Teen Mom and The Bachelor, in which case – I’m your girl!

After the whole Nutter Butter breakup and my failed attempt at dating a super-hot guy fresh out of college 2 years ago, I decided that I was tired of guys treating me like I was disposable and dating needed to be my last priority, so I stopped dating. It wasn’t long before it became really apparent to me that when you’re in your late 20s and you stop dating, that also means you stop having sex (side note: that doesn’t mean I didn’t TRY to have sex. I did try, with a really hot guy in the Navy that I met while I was out celebrating my 29^th birthday. It is surprisingly hard to get a guy to just hook up with you and promise to never call you again.) When I came up with this plan I was about to turn 28 and hadn’t been without a guy since I was 14. I was serial dating all the wrong guys, knowing they were the wrong guys, but continuing to date them because I didn’t know how to be alone. And, what girl in her 20s doesn’t think she can rid a guy of all his bad habits? The stuff that I let those douchers get away with doing to me is so shameful, and I finally realized that if I didn’t take the time I needed to figure out who I was without a boyfriend, I would continue to date these awful guys and would probably end up married to and then divorced from one of them. If this is the part where you expect me to tell you that I finally met Prince Charming (See: Neal Bledsoe), then look away now, because that didn’t happen. I’m still single, but more stable and [I would hope] able to make better decisions. And when I say “better decisions,” I mean in the long run, I’m totally not opposed to bad decisions that are short term/one night stands with hot guys because… 2 years.

Also, this isn’t a post about self-discovery. I mean, come on, look who you’re talking to here: I’m still totally inappropriate and get way too drunk with my friends, albeit a lot less frequently now that we’re maturing. I’m still not really sure what I want to do with my life, but I finally realized that I’m not going to figure it out by dating assholes that cheat on me and have the audacity to manipulate me into thinking I deserved it. LOLZ – the fact that those things ever happened is so stupid, but it makes me pretty happy to know it’s all documented on this blog.

The whole “I’m not dating at all” concept is perplexing to basically everyone I tell. All my friends and family have tried to set me up so many times, like SO many times, these last 2 years and would then get super offended when I turned down the offer because they don’t understand why I would choose to be alone while I’m in my prime baby making years. Uh, maybe because guys are man whores and I don’t feel like being emotionally drained and worrying about STDs all the time? I don’t know! I’ve ruined a few friendships with guy friends who thought this stint of singledom would be the best time to finally ask me out. I know telling someone not to take it personal is almost always bullshit, and it is still total bullshit in my case because of course if the perfect guy came along (See: Neal Bledsoe above) I wouldn’t have turned him down, but I wasn’t about to waste my time or theirs when I already knew I wouldn’t be that into it. I’m pretty sure my family thinks I’m a lesbian (as long as Neal is still out there that’ll never happen) since I’m not married and don’t have a bunch of babies, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re from a small town. My Grandma sat me down for a serious conversation a few months ago about getting artificially inseminated so I could have a family, there’s a cute guy at her church she thinks would do it – and by do it she meant jizz in a cup, not actually fuck me. My guy friends that are married have been pushing me to stay single for as long as possible and live the good life, because once you get married it’s a long road of misery, or at least that’s what they tell me. I overheard my Stepdad telling some other family members that it (my love life) will all be okay because I’ll be able to start catching guys on the next round. What’s the next round? Oh it’s just all the guys that got married and popped out a bunch of babies when they were 22 who are now 30 and getting divorced. Exactly what I want, a divorcee with a bunch of babies. Real talk, it’s kind of fun watching everyone squirm because they can’t figure me out. But, I’m almost ready to start dating again, like seeing one more Nicholas Sparks movie alone and then I’ll date anyone with a pulse almost ready.

P.s. As of today, Neal Bledsoe still has not approved my facebook friend request, but I’m okay with it. A few months ago, after 4 ½ years of persistence, he finally acknowledged my existence on twitter. Small victories.

P.p.s. We just got Instagram: Instagram.com/cocktailsattiffanys

I had a shitty weekend. Real shitty.

Hmmm… where do I begin?

On Friday, I was SUPPOSED to have a second date with the passive guy from Ok Cupid. In the morning, he sent me a text asking if we were still on for that night. Yes, I said. Do you want to meet me or can I pick you up? he asked. I told him he could pick me up. He asked if 6 pm would be an okay time. I said yes.

Then he asked: Can I be honest with you for a second?

I said yes, of course. And I knew it was coming.

He then proceeded to tell me that he didn’t feel like I looked him in the eye very much on our first date, nor did I do a good job of making conversation.

Ummm what? We hung out from 7pm until about 3 am, so….

I asked him if our first date sucked so bad, then why did he ask me on a second date (not to mention, why did he read my blog and buy my book)?

He said he actually did have a good time on our first date, but that since I didn’t text him very much afterward, he thought maybe i was not interested. Because of that, he actually WASN’T going to ask me on a second date, but then he just thought “you never know.”

I’ve been on some dates with some assholes, but I’ve never had a guy plan an entire evening, and then text me 4 hours before he’s supposed to pick me up, and tell me that because I didn’t look him in the eye or text him enough, that he didn’t want to go on the date.

