All In The Family July 11, 2018

So my sister came to visit last week. My condescending, judgemental, entitled twin sister. And her husband. Things go one of 2 ways when we get together. Really well or really not. They were here for 4 days.

Mr. OoT left my house around 1pm last Friday. My sister and brother in law arrived at 3:15pm. They opted not to rent a car and told me (not asked me) that I would be picking them up from the airport and driving them everywhere. Uhm, okay. At least they got an Air BnB near my house. I had offered my guest room, but they prefer their own place. Thank god for small miracles.

Anywhoo, we went directly from the airport to happy hour. Duh. That’s just how my family rolls. I had the whole itinerary for their stay worked out. In addition to being lushes, my family are all planners (kinda why Mr. OoT’s inability to plan ahead drives me insane). There were several happy hours, white water rafting, farmer’s markets and chit chat on the itinerary. Oh, and dinner and a comedy show with Mr. OoT, his son and my bff. Yikes.

I don’t think my sister, or anyone in my family, has ever actually met anyone I’m dating. It’s just not my thing. I find it best to keep anyone I might be interested in away from family. To the best of their knowledge I’ve only dated 2 men in my 50 years. Ha.

Now, I had warned my sister that Mr. OoT is a bit rough around the edges. That he’s an opinionated libertarian alien believing creationist and a lover of all things weed related. Oh, and he doesn’t drink. And we do. A lot. I was waiting for some sort of fiasco to occur. None did. Dinner prior to the show lasted for 3 laughter filled hours. Mr. OoT seemed a bit subdued and his son looked like he wanted to kill himself, but I’ll chalk that up to being nervous (and was a bit thankful for that).

During dinner, my twin sister asked Mr. OoT if he had anything planned for my upcoming birthday and he said yes! A weekend away. Now, as he had previously asked me SPECIFICALLY if I would prefer a cabin in the woods or a hotel in the city (duh, the hotel of course), I was certain of his response when my sister asked where. You can imagine my surprise when he proudly announced we would be going to a cabin in the woods. What. The. Fuck. I thought he was kidding. He wasn’t. My sister set him straight on the fact that the words ‘a cabin in the woods’ was a phrase that I had never uttered. Poor Mr. OoT was positive that’s what I had said. Like truly positive and was so proud of himself for remembering correctly.

Needless to say a conversation was had later that evening (in between some amazing bedroom shenanigans) regarding just how scary bad his memory is and that, when he inevitably said it wasn’t, I then told him that he must just be a complete narcissist as he never remembers what I say and always projects what he wants (i.e. a cabin in the woods). It was a calm conversation and actually seemed to hit home. I honestly think it scared him a little to be so certain about something that never happened.

Anywho, the comedy show after dinner was meh, but all in all, it went well. So well that we all planned to ‘do brunch’ the next morning since Mr. OoT and his son were staying over. For whatever reason, Mr. OoT finds the fact that we ‘brunch’ super funny and ‘fancy’ (helped along, no doubt, by my preference of hotels and maid service over woodsy cabins and doing my own cooking when given the choice).

Brunch was great fun. Everyone was much more relaxed and showed who they were. I was a clutz and fell off the curb. My sister and brother in law asked several offensive questions. Mr. OoT vaped and rambled on about disc golf. His son played on his phone. No great surprise.

After brunch we took Mr. OoT’s son back to my house to do whatever 15 year old boys do. Oh, ewww, no, let’s hope that’s not what he did while we were gone…. The rest of us took the dogs for a walk along the river. And I face-planted. No, really, I did. Kind of like a slow motion cartoon style fall. Not embarassing at all. I’m just that uncoordinated.

Mr. OoT and son left after our walk to head back to their town. My sister’s visit lasted for another day and a half. I must say, I enjoyed it. I’m not quite sure that they love Mr. OoT for me, but they saw how much he likes me and were impressed that he’s very open about showing it.

I know he was trying. Really hard. He was nervous to meet them and although he knows they liked him, he is convinced that they’d rather see me with an accountant. Uhm, okay.

It wasn’t nearly as awkward or horrible as I had feared. At least it is out of the way, no one cried and aside from my sister full on linebackering my brother in law out of the raft in the middle of a class 4 rapid, there were no injuries (he was fine, but it was damn funny).

