Flashbacks

Today I had a flashback to college and a come to Jesus at just how stupid I was then too.  Thankfully I didn't have to have that come to Jesus during those 4.75 years at the University of Texas, because I was lucky...too lucky!

I was reminded of a time I met a guy in a bar...dun.dun.dunnnn.  And we hit it off. I remember he and I going on hikes or maybe one, I remember showing him around Austin, as he was new to the area from Mississippi.  I remember going to have some form of chili at his apartment, first time I had ever seen an efficiency and a bed that dubbed as a couch/table/dresser/closet.  And yet, this boy who I knew nothing about nor really any part of his story, I let him right on into my life.  Eventually I believe I got a little too happy via the phone one day and shortly thereafter I got stood up for the first time (eh-hem, not the last).  Now when I look back on that time and think of the pure stupidity of me showing this stranger, albeit very good looking, hippyish stranger around Austin, via the car or on foot in the woods, I think "man someone really should have slapped me".  Hey friends...YOUR FAULT! :)   If I remember correctly, I was illegally hanging out in said bar and he was most certainly there with his very own REAL ID.  I was too young and literally...too stupid!  REALLY??  I sometimes get a flashback of this fellow who's name I cannot forget and it just astonishes me.  

One time, and I swear this is true, about 2 years after never hearing from him again, I was living in a new place and had a new phone number by 2 or 3 times since knowing him and my phone rings one afternoon.  This guy asks for me by name tells me his name is Blake and I respond with "I don't know a Blake"...memory laps of ever knowing a Blake possibly due to the introduction of white wine into my repertoire.  Then he says to me "we met in the bar the other night, you gave me your number". I remember thinking to myself, "oh god, I gave my number out and I don't remember?"  My response was "What bar?" Seriously?  Did I really think I forgot I gave my number out to some stranger?  Well after some goings back and forth regarding this fellow Blake and asking for me by name, by complete coincidence, he met a girl who said her name was Hadley and gave him my phone number and by happenstance, it was the same boy who I had hiked in the woods with, ate chili with out of a pot and who stood me up on a date never to be heard from again.  I am quite certain it was one of my nearest and dearest friends who liked to give my number out to strangers, but what were the chances it would have been someone I already knew and had a romantic encounter with?  Ummmm...pretty good since A. it happened and 2. I didn't actually NOT date a lot in college.  :)  I quickly dismissed him and now we really have not talked again.  The Irony!

I am going to start adding to these flashback sessions of the blog just so you can see how I have changed and grown as a person...or you can judge the similarities between my college self and my 30self...soon to be 31..Yowsas!

Happy Friday Friends!

I'm doing my housekeeper's job

So about a year ago I decided I wanted to invest in a little help at home. I'm not the tidiest of people and I thought a $50 every other week investment in getting someone to help me out would be a good idea. Now, every other Tuesday I do come home to a clean house, it smells nice and looks completely wiped down.  However, there have been quite a few Tuesdays when I have come home to something unexpected as well.  I thought I would share with you a few of the things that I have stumbled upon since making this investment:

One day I discovered a breaker had gone out in my downstairs bathroom / laundry room after she was at my house.  I made this discovery on Thursday when I was looking for something to wear that I swear had to have been washed.  It was. It had been sitting in my washer since Tuesday.  Wash reload and switch of the breaker later, the mildew smell was almost out.  Why didn't I find this until Thursday? You might be asking.  Well, I hadn't been inclined to turn on the lights in the laundry room or bathroom until then.  And my housekeeper didn't think it was necessary to let me know.

