I'm still here.

**Edited to add the most exciting thing of all--my tax refund arrived in my bank account yesterday. Yay, early e-file!**


I didn't intentionally let a week pass between posts. It's just been busy, I guess. And icy. Very icy.

So, what's been up with me since last week? Let's see...

I had a couple more dates with Mr. Short Term. Both in one day, actually. We met for lunch at my favorite restaurant last Saturday. (Me: "Please don't order the sweet-and-sour." Him: "Why would I? I don't like sweet-and-sour. Do they have Vietnamese noodle soups?" Me: "I knew I liked you.") He was enthusiastic about the food. Yay! Then we both had errands to run, but later I picked up some good beer and went over to his place to watch a movie. ("Waiting for Guffman." He was unfamiliar with the mockumentary stylings of Guest and Levy, but he enjoyed it.) He's got a sideline going selling aloe vera-based nutriceuticals, and he had me try a couple. Let's just say that pure aloe vera juice has a very stimulating effect on your digestive system, a fact of which he did not apprise me BEFORE I drank it, and leave it at that. (I don't want to send Flurrious running for the hills. Hee.) Nonetheless, we had quite a pleasant evening.

Here's the thing. I like him. He likes me. There's chemistry. We have a good time together. I think we'll stay friends, at least. But, thankfully, I don't think I'm at any risk of falling in love with him. That's a good thing, given his current lack of desire for a serious relationship. He can be my "Mr. Right Now" while I continue the search for "Mr. Right."

So, are there any more candidates for that position? Well, I am currently conversing via email with a couple more guys. One of whom is very smart and articulate and literate and thinks he can beat anyone at Trivial Pursuit. (Me: "Bring it on.") The downside? Well, he is fairly recently separated and not actually divorced yet, so...not pinning any great hopes there. (I would like to test his trivia knowledge, though!) The other guy...well, so far our exchanges have been a bit pedantic, and he lives a couple of hours away, so...not pinning anything there, either.

I think it's important that I keep chatting, though. It helps keep me from starting to think of Mr. Short Term as anything but that. And I did get a great email this morning. Why don't I just cut and paste it here for you?

"hi. i have tried on this site to be the friendly sort and a overall nice person and it seems it don't work. i cant even get any response at all. so here goes method v.2.0do you want to get together for a few laughs and orgasms? i am "normally" not THIS blunt but as i said all other attempts at anything else have met in failure, so i am going to start being the typical male and going straight for the sex. let me know if you want to give it a go."

I should say yes, right? After all, he says right in his profile: "I am told i am good at making a woman feel like she is the best and only one in the world." And, listed in his "6 things I can't live without" is, of course, "sex." In the number two position.

Sigh. Gah. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

So, what else have I been doing? Reading. I finished up "A People's History of the United States" Saturday afternoon. Finally. And I've decided I think we should reinstate literacy tests for voting. You want to vote? Read this book first. Heh.

Then I guess I had some sort of burning need to rip through a few less-heavy tomes, so on Sunday morning I read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Monday evening, I read "The Glass Castle." Tuesday I read "My Lobotomy." I recommend them all.

Let's see..speed-dating was postponed again because of the weather. I have rehearsal on the next scheduled date, so it may be a while before I have any entertaining speed-dating stories. Sorry.

It's been icy here, as you might have heard. The trees and power lines were spared this time, but the roads were icy, so I stayed home Tuesday. The local news stations were showing car after car going over guardrails and flipping upside down, and I wanted no part of it. I knew there wouldn't be anything going on at work anyway, and didn't want to risk my life and/or car to sit at my desk, twiddling my thumbs and reading the interweb. (Not that I don't love you all, but...you know.)

Tuesday evening I dropped my cell phone in the toilet. Nice! (Thankfully, nobody had recently "dropped the kids off at the pool" or anything, but still.) I'm still attempting to dry it out, on the recommendation of the cell phone store, and bought a cheap "Go Phone" to use in the meantime. (And we're talking $14.87 cheap. Whoever thought a tiny, functioning cell phone would ever be that cheap, back when we were paying hundreds of dollars for a clunky bag phone to keep in the car? Heh.)

We have our first rehearsal of the week tonight, thanks to the snow, and life is getting back to normal. Or what passes for it around here.

And let's end with a PSA. If you think you're having a heart attack, CALL 911. Regardless of whether you fear that you won't be able to pay the bills afterward. A friend of my sister's died this week. She'd been feeling poorly for a couple of days, and then called my sister (who lives several miles away) one night panicking because she couldn't breathe, but she didn't want to call an ambulance. Even though she had insurance, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to pay her share on her limited income. My sister and her husband raced to her house, IN THE ICE, called 911 as soon as they got there, over her protests, followed her ambulance first to a small-town hospital, then to Tulsa, IN THE ICE, as they realized she needed more intensive care, and the weather was keeping the life flight helicopter grounded. It was too late to reverse the damage at that point, and she died early the next morning. Very sad. Man, the healthcare system in this country is messed-up, when people WITH insurance are still wary of calling for help because of the costs. My advice? MAKE THE CALL. Work out the financial details later, when you're STILL ALIVE.

Okay, I've got to go cheer myself up now. The literate, articulate guy and I are making Brady Bunch references, and it's my turn. Heh.