Next up, exactly 4 hours after dropping my sister and BIL at the airport for their flight back home I loaded up my dog and headed to Mr. OoT’s town to meet his family. Parents (who I had already met), 1 brother & 1 sister who I had already met as well, his favorite sister from another state, her 3 adult-ish kids, Mr. OoT’s married daughter and grandson (who, incidentally, were staying with Mr. OoT’s ex girlfriend) and some other assorted nieces and nephews. No pressure, right? Here’s a fun fact about me: I can talk to anyone one on one. Put me in a group of new people (much less a big family with me being odd man out) and I turn into a socially awkward nimrod. Good times ahead…..

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Snoring, Drawers & Weird Sisters May 26, 2018

His, not mine.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I have weird sisters as well.  His is just extra special weird.  When I was here last, she came over to talk to Mr. OoT and, as I was in the room and am a judgy bitch intuitive, she is one of those people that thrives on chaos.  Self created, self defeating chaos.  Although having a good heart, I found her exhausting to be around.  Her energy was uber draining.  In an attempt to do something nice for her as I don’t think she’s familiar with random people being kind to her, I brought her a gift this time around.  We had spoken a bit about my love of crystals and she said she believe in the powers of them as well.  I selected a Rose Quartz for her.  If anyone ever needed one, it’s her.  So I brought it with me and gave it to her yesterday when she stopped by and she made it so FUCKING WEIRD.  I have no idea what her deal was, but it was super off putting.  She said thank you, but she didn’t mean it.  I’m not really one to give people more than a couple chances (unless they’re totally inappropriate men), and as this was strike number 2, I’m going to do my best to avoid her in the future.  The fact that she just couldn’t say thank you and move on was just annoying.  As Mr. OoT has a BIG family and I’m not the only one to find this sister draining and exhausting, I don’t feel so bad.  Well, I kinda do, but hell if I’m going to go out of my way to be nice to someone that I don’t vibe with.  I tried.  I failed. Moving on.

 

Now about this snoring.  Holy hell, it’s an issue.  A big one.  After 4 rounds of sexy time with Mr. OoT yesterday, momma needs her sleep.  That just doesn’t happen.  I have never heard anything so loud.  Like wake the dead loud.  As an added bonus, he’s a thrasher as well.  On the off times that his foghorn downgrades to just breathing loudly, he usually thrashes around.  Big time.  I would seriously pay big money to be able to tell what goes on in his brain when he sleeps.  Honestly, I have no clue how HE is even able to sleep with all that noise an thrashing.

 

After deciding to get some sleep at 2:48 am (not bad for an old fart, eh?), I finally gave up at 5:30am.  Lovely.  I have this awesome tracker bracelet (a gift from said snoring wonder) that also tracks sleep.  Not just in amount, but in quality.  It breaks it down into deep sleep and light sleep.  I am presently typing you all on a whopping 46 minutes of deep sleep.  No bueno.  I see an exhaustion migraine coming on at any moment.  If anyone has any suggestions for me short of smothering him with a pillow (which I have considered several times), please share.

 

Anywhoo, yesterday was fun.  It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve seen him.  I like him.  Plain and simple.  He’s morphing a bit into a different version of himself from the one that I initially met.  He’s still every bit as defiantly non conformist/hippie tree hugger as he ever was and I’d never want that to change.  People need to be true to who they are.  He still has wildly different views on things than I do.  He still thinks I’m an uber square.   He is just more respectful; less self involved.  Hell, he even puts the toilet seat down!  Not a small kindness for a lot of men.  The more time I spend with him, the more I like him.

 

Oh, and that elusive drawer that he was going to dedicate to me?  He actually did!  And it’s charming as hell just HOW proud he is of this.  He asked me last night, when we were talking about just about everything under the sun, how I felt about having a drawer in his place.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that, to me, it’s just a drawer.  He sees it as a BIG token.  Like the dresser version of giving me his letter-man jacket.  So sweet.

Were There Men Even On Board? May 24, 2018

So. Much. Fun. So. Many. Cocktails. Got back Sunday from my 3 day whirlwind cruise. So glad I went. Even though the ‘jr suite’ that I shared with 2 friends was more like a ‘not so much jr suite’ and I slept on this odd folded out futon like couch thing (diagonally, might I add as it was uber short and I am not), I had a blast.