Anyway, since it was the Friday before a holiday weekend, my boss was kind enough to let us leave early (like at 2pm). She knows I work a lot after-hours and on the weekends, so to her, it really wasn’t even a break, she just didn’t see the point in making us sit in an office when there was pretty much no one around.

Oh, but of course! Someone in my office was stalking my Twitter feed and saw a tweet that said it felt good to be at home. The Tweet was posted before 5pm on Friday, so my coworker (not exactly sure which one) took a screen capture of it and showed my boss’ boss.

So we all got in trouble.

For what, I’m not exactly sure.

Then Saturday night rolls around and I’m with my friends, having some drinks, blah blah blah. When I wake up Sunday morning, I have another email from my boss saying that one of my coworkers (not sure who, again) took offense to things I was Tweeting Saturday night, so he/she screen-capped them and sent them to my boss, saying that it was not a good representation of our company.

CAN A BITCH GET A BREAK?

So, now, I’m at work, sitting here, not really sure if I’m going to get lectured later or not. I seriously hate my job. If anyone knows of a job in web/social media/editing/writing… let me know. I don’t care where it is.

SOS.

Dates, dates…

Hey yo! Well, ever since I got my stupidly small raise at work, I’ve been focusing on other things that are much more important…like me!

So, I’m still on an online dating site, and I FINALLY met up with this guy I’ve been talking to on there for about two months. After about six weeks of messing through the service, we traded phone numbers and decided to meet up.

While he nice, and looks like he looks in his profile pictures, I’m not quite sure the spark is there. We do have a lot to talk about — even though he seems pretty passive and agrees with me on most subjects. Which actually makes me wonder what would really piss him off? Just out of curiosity.

The weird thing about him? I think he stalked me a little too much before we met up. I don’t mean he looked at my online profile several times (though he did), I mean he googled where I’m from and mentioned it on our date. Like he knew the county name and the population.

That’s shit I don’t even know.

In the meantime, he reads my blog, which is cool, but texts me about my post of the day. Is it weird that this gets on my nerves? Like, I don’t really want to discuss the topics on my blog. He also admitted that he bought my book — which is cool — and that he already read it.

I don’t know… I’m just kind of turned off. I am used to guys not supporting me, so I’m trying to turn a new leaf and say, “Hey, this guy is just trying to be supportive!” But part of me thinks it’s a little weird.

When our first date was over, we hugged goodbye, and I thought…well, if he asks me out again, I think it deserves another shot; if he doesn’t, I don’t really care.

He asked me out again for Friday night, so we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, what do you guys think, am I being too weird or is he?

Captain peg leg.

Hey hey!!

I am writing to you all from the comfort of my bed! Am I sick? Heck no! I’ve having my very own version of Ferris Bueller’s Day off… only I’m not going to a bunch of cool places in Chicago.

Instead, I’m in bed, watching the television marathon of Below Deck… and yes, I’ve had this day planned for at least a month, because I love this show, and it’s never on TV, but TONIGHT is the season 2 premier!!!!!

Although I planned to completely be lazy today, I actually got one freelance project finished and I put my dishes away and cleaned my bathroom… not so lazy, right?

Truth be told, I never have liked missing work or school, but I do feel like I’ve been working my ass off lately, with little-to-no recognition for it. I cannot remember if I’ve mentioned this already, and I’m definitely too lazy to go look, but I did get a raise. A whopping 3.4% raise. I wanted 10.

And I do not mean to sound greedy. I just feel like I took on a job that wasn’t even the one I applied for, and I did it without complaining, so where’s the reward?

I feel like I’m torn, because I think I could be making more money working somewhere else, but I’m not so sure I want to leave where I am — this is a battle I’ve always got on my mind.

But until I figure it out… I’m going to enjoy the rest of my day playing hookie (and hitting the gym, of course). Until next time…

Herrrroooo!!!

Hey guys! Sorry it’s been so long!

I am just returning from spending a week with Gizzy & Buttons, and it was SO fun, I’m pretty much still recovering. I have so much to tell you guys, but I’ll try not to ramble, and I’ll try to remember everything.

Initially, Gizzy invited me to town for a wedding she was invited to — it was my first time as a “plus one,” and it was really fun, considering the wedding was VERY FANCY, only we both got hammered, and I thought I was going to barf, and then we both started crying (not until the cab ride tho) because we’re single, and actually Gizzy was the one who ended up being sick.

Go us.

The rest of the week followed suit, as we ate and drank all sorts of yummy things, watched trashy TV (including The Bachelorette finale, who’s glad she picked Josh?!??!?!), and all-in-all, it was a jolly time. When I got back into town, one of my coworkers picked me up and filled me in on everything that happened at the office since I’ve been out.

While most of what she said was pretty standard, she DID say that I could look online and get my raise information. I was really nervous to look, but I did… and I was disappointed.

Before the raise, my salary was $41,600. The raise bumped me to $43,014.

Do I sound like a diva? When I told my coworker about the raise, she was all, “CONGRATS, THATS SO AWESOME, I HOPE THAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT RETURNING TO WORK!!!!”

