Annie's Journal of Dating and Body Hair Removal

[Batya33]

Thats great Batya!

Not your cup of yogurt... LOL

I used to like yogurt until I read this article. Now, every time I think of yogurt, I'm thinking about how plain or not am I. Just last night I was at a frozen yogurt place and decided to get nothing. Somehow I'm disturbed with the thought of compairing myself to a cup of yogurt. It will take me a while to get over it.

 

Oh no!! Thanks for noticing. You definitely are my cup of tea!

 

We consume quite a bit of it here because of my son (he doesn't finish one, so we do)

 

You know my son and I are reading Little House in the Big Woods (from the Little House in the Prairie series). And Caroline the wife who was of course an uneducated stay at home momma most certainly wasn't plain yogurt and neither did her husband want her that way - in the 1800s. Of course she was a bit "demure" and far more deferential to her husband than perhaps in modern times but in general she is supposed to have spunk and opinions. However they make their own milk and cheese, no yogurt.

 

Ugh -I really do hate reading that kind of article/attitude. I hope it's more of a sensationalist article than actually true. And I suppose certain women like being bland/"you can put Baby in the corner" type.

[LAYAAN]

Oh no!! Thanks for noticing. You definitely are my cup of tea!

lol... no no, I didn't misunderstand. I know that you were not referring to me. :)

[annie24]

I don't have a lot of updates - nothing in dating. However, I've been invited to a wedding in India in December, so I am very excited! A few of us from the friend group have booked our flights to India and are in the process of making the hotel. I'm mainly in charge of the itinerary. I am very excited, I think that this will be a lot of fun. We're going to hit some of the major attractions before the wedding (Taj Mahal of course) and after the wedding we'll go to some beaches for a few days. I'm looking forward to buying a saree for the wedding, will buy one when I get there. Also another dress for the festivities the night before the wedding. The bride and groom have been dating for 6 years, though the last 4 years has been long distance. It's not easy, but they talk on the phone every night at the same time, so I think that has helped. And they were friends before they started dating. I am proud of them!! That can't have been easy.

[LAYAAN]

That's great!

I'm not big on beaches there. The humidity really gets to me. Do enjoy local food. They have a ton of variety in food and desserts.

[Batya33]

Wow -exciting!!

[annie24]

Yeah, I'm really excited about the trip and going with friends. I think it will be a great vacation.

 

I came back today from a work training. There were people at the training from all over the country, and some from Canada as well. It was fun, got to meet a lot of people I had previously only emailed with and got to hang out with them in person. It was a good time. I also met this guy and he was so kind and sweet and showed me how to bowl when our team went to a bowling night. I feel like there was a connection there, but sadly, he lives thousands of miles away from me. I may get an opportunity to see him again later this year at another meeting, but obviously, not holding my breath.

[Batya33]

I was going to make a bowling related quip but I'll leave it at that. I'm glad things are going well in your new job and your new role! Jealous that you are driving -meaning I wish I had the courage you do!

[annie24]

Thanks Batya - As for driving, I try to give myself double the time I need to get somewhere so I can be relaxed and not nervous about being late. I use Waze and put on the setting "avoid highways and avoid tolls." It's sometimes longer that way (sometimes shorter!) but I feel better not having to merge onto highways. Though on normal streets, there are other hazards like jaywalkers to watch out for. I try to be really relaxed. Have a nice coffee beverage, calm music, set my cell phone to airplane mode so I'm not disturbed. My old driving instructor told me it's all about watching my speed and distance, so I try to do that - have lots of distance from other cars, and stick to the speed limit (waze tells me in the corner what the speed limit is). I went on the highway accidentally last week when I missed my turn and just wound up on it. It was ok though, it was friday night traffic, there was an accident or something, so we were at a standstill and then were going about 7 mph. So... I was probably the only one happy about the slow speed on the highway!!! Though it added a lot of time to my commute instead of taking the back roads!