There were 13 of us in all. And about 6 of that 13 were all about the drama. Tears, tantrums and rudeness included. I successfully avoided it all. And spent most of my time at the bar. Every bar. My ‘core group’ all got the ‘unlimited drinks’ package and, as it’s not really unlimited and is instead limited to 15 drinks per day (boo Carnival), it was an unwritten agreement to try and reach our limit each day. #lifegoals. Sadly, and surprisingly considering we started drinking at 9am each day, I never actually hit 15. Apparently I’m lame. Or just a cheaper date than I used to be.

The laughter was plentiful, the drinks strong, the re-bonding of friendships awesome. The only thing that could have made the experience better would be an in board hook up. Sorry friends, I broke my vacation fling streak.

There weren’t many cute singles on board. There were lots of younger men with ironic man buns though. No thank you. I heard, on night #1 that there was a group of age appropriate hotties spotted in the dining room, but I was not alerted. Damn greedy bitches. I do think I spotted them the next night when they all walked past me on formal night. They were every bit as attractive as I’d heard. There was even a tall nerdy one with glasses just for me. Sadly, and inexplicably, my inner social retard took over and instead of making eye contact when he looked directly at me and smiled, I looked at the ground. WTF?!?! I have no clue what happened. I would normally switch directions and follow them (is it really stalking if it’s just me?), but I totally drew a blank and brain farted on what little game I have left. Eh, oh well, at least they were pretty to look at, however briefly.

I am back home, missing my friends terribly, still awaiting my room service coffee to be delivered to my room and, for some strange reason, am unable to locate the buffet. Damn reality….

Bad Decisions on the High Seas May 16, 2018

This weekend I am off for a girls’ trip aboard a shitty little cruise ship to a shitty little destination. I sound excited, right? Well, I am. If only because my FOMO kicked in and I truly miss my friends that I moved away from almost a year ago. When they all told me about the trip, my thoughts ranged from ‘that sounds like a horrible idea’, to ‘seriously? a 3 day cruise? who does that?’ to ‘damn, I’m going to be missing out’. As I am still not working (or looking, for that matter), I absolutely should not be going. Oh lookie there, my financial decisions are just as good as my romantic ones! I’m going. Fuck it.

All of the women going on the trip are single. Heaven help any men aboard the ship as more than a few of us are a bit boy crazy. Although you will all agree that I am kind of pre-occupied with finding someone of the opposite sex, compared to several of my friends I’m a complete amateur in that regard. No, really. I actually forsee arm-wrestles over anyone attractive. There will be shoving, tripping, running and all forms of mahem. Haven’t actually decided if I will be participating. Kinda think not.

In true Grey Goose form, of the 10 of us going, I only really care about my ‘core’ group of 4. The rest are just filler. And sort of annoying. The riff raff (kidding!) are planning a big excursion in one of the ports that will take up most of the day. I, true to form, will be forgoing that less than appealing option to stay on board and drink. And tan. And ogle the crew (yes, I’m THAT girl, stop acting surprised). Because my tribe is awesome, they are staying on board with me!

I am looking forward to a terrific trip reconnecting with friends, drinking WAY too much, eating WAY too much, acting a bit immature (go figure) and laughing WAY WAY too much. Can there ever be too much laughter though? I think not.

Mr. OoT is not thrilled that I am going on this trip and has already requested that if I do hook up with anyone, to NOT tell him. As I don’t forsee that even happening, it’s a moot point. Kinda cute that he’s worried though. As a little bonus to this post and because I have offered no real updates on him lately, Mr. OoT is out of town again working. I won’t see him for 10 more days. He has already told me that he misses me, that he wishes we could see each other more often and that *silence for the suspense* he is going to pick out a drawer for me in his room. A whole drawer! Just for me! 😉 Oh, and he also mentioned that he hid his online profile…….

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is April 4, 2018

You remember Tinder guy, right?  The one that I hooked up with and then never expected to hear from again.  The one that texted me 2 weekends ago inviting me up to visit him in his hometown.  The one that was actually quite good in bed even though slightly overconfident.  He was a good time.  Nice and friendly and easy to be around.  Let’s be honest though, I needed to get laid.  And he obliged.