One day I was getting upset at how much weight I was gaining. I hadn't actually weighed myself, but clearly, my clothes were fitting tighter and tighter.  I had to ask her not to come one week and so I was changing my sheets and washed them on the Tuesday she was supposed to come, not having done this in a while, since she is the one who does it, I hadn't noticed that my fitted sheet no longer "fitted" anymore.  I went downstairs at that point, while wearing my once long t-shirt what was now a mid-drift baring beauty and sweatpants that were giving my booty a nice squeeze and because they were now so short and revealing my ankle socks were completely worn to shreds, I found that my washer was on warm/warm and my dryer was on high heat.  Lord almighty, weight gain was not the issue, my housekeeper was making me squeeze into my clothes and my bed squeeze into the sheets because she prefers warmer climates in my laundry room.  I have started taping notes on the washer and dryer that read (cold/cold only and low tumble dry only) and sometimes she removes them because they get in her way when she turns the dial to warm/warm and high heat. So I have to repeat process about once a month. I guess I will continue to fight for my wardrobe for as long as I have this help.

One day I came home thinking there was no issue when she was there, until I got a phone call later that evening from her daughter.  She called with this message "Hadley, my mom is really sorry for breaking the knob off your washing machine."  WHAT?  Yes, so my 1997 washing machine that runs quite nicely, has to be turned on with needle nose pliers because she plum ripped off the knob which turns it on.  I now have to do my laundry before she arrives to ensure it gets done, not shrunk and not broken!  I actually am paying to learn to be responsible for my own clothing.  There's a lesson.

The final thing I find every time I come home is what of mine she has eaten.  Now keep in mind, I'm single and don't cook often.  So I rarely have food of serious edible quality during the week, but typically I can find something which she has found.  Usually it is my last apple or, and this I love, it is some canned food I have, I don't know if it is cooked, but I do know it is spiced up to perfection because I always find my spices in different places from basil and oregano to garlic salt and lemon pepper.  I feel bad sometimes I don't keep her fed well, but clearly the woman thinks I shouldn't eat much either since she keeps trying to shrink my clothes!

She came to my house early today which I wasn't expecting and I'm not allowed to be home when she works, but it is my favorite to stumble in on her a little early and find her barefoot and singing at the top of her lungs whatever random radio station she has found on my guest room radio.  Sometimes she leaves it on and I get to do a little dancing myself when I get home.  So I think it is good I have help to wipe things down and get things in order, but I'm not sure if I can keep risking my self esteem on shrunken clothes and tiny bedsheets. I am about to offer them up to my sister for crib sheets...they were once for a queen.

So I'm near to going home to see what is of my house, I will be thankful I can afford the $100 a month for some help and be hopeful that it won't cost me a new appliance in the mean time!  To the wonderful laughing woman who keeps me tidy and consistently self conscious, thank you for giving me surprises, wanted or not!

MemorYal Weekend

This weekend is called Memorial Weekend to honor the troops that live and die to serve our country and protect our freedoms. Let's have a moment of silence.

Now, I call it MemorYal Weekend.  Why? You may ask.  Because, I will tell you, this weekend brings up a thrash of memories for me from just a few years back.  It was just 2 years ago, in the May of 2008 when I was taking my first plunge with ol' faithful, Eharmony.com.  Yes, two years this official love affair began, it was three years ago I started answering the questions to get on this site. If anyone ever asks, Yes, I am a procrastinator and I am proud of that fact.  

Now back to two years ago.  I was single, SHOCKING, and instead of spending this party, alcohol filled, random hook-up induced weekend at some crazy beach town, I spent it with my parents and their dogs and mine at their home.  Minus the random hook-ups, this weekend did not disappoint, it was a party and it was most certainly alcohol filled!  I spent the majority of that weekend checking my tMobile Dash so I could eharm-email with this fellow I was interested in.  His name was John.  I remember telling my mother, "Mom, there is something different about this guy. I just have a feeling about him." Eh-hem.  There was something different about him. First and foremost we ended up haveing the most serious relationship I had been in since the days text messages were obsolete.  We had a good run.  Three months later I remember saying, again to my mother, "Mom, I just have a feeling about this." "This" I was referencing was the impending doom of our relationship.  The lesson I learned from this breakup was to always trust my gut.  The lesson I learned from this relationship, is to refrain from emailing someone over a holiday weekend while at home with your parents on the side of their pool with a bourbon in hand at 3 in the afternoon while the guy is in his house not doing anything talking to no one sitting on his couch and drinking a beer at 3 in the afternoon....alone.