 

Also, in my city, I googled "top most dangerous intersections" and I try to avoid those whenever possible. There is one street in my city that has 700 accidents per year (so, 2 per day!). I try to avoid that street at all costs. I look at the route that either Waze or Google Maps are trying to take me on, and avoid those streets, even if that means adding time to my commute. Especially in rainy weather, there are always extra accidents on those days.

[annie24]

So, I have a friend, a very sweet woman, who sometimes gives me leftovers. She and her husband like to cook and he works at a really good deli in town, so it's kind of a nice treat. A few weeks ago, she gave me some croquettes made with ham and cheese (fried and breaded Spanish snack). I said thanks, and had a few. Then she went on to tell me that the ham came from a friend, it's their leftovers because they bought way too much ham and couldn't finish it all. A few hours later, I started getting the runs. It made me wonder just how old the ham was!!! :o Thankfully, not too many more GI problems. Today she gave me some pasta salad, I looked at it, cubes of ham. OMG, no idea if it was the same ham as before, but it went straight into the trash when I got home!! :o I'm too embarrassed to tell her, so I'm complaining here, lol. She would be mortified if I told her about the bad ham. Not sure if it gave her the same stomach issues??

[Batya33]

So, I have a friend, a very sweet woman, who sometimes gives me leftovers. She and her husband like to cook and he works at a really good deli in town, so it's kind of a nice treat. A few weeks ago, she gave me some croquettes made with ham and cheese (fried and breaded Spanish snack). I said thanks, and had a few. Then she went on to tell me that the ham came from a friend, it's their leftovers because they bought way too much ham and couldn't finish it all. A few hours later, I started getting the runs. It made me wonder just how old the ham was!!! :o Thankfully, not too many more GI problems. Today she gave me some pasta salad, I looked at it, cubes of ham. OMG, no idea if it was the same ham as before, but it went straight into the trash when I got home!! :o I'm too embarrassed to tell her, so I'm complaining here, lol. She would be mortified if I told her about the bad ham. Not sure if it gave her the same stomach issues??

 

I wouldn't tell her -people have different standards about leftovers/expiration dates etc. I wouldn't take more food from her except if it's packaged straight from the deli and fresh. Sorry you didn't feel well!

[annie24]

I always chat with the lady at the front desk - yesterday there was a huge bouquet of mother's day flowers for her. I asked which of her kids bought it for her. She said none of them, it was a man! She said she's been friends with this guy for a while and he sent her the flowers, he's very thoughtful and he does these kinds of things. I thought that was really nice, especially considering she is not his mom! I asked if they are dating, she said no, she's not interested in him at all. I asked why not - she just made a face and didn't really answer. She didn't have anything specific to say, but I guess he's just not her style. But then she showed me a photo of the man who she is interested in - handsome guy. She said she's known him for 2 years and they've been recently chatting for the last 2 months, but he hasn't asked her out! She finally gave him an ultimatum and said if you don't take me on a date in the next week, I'm going to assume you are married and I will stop talking to you. He said "I'm not married and I'm going to take you on a date." She said, "great, when?" So.... no date has been set yet. My guess is that he's married or he's hiding something else big from her.

 

But ugh, I can definitely relate to not being attracted to the guy who is there and making an effort and having a thing for a guy who is flakey/unsuitable. Memories....

[annie24]

I went to a party tonight and talked to two handsome guys for a while. The first guy was really laid back, very sweet. It turns out we went the same university at the same time (though I was in grad school and he was in undergrad), and then I was a postdoc at the same place he is a grad student. We had a lot of stories to share from our memories back at the old university. We laughed about some of the sketchy bars in that city where we used to live. But he mentioned he had a girlfriend now in another city (booo!) He was super sweet and easy to talk to. We hugged goodbye.

 

The other guy is also a grad student, though maybe closer to my age. We talked for a while because we were obviously the older people at the party (our mutual friend just turned 26! There were keg stands at this party). He spent a lot of time talking about his future career in consulting and the money and his home. He was cute, but ugh, so much money talk, it was kind of boring. :/ I think he went upstairs to check out the roof deck, then I went home, so we didn't say goodbye.

