And stuff like that and stuff

I used to have a boss who'd say that. He'd end a sentence with it. "Blah blah blah, and stuff like that, and stuff."

Because I know you're just dying for an update on my life (hee), I'll do some quick bullets.

• Hot Med is still working nights. 5:00 every night this week, PLUS 10-2 on Sunday. That's seven days in a row. His words: "My boss CRAZY." He says he asked why he couldn't have a night off and they said it was "too busy." I still think there may be something of a failure to communicate, but I'm thinking I might see if his brother would be willing to talk to them, to make sure they're understanding what he's asking.
• For the record, NO, I don't like only seeing him for a few hours on the weekend. (I've been asked that, quite sincerely.) Why have a boyfriend if he's not around to go to dinner, take walks, help me lift heavy things in my garage, etc.? At this point it feels more like a weekend booty call than a relationship.
• I have just not been able to "let things go" this week. I'm getting into...well, not "arguments," but let's say "heated discussions" with casual Facebook friends. I printed off the section of our local animal ordinances where it specifies that you are required to provide SHELTER for your outside animals, and I'm preparing to write a note on it and leave it on my neighbors' door. Their pitiful puppy is breaking my heart. In addition to being cold and wet, she's SO starved for attention--sadly, the ordinances don't require you to LOVE your dog, so I figure the best I can do is make them think I'll turn them in. And maybe offer a few bucks toward the purchase of some lumber for a doghouse.
• Maybe I'm cranky because the booty calls are so infrequent? Hmm.....hee.
• The H1N1 flu shot is now available here to anyone who wants it. I'm thinking of trying to get one tonight. I've never had the flu, and I hardly ever even get colds, but...I've got to start rehearsals for another show in a couple of months, and I sure don't want to get derailed by the swine in the midst of things.
• For the record, I am not jealous of or threatened by Sarah Palin because she's an attractive, strong, charismatic woman. I could use those adjectives to describe pretty much every one of my female friends. I abhor Sarah Palin because I disagree with her on every single issue, and because when she speaks, her "grammar" makes my brain hurt. (Can you guess what at least one of the aforementioned "discussions" was about?)
• I just finished reading the autobiography of the woman I portrayed in my recent play, who spent 16 years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. She actually was not "exonerated"--as is often the case, after the original verdict was overturned, the DA was reluctant to admit the mistake, and was prepared to try her again. She agreed to accept a no contest "Alford Plea." (I would, too, after 16 years.) Her lawyers told her she wasn't allowed to speak during the plea hearing. Not a word in her own defense. She was to listen to them read the charges against her, and then she was to sign on the dotted line and walk out the door. She agreed, but it galled her. So, as the prosecutor was reading the charges, she spoke up. "Excuse me, Your Honor." Every eye in the courtroom turned to her, including the panicked ones of her own attorneys. She sweetly continued, "I have a bad taste in my mouth--could I have a glass of water?" Hee!!! I love that. (The judge ordered a glass of water brought to her table. What else could he do?)
• I'm now reading "The Lacuna," by Barbara Kingsolver. I really like it so far. Don't you just love it when one of your favorite authors comes out with a new book? It's like a kid with a shiny new toy. I'm such a geek.
• I tried the new Chipotle that is relatively close to my house. Sadly, I was underwhelmed. Maybe I'll try it again when the staff is more....seasoned. Because when I order a vegetarian burrito, I don't expect the response to be "it'll be about five more minutes before the chicken is done cooking." Umm...okay. Let's just skip the chicken this time. Poor girl. She probably wondered what the hell she'd done when she started to scoop the fajita veggies onto my hapless burrito and I nearly jumped over the counter to stop her. "No! Not those!" In my defense, the fajita veggies include bell peppers, and we all know my feelings about those.
• I finally turned on the heat in my house a couple of days ago. I hate winter. They say this is going to be a bad one. According to the size of the spoons in the persimmon pits, or some such old wives tale. I hope those pits are wrong!

Okay, I'll just go ahead and wrap this up now. My life has really, really not been exciting lately, has it? Oh well, exciting is sometimes not all it's cracked up to be, right?

I guess we won't have time to get on each other's nerves

Hot Med's boss has him working all evenings lately. It kind of sucks. When he took the job he was on days, then they added in a couple of nights a week...now it's all nights. Six nights a week, 5-close (11:00 or later). Since I work 8-5, this really cuts down on our weekday interaction.

