Monday, January 30, 2012

6th time's the almost so-far charm

Guess what, y'all?

After some encouragement from a dear friend, I tried another dating website for the second time. Last year, there weren't that many people on it that weren't already on the one I started with. (I'm sorry if this makes no sense.)

Within 24 hours, I had been emailed by a not-so-bad, and definitely not creepy guy. Within 48-72 hours, I had been rated a 4 out of 5 by another guy. And I have been emailed by at least three other guys in the past few days. All this within one week. I actually feel like the hot stuff I am. LOL.

Now, if I could only snag a date within the next couple of weeks, that would be awesome!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Harvest Moon Festival

Back in October, I failed to tell about my first "real" music festival. I say "real" because I really don't count City Stages and the Crawfish Boil as music festivals. I suppose they are, but when I think of music festival, I think "get the hell out of town and get your hippie on."

Harvest Moon Fest was at Callaway Gardens, a favorite local weekend getaway for me.

Thursday night, Andy came down to Auburn. We ate at Hamilton's (nommmmmmmm!) and chilled at the apartment. Friday morning, we ran some errands and loaded the car. The plan was to bring our own groceries and eat that as much as possible, since the food at Callaway is so expensive.

We checked into our cabin, unpacked, and I did some cooking. And we did some drinking. And, FINALLY, we headed out to the festival. It was super chill and I had a blast at the festival. My favorite part? Dancing, barefoot, in the sand by the lake, to the B-52s, in October, on my half birthday. It was amazing!

Saturday, we got up and cleaned the cabin a bit, ventured out to do some shopping, ate lunch at some restaurant (yeah, I know that totally defeats the purpose of bringing groceries), and my other friends arrived. Andy did his own thing and me and the girls and kids went to the festival, where we got some hair feathers. Andy met back up with us that evening and we had a wonderful night hanging out in the sand by the lake listening to live music. Everyone else was ready to go back before the Gin Blossoms, so I went back, too.

Sunday morning, we got up. I made breakfast. We packed and loaded the cars, and went back to Auburn. Andy and I lunched at Irish Bred Pub in Opelika (I highly recommend the Blue Chips!) before he went back home. 

I'm guessing this was a small scale music festival, and it was just right for me. I was totally in my element, chilling out and enjoying the environment. The weather was perfect! I wore jeans and a shirt during the day and pulled on my fleece at night, but it was still warm enough to get barefoot. I definitely want to go back next year.

Some things I would have done differently: gotten my traveling companions together more ahead of time (and make them pay in advance), only brought snack-y things to eat, brought a swimsuit, and stuck to a schedule. I missed a lot of bands because we were distracted with other things. While I don't regret it, I would like to see the music, since it was what attracted me to the event. I also would have gotten some cash before leaving town.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Why I won't date someone who can't spell

The other day, one of my friends and I were talking about how maybe I'm too picky about the spelling and grammar on my online dating websites. While I agree maybe I am being too picky, especially when I am anxious to start dating again, I still feel justified in this criteria. And I want to share with y'all why I think this is okay.

First, I get rather annoyed having to read what he has said out loud. I think, "If I'm having this much trouble now, how am I going to feel when we text, email and Facebook each other?" Yes, this might be a bit silly, and I know I let my friends get away with it, but I believe a person should have the right to minimize that behavior in his or her life and I don't want to be irritated with my mate, get a horribly misspelled text, and then be really pissed because I don't understand what he's trying to say.

Second, it shows ignorance. Maybe people aren't the best spellers and maybe grammar and punctuation just makes their head spin. That's fair. Numbers do the same thing to me, and I will be the first to admit I suck when it comes to finances (although, I am getting better). But, when I have to do something out of my comfort zone, I check my work and I ask for help. These people who misspell every other word, use semi-colons for no reason, can't use an apostrophe to save their lives, and basically spell like they talk, and don't think to use a spell check? Ignorance. They think they are fine the way they are, and their spelling and grammar is far from it.

Third, it shows laziness. Have you noticed people using "an" for "and"? These words are two different parts of speech. An is an article, and a conjunction. Do people not want to take the time to put the last letter on the word? I just don't understand it. What I call "text language" is also annoying to me. It's one (rather annoying, but more acceptable) thing to use it in text messages. Emails, instant messaging, and profiles are not places it belongs, among many others. How many times can I say I don't want to say my messages out loud to be able to understand the meaning? With the abundance of spelling and grammar check options available, why can't they be used? I feel like if someone is so lazy they can't make the effort to spell out entire words, or have their work checked, in what other areas will they be lazy?

Fourth, what does this mean for the future of our language? I learned it. I don't know every single rule, but I know the difference between to, too, and two and there, their, and they're. I spell out my entire word, unless I choose to use a contraction (and I use an apostrophe). I feel like if you have nothing else in this world, but you can speak and write clearly and properly, you at least have something. This is one of the best ways to fake being "smart." You may not be well read or you may not have much education, but at least you can appear to have had those experiences.

Fifth, and final, it shows hubris. I see all these profiles of guys who talk themselves up, trying to make themselves sound like the perfect balance between manly and sensitive. They might even have pictures showing how good looking they think they are. What I see, though, is a guy who is ignorant, lazy, and thinks he's hot shit. Hubris is bad enough, but in combination with ignorance and laziness, it's the worst.

Just so we're clear, a typo is a mistake I let go. If there are more than three or four per paragraph, I take a closer look at the person's profile. People aren't perfect, so we are bound to make mistakes. I just feel like if someone makes more than a few mistakes in a small space or amount of time, that person isn't just making mistakes and they clearly fall into at least one of the above categories.

Monday, January 9, 2012

At least I'm consistent

Blog a bit, drop off the face of the earth, repeat. That's how I roll.

So, I got caught up in football season. I definitely had an exciting weekend. All was well until I had a little scare that Saturday night. Everything turned out well. But I was absolutely terrified for a few hours.

EG was dedicated the next weekend. What a sweet baby girl. More on her later. :)

Then there was more football.

Then there was a death in the family. I've tried writing about it, but it's kind of painful, still. I always envisioned celebrating my wedding with my family, and now that everyone is dying ... Yeah, so I'm losing my family, we're not getting to do much celebrating, and it's just really sad. And I am worried for my future kids. What if I start pursuing the adoption thing? It's just really hard to go there, but I kind of have to.

The holidays were celebrated.

Football season finally ended.

And here I am. Happy new year, y'all. As my mass text said, "May your 2012 be merry and bright!"

Let's have a happy year, okay?