Umm, it really didn’t. I think that’s like a 3% raise, and I was hoping for 8-10%. I feel like I’ve taken on an entirely different job, without being asked, and I’ve done a pretty awesome job at it, not to mention that I’ve only gotten one raise in the 6 years I’ve worked here (when I went from $40K to $41K).

I dunno, what do you guys think? Standard? Or am I being a diva?

OK Cupid update.

So, I’ve met up with two people from OK Cupid so far. Which I feel like is a pretty good record.

The first person I met up with was “Beard Guy,” and we went to a karaoke competition, which was really fun. I met him around 9:30 on a Wednesday night, and stayed drinking/talking/watching until 1:30 am. Yeah, I was really exhausted the next day, but it was a lot of fun.

That same Thursday, I met up for coffee with “Outdoorsy Guy.” I wasn’t sure what to expect, because he asked me for coffee right away, so I didn’t know much about him, and he had a whopping ONE picture online that was kind of far away.

Turns out he’s from Iran, and he was in the states on a visa, because he was getting his PHD in petroleum engineering. He had recently learned English, so I had a little trouble understanding him, but at first our conversation was fairly decent. Then, he started asking me about the things I like to write on… I told him love, dating, relationships… and he looked up my blog (not this one) and column… and said…

“Don’t you want to write about something more serious?”

Like, what, petroleum engineering?

I was pretty much done with the conversation at that point, but I finished my coffee and politely said I had to get back to work.

He asked for my number, and this is where things get awkward. I didn’t have any interest in seeing him again, but what was I supposed to say? No, I don’t want you to have my number?

So I gave it to him, and of course he called me right then, so I would have his.

He texted me the following day, and when I didn’t reply, he sent me a shitty text about how rude I was. Then, a few days later, he was reading my blog, and sent me a text regarding it — umm okay, so you thought my blog was silly, yet you’re reading it, and you BLOCKED me on Ok Cupid, yet still texting me.

#ByeFelicia

I met up with the beard guy for a second date — dinner and a movie.

It was fun, but I just wasn’t feeling a spark. I decided that ultimately, I just cannot seriously date someone who works in the service industry. And I don’t say that to be judgy — I’ve worked nearly 10 years in the service industry. But the schedule, and the lifestyle, just doesn’t mesh with mine.

I think he was feeling the same vibe, and we talked about it and decided to remain friends.

Since then, I’ve started talking to a few other guys, that I’m hoping to meet. So far, I still think this is a good experience — I’m learning a ton about what I want in a relationship!

I haven’t forgotten about The Bachelorette!

I know I pretty much dropped the ball when it comes to Tweeting or even commenting on The Bachelorette… but I’ve still been watching it. Seriously, no matter how much that show pisses me off, I still get sucked in to watching it every single season!

Tonight is the hometown visits, and I feel like THIS is when things really start getting good — we really get to see who these guys are. I don’t know about you, but I’m rooting for Josh; he’s fine as hell, and he seems genuine. Nick on the other hand, not so genuine.

Anyway, how was everyone’s 4th?

Per usual, all of my “coupled” friends went out of town for a couples trip (I didn’t know people really did that, but they do), and I was left to my own devices. I ended up going to the gym in the morning, going to the grocery (to purchase a gallon of wine), and setting up shop outside on the roof of my building.

I had a lawn chair, beach towel, wine, chips & dip, and a good romance novel. It was actually quite nice. I felt like a little bit of a loser, then I really was just enjoying my time relaxing and getting to read a good book.

I started to get a sunburn after just a few hours, so I came inside and caught a good nap before grilling some kebabs and corn on the cob. It was a good day.

Meanwhile, I cannot remember how much I’ve said on this blog about me creating a profile on OK Cupid? If I haven’t mentioned it, then now you know and I’ll have some explaining to do for next time.

Anyway, amidst all of the people I’m meeting and talking to online, I kind of started talking to someone from my past — don’t worry it’s not an ex! Instead, it is a guy I had a crush on in high school. We’ll call him Pickles, because that is what I call him, anyway.

Pickles and I had our first real run in in high school at winter formal my freshman year. Gizzy was my date, and during every slow song we would run into the bathroom and hide because it seemed like we were the only ones without a person to dance with.

But when one slow song started, Pickles asked me to dance. And I’m pretty sure I’ve been hooked ever since. He is unconventionally cute, with blonde hair, and a coy smile.

In college, I saw him a few times during visits with other friends. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I started thinking of him, and started wondering what he was up to.

So I sent him a message on Facebook… but it went with no response, and so I figured he wasn’t interested. No big deal. About a year later, I started to wonder again. But since my first message went ignored, I didn’t write another.

Until last week. I figured what the hell, and reached out to him via Twitter. And within two hours, he called me.

We’ve been texting and talking every day since then, and when I go see Gizzy at the end of the month, I’m going to stop for a drink with him, too.

I don’t want to pitch it as more than it is… I know he lives far away, and I think the visit will be telling — there’s got to be a spark, you know! But, either way, I’m really excited to see an old friend.