I think they're taking advantage of him a bit. He doesn't realize he has any say in the schedule--he's afraid to ask for a night off, or a switch back to days, because he thinks he'll be fired. (They've even called him several times to come in at the last minute on what was scheduled to be a night off, 'cause they know he won't say no.) I tried to tell him he surely won't be fired just for ASKING, but I don't think he believes me...so for now he's living with it. And complaining about it to me. He gets a little cranky when he's tired. I think we need to find him a new job.

We went to eat at a Chinese super-buffet this weekend, and they were already playing Christmas Muzak. Unacceptable! I was distracted from the aural torture briefly, though...as Hot Med and the Chinese waitress each smugly mocked the other's pronunciation of "water." Hee. (For the record, neither of them had any room to be mocking.)

So, in glass-half-full mode, I guess the benefit is that if we're seeing each other for such a brief amount of time each week, we'll both be on our best behavior, right?

And herein lies the problem...

One of the online dating sites I've used in the past just sent me this helpful information:

A Map of Love: your best male matches by state
target: USA sampled: 39200

Your Worst States
Mississippi — 60.1
Arkansas — 60.2
Wyoming — 60.5
Oklahoma — 60.6
South Dakota — 60.9


Your Best States
Massachusetts — 68.9
Oregon — 68.7
Washington — 67.9
Minnesota — 67.7
California — 67.7


A Map of Love: your best male matches by country
target: World sampled: 25207

Your Worst Countries
Saudi Arabia — 42.0
Pakistan — 42.1
Egypt — 43.9
Kenya — 46.3
Malaysia — 48.9

Your Best Countries
Israel — 69.3
South Korea — 68.1
Iceland — 67.8
Denmark — 67.3
Netherlands — 67.2

Clearly, I've been looking for love in all the wrong places. Hee!

(No, if you're wondering, Hot Med and I haven't broken up again. This information was sent unsolicited. In fact, I watched the Halloween parade yesterday with the entire Med family--we all just kind of pretended that Sis and Nephew had been away on a visit. Everyone was in good spirits. Sis brought back beautiful scarves for me and Sis-In-Law.)

Gotta run--too many things to do in too little time today, but I just had to share those maps.

It seems all I can manage these days are quickies. (You can read into that anything you like. Heh.)

So, the quickie report:

Opening weekend of the show went very well. A woman I didn't know came up to me after the show opening night, said "I feel like I know you, 'cause I've seen you onstage so often...could I...would you mind if I gave you a hug?" Hug away, strange lady! (Yeah, I know...it's cold and flu season. But she seemed healthy.) It was really sweet, if a bit odd. Nice to know you've touched someone's life, in a small way. Looking forward to next weekend, then looking forward to a break before I go back into rehearsals for the next one, probably some time in late January.

Hot Sis is coming back! Apparently she got back home, realized she'd made a mistake (I wonder if Mama read her the riot act), and booked a flight back to Tulsa. She and Nephew will be here Thursday, I believe, so he'll be able to go trick-or-treating, after all. I hope everyone has learned a lesson about regulating medications.

So, yeah...Hot Med and I are still "on," at least for now. Perhaps he'll dump me again when Sis gets back, and he's not so lonely and bored. Or perhaps I'll dump him this time. Uncertainty keeps life interesting, right? He does really, really want to make his own visit back home now, and I think he should, if it's feasible. Two years without seeing your mother is a long time. He asked what I would want him to bring me back as a gift, if he goes. Easy answer--jewelry and scarves. Hee.

"So You Think You Can Dance" is back. Looks like a most excellent Top 20. I'm a little worried about that designated "Paula Abdul Chair," though. Does this show need her wackiness on top of Mary's, for cryin' out loud?!

Okay, consider yourself updated. I'll let you know if there's any strange hugging next weekend. Ha!

What an...interesting weekend.

But no, it certainly wasn't Saturday's lunch date that made it so.

He was...a bit boring. No, he didn't order the sweet-and-sour. And no, he didn't have stubby fingers. He ordered "chicken" with broccoli, took one or two bites, excused himself to go the the restroom and didn't eat any more. He commented positively after the couple of bites he did take (and he did an eggroll for an appetizer), so I'm not sure what that was about. I asked at one point if it was not to his liking, and he said something about NOT being nervous but suddenly having no appetite. Weird.