Here I am 2 years later and this time the folks are coming to me.  I own my house and they are going to stay with me. I am still on eharmony and I'm sure I will send an email or two.  I do not regret the things I have done nor the things I intend to do. I do however, take heart that this MemorYal weekend will still be filled with my loving family, good laughter and of course...bourbon!

I intend to no longer be on eharmony.com in 2012. Am I saying I will have found my match by then? Not necessarily, but I am saying, sometimes you just have to cut your losses and since that will be 5 years in the making - I just can't see myself in love with this relationship anymore.  I'm sure there will be some sort of dating app for the ipad and I will probably have my sister's hand-me-down by that point, so I will have graduated from the likes of eharmony and move onto whatever next generation of only the lonely.com there will be for me!

Have a wonderful MemorYal Weekend, filled with memories, laughter, some appreciation for our troops, a little bourbon along with a good toast and perhaps some non-essential text messages and emails with someone who makes you smile!

Short, but informative

If you are looking for some answers on what you should know about dating, here's a very interesting and humorous take by a fellow thirty-something singleton: http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/article.aspx?cp-documentid=23779082&GT1=32023

And, I just have to pay homage to a dear friend from my high school days who announced his recent wedding and marriage on Facebook.com this week with the following appropriate status update:

"Death of a playa. Birth of a husband."

That is exactly how I found out he had a girlfriend, got engaged and married all in one after thought status update and I found it to be both poetic and hilarious at the same time!

Not writing my eulogy anytime soon, this female playa continues on...

Playon Playas...

Enter Frank

So I got a little discombobulated with eHarmony.com and my last dating experience.  I admit, I felt a little, I don't think jilted is the word, but maybe stung just a bit.  The guy from Georgia and I did not make it and my friends said "that's okay, on to the next one".  Well when you have gone on 150 first dates, 5 second dates and 2 third dates in the last 3 years "on to the next one" seems like throwing a Frisbee thinking it is a boomerang.  It just doesn't work that way.

I admit, I love my life, I love that I can go on so many bad dates and share them all with you.  I was with a friend earlier today who said he wanted to set me up with someone and how he appealed him to me was with, and I quote, "don't worry, he's drinks A LOT".  REALLY?  That's his best quality for me?  Well, I'm not going to lie, it is necessary I'm sure. :)

The "matches" on eharmony as of late have been what I consider slim pickin's of the nearly 75 from the past 2 weeks.  And the few I have been intrigued by, well they closed me before I got a chance to prove I'm more fun in person.  Whatever. But the site has removed the chance to choose a reason why you are closing someone now...I didn't realize how much I depended on that little extra step.  I'd rather see "Other" checked than just nothing. I'm left without closure now with so, so many.  Plus to the "love doctors of eHarmony.com" I live in Houston, Houston proper that is, that is not Sugar Land, Richardson, The Woodlands, Spring, Conroe, Pearland or League City.  I won't make that kind of effort to meet someone who lives 30 minutes to an hour away, I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint!  So stop sending my way. Thank you, avid supporter since 2008.

So to leave you with my latest match.  To Frank, thank you for the laugh.  I don't actually think you meant to make me laugh, but you brought me back to the reality that this is actually my life now, finding this information out before actually meeting!

Meet Frank. 

frank typically spends his leisure time:

playing the baritone/euphonium, spending time with family, reading, watching tv, watching movies, birding, sight seeing, watching Indycar racing or A&M play, fine arts, gardening, walking, a little bit of writing, metal detecting, cruises, nature, SciFi/Fantasy

Happy Friday!  

PS:  If you are in the mood for some birding this weekend, I could know a guy.