 

Anyway, that's it, not much of a story there at all. There was one guy wearing kitten-heel boots, mascara, and glitter and he looked really fabulous. He brought his own drink (a water bottle filled with vodka and blueberries) and he let me try a sip.

[Batya33]

I would keep in touch with the first guy since you have so much in common and ask him if he knows anyone to introduce you to.

[annie24]

Things have been crazy at work the last few weeks. Very busy, lots of things going on, upset customers, machines breaking, sometimes I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole. Argh. Hopefully things will calm down soon. It's difficult to remember all the things I need to do, the people I need to contact, coordinatining different peoples' schedules, etc....

[annie24]

Job hunting is not easy. I'm watching a few of my friends go through what I went through last year. Carol has been going on interviews, she had a really promising one last week in another state. I hate to play negative nancy and have kept my mouth shut, but she's kind of acting like she's already gotten the job when she doesn't have an offer yet. They paid for her flight there, very nice hotel, paid for all the meals, and there's talk of a second interview but nothing scheduled yet. I hope she does get it as it sounds good. She said that most of the interview went fine except for a meeting with 2 people who was pretty catty towards her. I worry about that, if those 2 people could sink her chances there. I'm also a bit concerned that because she will have to directly work with these 2 people, are they really coworkers that would be easy to work with?? I saw my friend Ewok go through this last year, when he got a verbal job offer, announced his new position on facebook but the black and white paper with the official offer never came in. You just don't have anything until it's in writing, it's signed, your background check has cleared, and it's accepted by HR. There are a lot of hoops to jump through.

[Batya33]

I'm sorry work is so crazy! I cannot relate to people who act as if they've gotten the job already -to me until the actual offer comes in there is nothing and that to me is realistic not negative. I've had awesome interviews and no offer -one time my recruiter told me it was because the guy who had the job had asked to telecommute and it was allowed -and I felt fortunate to get that information

 

I hope things calm down for you soon!

[annie24]

I'm sorry work is so crazy! I cannot relate to people who act as if they've gotten the job already -to me until the actual offer comes in there is nothing and that to me is realistic not negative. I've had awesome interviews and no offer -one time my recruiter told me it was because the guy who had the job had asked to telecommute and it was allowed -and I felt fortunate to get that information

 

I hope things calm down for you soon!

 

Thanks. It has been a little crazy. I talked to my boss today and he pointed out (nicely!) some things that are going on with some of my cases and where there is "room for development." He's very kind about this - basically, to use some of what's going on as a learning experience to figure out how to make things go smoother and faster. I guess he's trying to not say, "you're doing this wrong" but "think about how to do this better in the future" and "this is something that comes with time and I wouldn't expect you to know how to deal with this on your own so early on." So, I appreciate that, but also am feeling the pressure from having some difficult situations dropped in my lap. And some of those situations I didn't realize that the clock was ticking on and the issues need to get resolved sooner rather than later, not just for the customer, but for our team metrics (how long does it take to resolve the issue). It reflects badly on our team if the average days to resolution is too high.

 

I've seen Carol get overly fixated on an interview and then wait for months to hear back and get rejected, when she should have gone back to applying to more jobs the second that the job interview was over. The interviewer also contacted her reference and told the reference that she didn't do a good job during the interview, and the reference went back and said that to Carol. She was really defensive about that. I told her to take that to heart and to try to improve with interview skills with a mock interview at the university career center and she poo poo'ed that suggestion - and didn't do that until 6 months later. I remember asking her if she had applied anywhere else and her response was "I still have hope for XYZ Corp." Well, that's not really how it works, especially if you already heard they have a negative impression of you. She was excited about this new interview last week because they flew her out and put her in a nice hotel and paid for her meals.... and I was happy for her, but didn't want to say that they also did that for my job and the other candidates who interviewed the same day as me and who didn't get the job. While being put up in a fancy hotel is a good sign, it doesn't mean you'll get the job. But hopefully this works out and she gets it, I just hope she keeps applying. And sometimes, you never know, there is a company restructuring or other outside reason why the job is cancelled before they even have the chance to hire you. I just went on my account on USAjobs.gov to see the status of some applications- I'm surprised how many say just "in review" or "received" when you would think that they would have either 1) cancelled the listing by now, or 2) hired someone else. 1-2 years later, you'd think that all of those app statuses would be 'not hired.'