 

I heard from him today.  He again invited me to come see him.  Either in his home town or to meet him in a neighboring state where he would be on business.  As I have not one thing planned this coming weekend, I told him so.  I told him that I was all his for the weekend and if he flew me up to see him, there would be fun for all to be had.  He immediately backtracked.  Said he had his kids this weekend.  That he was in the middle of rugby season.  Uhm, so?  He then changed his tune to maybe just a lunchtime rendezvous next time he’s in town (2 weeks).  Huh.

 

What the fuck?  Did he expect for ME to buy my own plane ticket?  I think not.  If he does the inviting, then he also gets the pleasure of paying for my travel.  Makes it more whore-esque that way, don’t you think? 😉

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The Twitter March 17, 2018

So when I wake up each morning, I check Twitter to see what’s going on in the world. What? That’s not the way to keep up on current events? I think it is. Much can be garnered from those concise little snippets. What happened on my favorite Bravo TV show the night before. Which star is fighting with who on any given day. What our illustrious president is rambling incoherently about. All sorts of important stuff.

I have a Twitter account. Well, not ‘me’ but the other ‘me’. I don’t actually post my own tweets often. I mainly just re-tweet stuff. Funny shit. Inspirational things. Horoscope related. You know; important things. If I were to compose a tweet of my own today it would probably go something like this: “Huge declaration to avoid all things online dating related until the end of the month was bullshit”.

Catchy, right? And truthful. I’m weak. I need male attention. Okay, not really, but damn, I kind of *gasp* missed it. I lasted how many days? 4? 5? What can I say? I got bored. And I only reactivated one profile. Go ahead and guess which one. No really, guess. Did you guess? What did you guess? If you guessed Tinder, you’d be right!

Tinder is what it is. There’s no bullshit. As I AM ultimately looking for a relationship, but not actually completely averse to a little ‘side action’, this ‘might’ be an okay thing? For today. I’m sure my mind will change again tomorrow. I think the thing that needs to change is my attitude towards it all. I don’t need to be so paranoid about what someone will think about me being on Tinder. I don’t need to approach each and every possible date as being so worried about ‘what will they expect or think’. They’re on Tinder too and guess what? I’m in charge. I am in possession of the vagina in this scenario. If I like a guy that I meet off of Tinder, I will try my best not to be a total whore and sleep with him off the bat. I’ve done the research and completely disproved this method. 😉 If I meet someone that I ‘like’ and am attracted to but know he’s totally inappropriate for relationship material? Well then, all bets are off.

2 More…. March 5, 2018

Nights, not 28 year olds silly. Still at the beach, still loving everything about being here. Kinda lost my mojo after the 1st night though.

Not sure where it went. Not feeling so awesome about myself for whatever reason. Not sure why. Oh wait, yes I do. Those friends that like to pigeon hole me are at it again. Today alone I have been asked why I’m so pissed off (I wasn’t), why I was in a bad mood (I wasn’t), I was (jokingly, I assume/hope) teased for being a drunk (I’m not) and a whore (I wish). I was referred to as old too. All amazing things for my self confidence.

There is a whole new slew of college boys in town. Sure, they’re MUCH to young for me, but the fact that are joking around and chatting up all my friends (who are much older than me) and haven’t even glanced in my direction is a total bummer.

To top it all off, I just totally lost my shit. In a public place. In front of everyone. Regarding an amazingly ill handled issue. You see, in addition to being a snarky professional online dater, I’m a very intelligent & well spoken woman (on any topic not regarding a cute guy) who doesn’t really enjoy not beimg in control of my emotions. Alcohol may have been involved…..

I’ve Done Something February 21, 2018

Something that may either be a good idea or the worst idea on the planet. Something that my friends are split between wanting to smack me in the head for or cheer me on for. Something that may end my week on a high note or may just ruin everything. Something that I am surprised by, but trying not to get excited about. Something that I have the next 3 days to worry about, overthink, get excited about, obsess about and generally run through every single possible ‘what if’ about.

I am going to embrace my long forgotten 2018 mantra of leaving shit up to the universe and not always being a neurotic shit show when it comes to things I want. What could possibly go wrong???