Other than than, he was just a bit...staid, I guess. Terribly earnest and seemingly a bit humorless. He kept making these "statements" about himself that I presume he makes on all first dates. I really prefer just to let the conversation flow and see what comes out that way, but he was all "Liz, I have something that I need to tell you about myself." Very ponderous, and I'm thinking he's on the sex offender registry or something, but all that followed was a pronouncement that he's looking for a long-term relationship, and doesn't like one-night stands. Oh, thanks for telling me. I was getting ready to invite you back to my place for a quickie.

He used my name a lot...in that way that you're taught to do in seminars and self-help books, and I really don't like that. It seems so transparent to me. We're the only two people at the table; I don't need you to keep referencing my name. I know you're talking to me.

The date lasted about an hour, we did a quick, awkward hug in the parking lot, and there was a mutual exchange of "nice to meet you" but no follow-up "let's do this again sometime."

So, you're thinking, what made the weekend interesting? Clearly it wasn't this fellow.

Well...Saturday morning I had an email from Hot Med's sister-in-law. Apparently all hell broke loose in Med Land after I left it. Sis, who I knew had some clinical depression problems, and had recently gone on a new medication, apparently is full-on bipolar, and had a major, major breakdown, which included a screaming fit in Starbucks, wherein she accused Hot Bro and SIL of keeping her in the country against her will, trying to control her, etc. Sounds like pretty ugly stuff. (And, as Hot Bro said, "so embarrassing." I'm guessing it was in Arabic, too, so they're probably lucky someone didn't call homeland security. Heh.)

She sold some gold jewelry, got enough for plane tickets, and was packed up and off to Lebanon with her son in the course of a few hours.

Not only that, SIL said, but she's convinced Hot Med to get his passport and visa in order and follow her shortly.

Wowza.

Well, about ten minutes after my date with Mr. Earnest ended, I got a phone call. It was Hot Bro, saying Hot Med was being all dramatic and wanted to see me to "say goodbye," and would I mind seeing him, and perhaps trying to reason with him a bit? (They're convinced that Sis's mania-fueled hysterics and manipulations are influencing him too much.)

So I did. I know, I know.

I spent a couple of hours with him that afternoon, and by the time I left he was all "well, maybe I'll go, and maybe I won't. Or maybe I'll just go for a visit."

I have no idea what will happen long-term, but I saw him again yesterday--he came with me to the block party singing gig I had in the afternoon. Hot Bro and SIL came, as well. We all had a nice time--Hot Med was on his best behavior, being all sweet and charming. I don't know that I would say we're "on again," exactly, but apparently we're not so "off again" as I thought.

At least he isn't boring. He is spoiled, and suffering from major "Peter Pan" syndrome, as is his sister, but...he isn't boring. Heh.

The saddest part of the whole thing is the little boy. He was really enjoying his life here--had his little plastic pumpkin ready for trick-or-treating, and not one but two costumes prepared. He was singing with a boys' choir, and excited to wear a special outfit in their Christmas concert. He was learning to roller blade. He was learning a little discipline (though not from his mother). Hot Bro is hoping that they can bring him back here at some point to continue his education, but for now they're just very sad about the whole thing.

So, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Another quickie

I can't seem to get my mind wrapped around an entire blog post, so here's the quickie update.

I have a lunch date scheduled for Saturday, with Bachelor #1, at my favorite vegetarian restaurant. (How many dates have I taken there now? I've lost track. Hee.) Will he have stubby fingers? Will he order the sweet-and-sour "chicken"? Time will tell. Coincidentally, this guy's name is the same as the American name that Hot Med liked to use (which bore no relation to his actual name). That's kind of weird. I wonder if he'd mind if I called him Mustapha instead?

Nothing really happening with any of the other guys who've contacted me. Too soon to tell if our "conversations" have completely fizzled out, but we're not burning up the internet with our communiques, for sure.

Other than that...it's raining, endlessly, and I'm pretty busy with rehearsals.

Ta ta for now.

Quickie update

The new (very flattering) profile picture seems to be bringing them out in droves. I'm currently involved in some level of "communication" with 5 different guys, from 4 different dating websites. They can't ALL be losers, can they? (Don't answer that!)