Thursday, January 29, 2009

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.

11 comments:

shelleycoughlin said...

Hee! I missed your posts. It's funny you mentioned Brady Bunch references because I am currently reading Maureen McCormick's trashy biography. I had no idea Marcia Brady was a cokehead bulimic, did you?

3carnations said...

Speed dating keeps getting postponed. Not so speedy after all, is it?

If you don't respond to that creepy guy's version 2.0, I wonder what some other poor woman will have to read as version 3.0?

Enjoy Mr. Short Term...and Trivial Pursuit with the other guy. I haven't played that in a while, in spite of the fact that we have about 4 versions of it.

Sauntering Soul said...

I had to look "pedantic" up to see what in the heck it means.

Sorry to hear about all of the ice y'all have been having. But I'm kind of jealous you got a free day off work.

Creepy version 2.0 guy needs to completely give up on any hope of meeting a normal woman. OMG.

Anonymous said...

Oh, gosh, creepy version 2.0 sounds like my dream man! Wow! He'd be worth giving up 9 years of celibacy for, right? Good God, where do these freaks come from?

Brady Bunch references? Maureen McCormick is in Brad Paisley's video for Online which is a pretty cute song. So is William Shatner. Swoon.

I missed your posts as well. Glad you're back.

Anonymous said...

You wrote:

And, listed in his "6 things I can't live without" is, of course, "sex." In the number two position.

And I thought: what the heck is the number two position? I guess number one would be the missionary position, but what's number two? Wait ... is this one of those things that will make me run for the hills? I am going to kill Liz! Oh, wait, number two on the LIST. Oh, okay. That's okay, then.

How much do you want to bet that his Method 2.0 is a big scam? He knows that his approach is gross, so he pretends that he's tried the nice guy approach and it didn't work so OBVIOUSLY women want the gross approach even though it's totally not him. It would be genius if it weren't so dumb.

georgeious said...

bwah, you didn't miss anything at work this week. i know - i went to my job all week and refused to take one iota of crap from anyone. really, it's icy out, we just got more cutbacks, and you're going to get snotty with me? REALLY?!?

addendum to calling 911: when they ask for an emergency number to contact at work, put down 911 as your first contact. otherwise, they're likely (if they don't think quickly enough) to call your person instead. sadly, i wish i were kidding.

Stefanie said...

I haven't even gotten my forms from work to file my taxes! You have your refund already?? Wow.

You need to write that creepy dude back and tell him that men who can't form grammatically correct sentences are not sexy and THAT is why he gets no response. Then again, I can only imagine there are just as many women online mangling the English language as egregiously as men. Why aren't all of THOSE folks hooking up??

stinkypaw said...

Man, that's bad for your sister's friend, and I guess a very sad reflection of the American medical system... hopefully this will change a little in the next few years.

I challenge you to answer that great e-mail! Use multiple pedantic words and see if he answers back!

Have fun with Mr. Right Now, while the timing is good.

Noelle said...

I loved "Curious Incident." I think you should blog more often, because I'm now swimming in Liz-information!

lizgwiz said...

npw, I had heard the rumors. ;)

3car, well, once it happens, I'll have 6-12 "dates" in one night! Umm...whoo hoo?

ss, I'm most curious to know what kind of woman WOULD agree to that.

green, oh, absolutely, that's the guy you'd want to end a dry spell!

flurrious, as usual, you make me laugh and laugh.

george, I'm as leary of unnecessary trips to the doctor as anyone, but when I know I need to go, I GO. Call that ambulance!

stef, it is a point of great pride for me to be included in the very first release of refunds each year. Of course, filing goes quickly when you have no actual assets. Sigh.

stinky, I did actually answer that email. Of course, I answered with "no, thank you," but he was gracious enough to reply with "thanks for responding and, well, I gave it a shot, right?" You did, dude, you did. ;)

noelle, of course you are swimming. It's what you do. :) (Of which I remain in awe, BTW.)

Anonymous said...

I'm trying not to like Mr. Short Term since he is put down the temporary gauntlet. BUT the good thing is he makes is easier to siphon out idiots like Sex Boy.

BTW- Texas took $13K in taxes from us and is generously giving us $750 back. What the hell are rich people crying about with their stupid tax breaks??