Harleys, Kids & Pizza February 19, 2018

Sunday was pizza date guy. The one who invited me to meet he and his adult kids. Call me crazy, but I assumed he was new to online dating and wanted backup should I turn out to be some hideously offensive monster. I’m not, btw. 😉

He shows up, sans kids and was nervous as hell. He looked mostly like his pics, but I could tell right off the bat that we weren’t going to be a good match. He was nice as can be, but uber naive and a bit back-woodsy. Online dating scares him. The internet scares him. His new fangled non flip phone scares him. He likes to hunt. And fish. And camp. And live off the land. Uhm, not really my thing as I consider a 12 year old Holiday Inn with sketchy internet ‘roughing it’. He doesn’t travel, is pretty religious & doesn’t drink. While none of these are bad things, they just aren’t my thing.

He was all in and very complimentary, but we have absolutely nothing in common. And he doesn’t have a car. And wore overalls. As for his kids that bailed on being his backup? They texted him to ask if I was a dude. Apparently they had regaled him with stories of online dating ‘bait and switch’. Nice.

And so ends this quarter’s string of dates. For those of you keeping track: 15 1st dates in 45 days is apparently my limit. Actually, to be more specific, 2 good first dates, 3 BAD 1st dates, 10 ‘meh’ 1st dates, 1 2nd date that was more of a booty call than date, I meltdown, 2 midgets and countless left & right swipes. Yup. Time for a mini break….

Sunday Funday December 9, 2016

**I just found this in my drafts folder.  Thought I had published it 2 weeks ago.  Whoopsie.  Enjoy this chronologically misplaced post**

So last Sunday was my now annual gathering of friends for brunch, cocktails, laughs and catch ups.  After I accidentally invited 007 to my brunch with 15 friends and he accepted, I panicked a little.  I had only been on 2 fairly spread out dates with him and he was planning on attending a brunch with 15 of my friends who I wanted to be able to catch up with.  Uh oh.  Not wanting to be rude (no, really) I started thinking of how to keep 007 occupied with conversation by others so I wouldn’t feel obligated to talk to him the entire time.  I knew that he would be able to hold his own with strangers as he’s so friendly and outgoing.

In addition to the 15 friends that I originally invited, I reached out to those with boyfriends/girlfriends and extended the invitation to bring them along as well.  The more people, the more opportunity for conversation, right?  I messaged Friend #1 and told her to invite her boyfriend to brunch.  I get back ‘we’re no longer seeing each other, so he won’t be able to attend’.  Whoops.  Way to stick my foot in my mouth.  I sent my condolences (congratulations?) and said I was looking forward to catching up on Sunday (as I was apparently out of the loop on things).  I then messaged Friend #2 and told him to bring along his girlfriend.  To which I received ‘thanks, but we broke up 2 weeks ago’.  Well shit, I AM out of touch (and thus the reason for the group brunch).

So we’re back to the original guest list.  I’m sure all will be fine.  Saturday rolls around and I realize that I hadn’t heard from 007 since Tuesday.  Here’s where I know me.  If I was totally into him I would have checked in to make sure that he remembered in addition to obsessing all week about why I hadn’t heard from him.  But I didn’t.  While I would have been very happy for him to join us the next day, I was going to leave it up to the fates.

Sunday rolls around and my friends show up in varying degrees of lateness.  Hugs are had by all.  Laughs were had by all.  Yummy food and cocktails were had by all.  What wasn’t had by all was the pleasure of 007’s company.  Huh.  As I know he works horrid hours and this is a busy time of year for him (as it is for most of us), I figured either something came up or he overslept.  I assumed I’d hear from him later in the day with an apology.  When that didn’t happen, instead of my usual ‘you stood me up today, WTF, that’s so rude’, I sent a much more evolved (no, really) message of ‘you stood me up this morning 😦 hope all is okay’.  Yes, I used a sad faced emoticon.  Sue me.

He sends back a fairly prompt ‘I did and I’m very sorry.  I was looking forward to it.  I completely slept through my alarm and only woke up in time to dress and race to work’.  I sent back that I understood and that I hoped he had a great night.  Not sure if he would have messaged me with an apology if unprompted, but I guess I’ll never know.  That was 3 days ago and I haven’t heard a word from him.  As our last 2 communications were at my prompting, I am leaving it to him to reach out.  If he does, super.  If not ……

Guess this means that I don’t have to delay my departure from town for our hot date on the 16th…….