 

I scheduled an appointment to meet with my psychiatrist this morning (I haven't been in forever and she wanted me to come in for the medication updates). I got there and the office doesn't take my new insurance, and I didn't want to pay $140 for the appointment out of pocket so I left. :/ Now have to find a new doc before my pills run out.

[annie24]

I always chat with the lady at the front desk - yesterday there was a huge bouquet of mother's day flowers for her. I asked which of her kids bought it for her. She said none of them, it was a man! She said she's been friends with this guy for a while and he sent her the flowers, he's very thoughtful and he does these kinds of things. I thought that was really nice, especially considering she is not his mom! I asked if they are dating, she said no, she's not interested in him at all. I asked why not - she just made a face and didn't really answer. She didn't have anything specific to say, but I guess he's just not her style. But then she showed me a photo of the man who she is interested in - handsome guy. She said she's known him for 2 years and they've been recently chatting for the last 2 months, but he hasn't asked her out! She finally gave him an ultimatum and said if you don't take me on a date in the next week, I'm going to assume you are married and I will stop talking to you. He said "I'm not married and I'm going to take you on a date." She said, "great, when?" So.... no date has been set yet. My guess is that he's married or he's hiding something else big from her.

 

But ugh, I can definitely relate to not being attracted to the guy who is there and making an effort and having a thing for a guy who is flakey/unsuitable. Memories....

 

She finally had a date with the man she liked. But it sounds like things are progressing really slowly. Too slow for her liking. He said he wants to take things slow, just like when they were 13 or whatever and you spent hours on the phone with your sweetie. Except they're both older - she's 50, he's in his 60s, so it's silly to spend "forever" talking on the phone when the clock is ticking, lol. She said if you go too slow, she will lose interest. good for her. It sounds like he's keeping her at arm's distance, but why, I don't know.

 

In the meantime, the other man is still sending her beautiful flowers and she's still not interested....

[annie24]

PS - Who has watched "The Staircase" on Netflix? I need to talk about it, lol.

[annie24]

Carol didn’t get the job, bummer. That’s the one where she was really excited because they paid for the hotel, flight, food, etc....

[Realitynut]

OK....is the staircase good? I'm always on the lookout for a good movie....

[LAYAAN]

In the meantime, the other man is still sending her beautiful flowers and she's still not interested....

Story of my life!

This opened my eyes.

[annie24]

Story of my life!

This opened my eyes.

 

In the meantime, the man sent her another beautiful flower arrangement, just because. She’s still not even remotely interested in him, this man is wasting his money. :/ A resident moved out recently and gave the front desk lady some flowers she had that were half dead and didn’t want to take with her to new apartment, the front desk lady seemed just as excited about those flowers as the $100 arrangement this man is sending her.

[LAYAAN]

Oh sigh! I hope this man can come to his senses and stop wasting his time and money. Spend that money on yourself, dude! if you have noone else to spend it on.

[annie24]

Oh sigh! I hope this man can come to his senses and stop wasting his time and money. Spend that money on yourself, dude! if you have noone else to spend it on.

 

I know, seriously.

 

I had a weird dream last night that I was pregnant and didn't know who the father was (I met him at a club, one night stand, didn't use a condom) and then I decided to abort because I didn't want to be a single mom. Weird dreams....

 

I have a friend who lost a decent amount of weight and she is really proud (rightfully so!) and posts her nude photos on facebook. She will put an emoji or whatever over her private parts to get past the censors. I mean, she looks great, but recently she posted one of her in the bathtub and the bathtub had mildew in it and i was like, "arrghh! so gross." I just can't.