Oh. My. God.

I just spent the past hour watching the Lost season premier and trying to remember to breathe.

Holy crap.

I can't write anything else.

I'm speechless.

Can One "Fail" A First Date?

If so, I'm pretty sure I failed mine on Monday night.

It wasn't bad, exactly, but it wasn't good. It was one of those interactions where he would ask me something about myself and I would answer in a rather thorough way, and then I would ask him about himself and he would give a one-sentence answer. After writing that, I'm realizing that perhaps it was he who failed the date, because seriously, how many questions can one person be expected to come up with on a first date!?

Anyway, in the process of answering questions thoroughly, I think I didn't have the right filters on, because there were stories coming out of my mouth that probably shouldn't have been shared on a first date. I was even aware of this happening a few times, but I had already started on the story and it was easier to finish than to make up a new more date-appropriate ending. They weren't awful or anything, but there were definitely a few bad date stories, as well as some reasons I don't call guys back.

T.M.I.

*shrug*

It's ok. I'm alright with messing up on my first first date in a long time. But if I mess up on my second first date and then my third first date, I might have to get a coach.

Here I Go Again...

Last year, my New Year's resolution was to start dating again. I realized in the fall that I wasn't going to be able to meet people in my program (99.9% female) or at my internship (95% female) and decided that it was finally time to start dating online. I had many entertaining tales from those days, but no dates that actually went anywhere. Outside of online dating I found a great guy I liked and took some time to pursue that relationship, but that didn't work out either, and I spent the end of 2007 psyching myself up to jump into the online dating world again in 2008.

Well, here we are more than half-way through the first month of 2008 and I am going on my first date of the year tonight. Am I excited? Not really. Nervous? Definitely not. I think the word that best describes my attitude towards this date (and all future dates) is "determined." Determined to start dating again (and knowing that the only way to do that is to actually go on dates). Determined to push through the "maybe Great Guy will get his shit figured out and we can date" fantasy and to get back in the game so that I can see that there are plenty of other great guys out there. Determined to do something... anything... to feel proactive instead of passive in the dating world.

So, as with all of my online dating experiences so far, I am not feeling particularly optimistic that this will go anywhere, but I think that I have to keep my expectations low in order to keep my sense of humor in tact.

This time around, I'm trusting my gut more and allowing myself to cut off communication earlier with people, rather than having a gut feeling that they're a bad match, but pursuing communication and perhaps a meeting on the off-chance that my gut is wrong. If I learned anything last year, it was that my gut is rarely wrong. So this year, I'm eliminating the matches without photos (I'm showing my photo, so you'd better be showing me yours). I'm eliminating the men who use too "lol" or emoticons in their profiles. I'm eliminating anyone who gives one-word answers to essay questions. I'm eliminating anyone who answers the question "how much alone time do you need?" with the answer "None - I like to spend all my free time with my partner."

And (call me an elitist if you want), I am eliminating the men who can't spell. This isn't about typos. This is about the email that I just got that was 8 sentences long with 4 spelling errors and 3 grammatical errors.

So look for some entertaining updates on the zillions of first dates I have waiting for me in 2008. It helps me through the bad dates to know that I will have entertaining blog entries to write when I get home.

Rated G for Great

Sick Girl, Obsessed

Mostly, being sick sucks. But, it is also a great justification for staying home at night and catching up on television that I haven't seen in a while. I don't have Tivo, but I do have the internet, and it has allowed me the opportunity to catch up on everything from The Daily Show (excuse me, "A Daily Show") to Ugly Betty to 30 Rock and Pushing Daisies.

But really this post is about re-discovering an obsession: After nearly a full year after falling off the fan-wagon due to lack of time in my schedule, I am once again addicted to Lost. I have watched the last 3/4 of Season 3 in the past four nights, and Oh. My.God. that show is good. I am all at once entertained, intrigued, and completely freaked out during every episode.

For those of you who haven't yet gotten hooked or who aren't caught up, there's an 8-minute long catch-up video on the Lost website which sums everything up quite well.

But now I'm completely caught up and still feeling sick and I have a long weekend ahead of me. I can't go baby-visiting like I had planned because I'm sick, and I've got no more Lost to keep me company. Perhaps I'll have to go to my USA back-ups of Monk and Psych to get me through.

Never fear - this couch potato thing can only last this weekend because I refuse to be sick any longer than that and because classes start next week so there's a finite amount of time left before I have to turn my brain back on.

And dating. Dating starts next week too.

Stay tuned...

2007: The Year in Review

I never wrote a year-end blog post. I meant to, but I didn't. I wrote a million different versions of it in my head, but never put my fingers to the keyboard to make it happen. And now half a month into 2008, I am re-capping 2007 for you all. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. And you heard about a lot of it from this blog, but here it is condensed for your enjoyment:

Fibby's 2007

School:
Classes taken: 12
Classes passed: 12
Community Ed classes taken for fun, not credit: 2
Papers written: 45
Nights in a row with 5 or less hours of sleep: 15+

Sports:
Sox games attended: 3
Pats games attended: 0
Fantasy Football leagues played: 1
Fantasy Football leagues won: 1

Friends and Travel:
Trips to San Francisco: 1.5
Walks across the city of SF while wearing a box around my waist: 1
Shopping sprees at Ross Dress for Less: 2
Road trips to Willoughby, OH: 1
Weddings attended: 1
Baby showers attended: 2
Friends who had babies or announced pregnancies: 8

Dating:
First dates: 8
Second dates: 4
Third dates: 2
Number of times I was stood up: 1
Number of times I fell in love: 1
Number of times I had my heart broken: 1
Number of online dating services used: 2

Other:
Number of children for whom I babysat: 10
Number of times I did karaoke: 1
Visits to Jake Ivory's: 2
Theme days planned by me at my summer job: 8
Number of times I dressed up like an idiot for theme days at my summer job: 7
Mini-golf games played: 3
Mini-golf games won: 0
Free rounds of mini-golf won: 1
Free cone days attended: 2
Survivor seasons watched: 1.2
Raffle prizes won: 1
Number of times fallen down any number of stairs: 2
Weeks between stair falls: 3
Bones broken in stair falls: 0
Blog entries: 101

Chill Out.

Checked the temperature this morning before walking to my babysitting job, and the website I checked said it was 7 degrees (yes, that's a single-digit "seven") but it would FEEL LIKE -19.

After the 20 minute walk my legs were numb but everything else had been layered and bundled well enough to keep me from becoming a human popsicle.

I got to have a play date with C. (the 20-month-old boy I sit for now) and Miss M (the 27-month-old girl I sat for last year) today, which was hillarious. Between C's looks of bewilderment at how many words a minute came out of M's mouth, and M's regular exclaimations of "I just peed!" it was really quite an afternoon.

I'm currently sitting in bed under the covers with a hat and scarf on, trying to thaw from the walk home.

Winter... not so much my favorite season.

New Day, New Year

I've been wanting to write a thoughtful and introspective post about the new year, but haven't managed to do so yet. Today, I read this and thought it was a good start to what I'd like to say.

Poem for a New Day

yes indeed there is so much to be had here
so much
so

certainly much

can't wait for it can't
wait

for sunrise
can't wait for dreams

can't wait for so much

Thanks Brother Matt.


Some of you might have noticed that I changed my template. I never really liked the old one all that much, and feel that this one is much cleaner and easier to read. I have also updated links (which I've been meaning to do for ages), so please check them out. If you're linked and don't want to be, let me know and I'll remove you. If you're not linked and want to be, I probably just forgot, so drop me a line and I'll be sure to add you.

Happy 2008 everyone - photos and stories to follow...