Good weekend

Today Isaac and I were driving through our neighborhood and this guy was up on his roof something.  I was like "Look at that guy Isaac".  Right as I pointed him out, the guy bent over and exposed about six inches of bare butt.  Isaac just screamed and then the two of us could not stop laughing for about ten minutes.  We would finally stop and then look at each other and laugh. He may not resemble me in the least physically, but our temperments and senses of humor are so much alike.

Yesterday morning at soccer, one of the coaches came up and told me to make sure I had Isaac try out for the travel team. I was pretty suprised. He's a bit young for the travel team but the coach said he has all the skills and urged me to at least bring him to tryouts. I was pretty proud and told Isaac about it and everything. This evening I took some more time to fully investigate the costs and time commitment of travel and I'm full on terrified. It's a huge commitment of both dollars and time. If he gets on the team and we decide to play, his dad and I are going to have to do some serious juggling to make it work.

I had a really great first date today from a guy I met on the site TrueDeeva recommended. I haven't thought of a blog nickname for him yet and I'm not planning to give a  full-on recapping of our date. There isn't anything to pick a part.   We've been talking on the phone for hours and hours this past week, so I think that helped because it actually felt like we were already friends when we met up.  The plan was lunch and bowling. We had so much fun we also went to the movies and then got dessert afterwards. We ended up spending over eight hours together. I really like him, and I hope there will be a second date soon.  So aside from initial awkwardness, we got along as well in person as we did talking on the phone.  Anyways, maybe more on that soon. Okay, since I typed that we have hung out a second time and then we have plans to hang out a third time. =)

Oh!  Counting Crows has a new album coming out and you know what that means... TOUR!  Nicole and I bought our tickets to see them in Atlantic City at the end of April.  I'm THRILLED.  I love Counting Crows and I love Nicole.  Last time around I saw them with my brother, which was fine, he's a stalwart fan too, just a little bit stoic at concerts.  Even though we don't have fabulous seats this time around, I know I can count on Nicole to be crazy and silly and dancing and screaming lyrics. I have so many good memories with her of seeing them in concert or listening to their music.  Plus, I just love her and never get to see her.  She's going to cash in some hotel points and we are are going to make a fun girls night out of it.  I'm VERY much looking forward to it.

Anyways, that's about all. Hope things are well with all my bloggy friends!

for all your Avon needs...

I have joined a different dating site at the recommendation of a friend and so far I like it a lot better than E-Harmony.  Friday I briefly chatting online with someone through the site when I had to leave.  He asked me to call him, and I figured, why not?

I blocked my number, and gave him a call.  After 1-2 minutes of random chit chat, he says "So do you like Avon?"

I was like, "Huh?"

"Avon, you know-- the beauty products?"

"Oh... well, I guess so."

"Because I'm an Avon consultant as a second job.  So if you ever need any Avon let me know.  I guess you'll have to call me, since you blocked your number, and I can't call you."

I quickly made up an excuse to get off the phone.  As we were saying good-bye, he said "Don't forget to call me if you need any Avon!"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

update

I told Perfect on Paper guy I didn't really see a romantic future with us.  The next day he contacted me and asked me to be a personal reference on some job applications he was filling out...I had to decline on the basis that I don't really know him that well.

Bizarro right?!

oh just me, oversharing on the internet again...

Okay so Friday was date number five with Perfect on Paper.  I've really been trying to be open minded and keep on even though I don't really feel much of a click or spark, because, really, he's perfect (on paper).  Sure, a little sappy, dorky and awkward, but obviously harmless and well meaning. I felt like rejecting him based on a less than stellar first impression was being too picky and all of my friends seemed to agree and were even rooting for him.  We'd gone out on four dates-- the first three I was kind of like "meh" but then the fourth date we had a lot of fun and I thought I might be warming up to him a bit more. So I agreed to a fifth date.  It was supposed to be bowling, but at the last second he suggested that I come over to his house and he made me dinner and then we watched a movie.  It had been a long stressful week, so that option sounded more appealing than a noisy bowling alley and I agreed.

I'm not going to give a whole recap of the date, but I'll give you some random details.  This is what I am good for as the token single girl in nearly all of my social circles.  Married people love to hear how hard and ridiculous it is to be dating in your thirties.  So here goes-- my pain is your amusement:

• His house was really nice.  He had described it as a townhome, but it was really more like a condo.  He allowed me to full on snoop through the whole place while he was cooking dinner.  The whole place was builders white-- not a drop of paint on the walls.  He had nice furniture, and lots of random knick knacks and pictures from his travels around the world.  His powder room had adult wipes sitting on top of the toilet, which is something I would have put away if I was expecting company.  He had a study that was filled with fitness equipment and a huge shelf with hundreds of cds.  I thought that was a testament to what generation he is from (he's 38).  Other than Counting Crows cds, I can't remember the last time I bought a physical cd and put it on a shelf.  The whole place was very clean and tidy and nicely decorated, considering it is a bachelor pad.
• On a plus side, he got me flowers. 
• He kissed me, or attempted to kiss me, roughly 28937423 times.  Not like, make-out let's-get-it-on kissing, but like kisses on the forehead, or the cheek or the top of my head.  Unremittingly.  Like, five fast kisses in a row the way a grandma might kiss her six month old grandchild if she hadn't seen him in a while.  Taking my coat required a kiss on the cheek.  Laughing about how we have almost matching Columbia coats required a kiss on the forehead.  Handing me a fork at dinner required multiple cheek kisses.  I'm not a touchy feely person in general, so that got old fast.  Really fast. (Although I do feel like I should explain that despite all of that he didn't cross the line into getting handsy or inappropriate... just odd and discomforting).
• Referred to me as "madam" repeatedly which made me feel like I was 100 years old.  Also referred to me as "sweetie" repeatedly which made me feel like I was 4 years old.
• Dinner was really nice and actually delicious.  I was impressed-- salad, salmon with some kind of really wonderful gingery marinade, and couscous.
• Dinner conversation was what I now understand to be the usual-- lots and lots and lots of talk about his work.  I understand that discussing your job is always the path of least resistance and an easy default to keep conversation going, but now that it's our fifth date and I'm hearing the same auto insurance stories over and over... it's just dull and tiresome. 
•During the movie he put his arm around me, which was acceptable. Then he started sniffing my head and hair.  I got the impression that he thought this would be a charming thing to do but finally I had to be like "Are you sniffing me?! Can you please stop?!"
• After the movie was over,  he said he had a confession and told me that when we had first made plans to go bowling he went one afternoon and did a practice run to make sure his skills were up to par.  I thought was straddling the border of sort of sweet, sort of bizarro. 
• But THEN he said he had a second confession-- that our last date when I leaned to get out of his car that my pants had slipped down and some of my butt had ended up hanging out of top of my pants...  I was so creeped out and told him so.  WHO SAYS THAT?!  Like really.  I mean, it happened and you noticed, but why are you telling me now?   That was when I figured I needed to wrap things up and get outta there.
• The good night kissing was the absolute nail in the coffin.  I was trying to make the best of a bad situation, but there was no salvaging anything in that department.  His glasses stabbed me in the eye, and at one point his entire mouth was wrapped around mine-- like both of my lips were inside his mouth.  Then he pulled away and said "Someone's breathing is getting a little fast".  I think in his head he thought that might come out seductive and mysterious, but at that point it was just comical.  If my breathing was fast, it was because I was gasping for air as he attempted to perform CPR on me.

Okay, that turned out a little meaner than I meant for it to be...  but.. it is what it is.

Saturday after many, many texts recapping his favorite parts of the evening and trying to get me to commit to hang out again Saturday and/or Sunday, I had to tell him that his intensity was terrifying and that I needed some space.  His response was that he never meant to make me feel uncomfortable and that he would respect my wishes.  I'm inclined to ignore him and hope he goes away, but I have been advised that I need to man up and make sure he's clear that I am 100% uninterested.

So I guess this is the first time that I am officially breaking it off because he has no game.  At all.  I don't know how to explain it, but I guess it's much more intriguing to hold a little back.   My friend The TrueDeeva got to hear all about him when we met up on Saturday.  She thinks he lacks swagger.  You want a guy that interested enough, but still holding back some to keep you interested.  Clearly-- not Perfect on Paper.  Anyways, after we had a few laughs about my date we had a nice conversation about internet dating, dating with kids, dealing with the fathers of our kids and all of the drama they bring.  As usual, I left wishing we got together more.  She's sharp, and witty and confident and in the past year or so she's turned into an internet dating maven (quote of the evening: "I'm all about being open minded!" she declared.  "I'm dating short guys, fat guys... even white guys!").  She sort of re-energized me to get back out there and stay positive and keep having fun.

Anyways, feel free to comment.  Happy Monday.

Rambling on about various things...

Gah... I stayed up/slept way too late this weekend. Now it's 11 and I'm wide awake. Getting up tomorrow should be a disaster.

I need a few cards for different things, so I pulled out my stamps and papers over the weekend and got busy. I actually didn't end up making any of the cards I will need soon (typical), but I did make these: It's not totally clear, but the card base is black. It gets lost against the black table. The onesie was my first attempt at using the blender pen.

You can't see very well from the picture but the top part is grey cardstock dry embossed polka dots leftover from another project. I did a few different variations of this one with different sentiments. The sentiment stamp was a buck from Michael's.

(this one kind of drives me crazy if I look at it too long because nothing on it is cut straight or centered. But I really loved that stamp-- another dollar bin find at Michael's.)

I had a great weekend. Friday night my parents were kind enough to keep Isaac overnight so I could have another date with Perfect on Paper guy. Then Saturday Isaac's dad asked if he could take him for the afternoon/evening even though it wasn't his weekend because he wanted to take Is to a birthday party. So I ended up with an unexpected Saturday night to myself too. I went to University City and (after trying to park for seriously like 40 MINUTES) I met up with my friend The TrueDeeva... and we had a great time catching up. I will go into more detail about my date and my visit with her in a another blog post. Oddly, they will be somewhat related. It was great fun, but on the way home I got a text message and was reaching for my phone to glance at it. I must have swerved off the road a bit when I was reaching it and the next thing I knew, there were lights behind me. It's actually been quite a while since I've been pulled over. I got off with a warning, thankfully. I definitely left my phone in my purse and threw it in the back seat for the rest of the way home.

In other news, how adorable are these:

shoes that we got for Isaac's baby brother? I know his dad will like them, because he used to buy Isaac ones that were very similar. I used to get so mad at him when Isaac was a baby, because I would need diapers, formula, etc and he would always show up with fancy sneakers. When we were at the Puma outlet I couldn't resist the chance to bring it full circle.

Hey..

Check out my sister's blog to see some great pictures she took for Isaac's Flat Stanley project. Just do it, OKAY!