Just a Question....

Google Wave and Google Voice.

Does anyone USE these products? I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just wondering. I have both products, but I don't use them. Are they as popular as other google products? Are they worthwhile? Are they time eaters, like facebook or twitter? Your thoughts?

You Probably Think This Post is About you....

In the past 24 hours, I have randomly heard the song 'You're So Vain' at a public place TWICE. Since this song has been referenced on this blog, my blog naturally thinks this occurrence is about it.

Moment of silence for Carly Simon for becoming muzak....

Dating Websites?

Ok - so, needless to say, I have a little bit of 'blogger's block'. I spoke to a good friend via email, who said I should join a dating website just for the sake of blogging material.

I think she might be onto something.

Do my readers enjoy reading about my thoughts on dating/relationships, etc.? What are one's thoughts on dating networks? Paid vs. not paid? I personally would opt toward the latter for obvious reasons, however, I heard there are more likely to be psychos/random dudes trolling for flings on the the free ones - the guys who are willing to pay for dating networks are more likely to actually be looking for a possible relationship. I know there are quite a few out there - match.com, eharmony.com, plentyoffish.com, okcupid.com, chemistry.com, etc (.com?).

Your thoughts? Is one dating network better than the rest? Would going out with a lot of random dudes provide for some good blogging material?

Editor's sidenote: Throughout the past couple years, as a single gal living in the city, I have gone out on quite a few 'first dates' with random guys I've met various places that ended up, for one reason or another, not materializing into anything. Based on the time that has gone by, my not being good with faces, and, in some cases, the night being rather unmemorable (for better or for worse) in the first place, my biggest fear (ok, not really) is that I'll randomly run into one of said men on the el or at a bar, and he'll be like 'Jaime?', and I'll be thinking 'where do I know you from now?', and he will form an unflattering opinion of me for that reason. Anyhow.

This reminds me of a random story I feel compelled to tell for whatever reason. There was a guy I exchanged numbers with in a bar about a year ago. He called me, we had a brief chat, he suggested we meet for dinner. I said it sounded good, we made plans to speak again soon to finalize plans. As we were ending the call, he said 'oh, wait, one more thing' (it sounded important!). 'What's up?' 'You mentioned at the bar, you have a blog (Editor's thought: you remember this?) - can I get the address for it? I'd like to read a bit before we get together' (I didn't want to give it away for obvious reasons, such as posts similar to this one being in existence.) 'Uh, uh....you know, I'm not sure I'm ready for this. Let's see how dinner goes, then maybe....' Well, I can tell you at that moment I could sense he was totally weirded out (as was I!!), the date didn't go so hot and I never gave him my blog address - but I secretly fear he somehow found it and might, in secret, read it at times. And now he's reading this post about him. Hmm. Anyhow.

Fine Print

I got an email today confirming my enrollment in speed dating.

The ever-observant Emily noticed something I missed:

(INSERT COMPANY NAME) DOES NOT CONDUCT BACKGROUND CHECKS ON THE MEMBERS OR SUBSCRIBERS OF THIS WEBSITE

Oh dear.

Signed Up!

I'm going speed dating. One of my friends (of the facebook variety) suggested I show up in skates and a helmet and say I thought I was here for speed skating. I'm thinking of wearing the skates to show my undying love for figure skating. I hear dudes dig that.

Tonight!!!!!!!!!

Did You Ever Notice....

I happened to be at a local Chicago Mexican restaurant the other day and, well, en route to the washroom, it look me a couple seconds to stop and figure out which was the ladies room. Sure, take a moment to insert some form of a joke, but it was largely due to a) the writing in said restaurant's native language b) the fancy, cursive, almost hard to read font and c) the non-standard man/woman logo (in this instance - it was a fancy, old-fashioned painting on each door - discernible, but one would have to take a moment to examine it, as opposed to with the basic graphic).

The more that I think about, quite a few restaurants I've been to have instated the same practice. Now, say what you will about Spanish being a commonplace language - Italian, Latin, etc., are not. Is this supposed to be cute/quirky/stylistic/creating an atmosphere? Granted, yes, it's a nice detail. However, I find it could cause more harm than good - these signs are confusing enough SOBER - and with many of these restaurants either being BYOB or having the alcohol flowing, well, I think you see where I'm going with this....

Actually, now that I think about this - are restaurants trying to dupe people? Is there someone sitting behind a hidden camera, laughing every time someone walks into the wrong one? Does anyone else not like this trend? Anyone get walked in on by a confused person? Your thoughts?

Boyfriend/Girlfriend?

So, the other day, I was talking to a friend of who started dating someone a couple weeks ago. I asked her if they were officially dating (or, I suppose, dating exclusively, boyfriend/girlfriend, whatever you want to call it). She said she didn't want to bring it up to him because she'd heard that men get antsy/freaked out by labels.

Also, on the same note, the other day at work, a male coworker was passing on advice to another younger male coworker. One of the tidbits he had to offer is, if he starts dating a girl and she brings up 'what are we?' - brush it off with 'we don't need to label things'.

Hmm. I think you may be able to guess my thoughts on this one.

Now, for me, I like labels. Shocking, I know. If I am going to be romantically involved with a guy, I would like to establish that we are 'boyfriend/girlfriend'. Now, I don't necessarily know the protocol on this one (or is there even a protocol on this one?) - does one say 'are we boyfriend/girlfriend?' or 'what are we?'. I've been in four 'relationships' (if you will) - I think in each of them, things went down differently. And honestly, I don't know what the norm is; nor, do I think, does anyone else.

I guess, for me, I the thing that I find a bit off-putting about the above suggested male way of thinking is a) I believe it's designated to leave room to, perhaps, leave one's options open for a random hookup or 'someone better', if you will (which is fine if that's a mutually shared feeling in the relationship), or b) perhaps it's more convenient to not have to establish an actual relationship with someone so that, in the instance one decides things aren't going to ultimately work out, he or she can just kind of 'disappear' or ease out of the situation without the actual awkward breakup conversation (who likes those?). Or, option c) this perhaps gives one the freedom from certain relationship obligations - no airport pickups, family parties, moving assistance, etc. I suppose this freedom can benefit both parties in the 'non-relationship'.

Anyhow. Again, as I said, I like labels. Sure, I definitely want to take my time in getting to know a person before making some sort of commitment to him (and by that, I mean even as little a commitment as agreeing to a relationship), however, I like the 'boyfriend/girlfriend' label. And if some say this scares guys off - well, a guy who scares easily is a turnoff for me. What is the protocol these days? Is there a 'relationship talk' of some kind? Are there a lot of couples in 'undefined' relationships, if you will? Is this the same principal of 'a rose by any other name' - are these 'relationships' just as serious as 'defined relationships'? Does the 'boyfriend/girlfriend' talk scare all men?

Your thoughts?

For Those of you Following my Nightly Dreams....

Last night was dachshunds.

I'll let you make the connection.

Dream Analysis, Part 813

What does it mean when one dreams of food/eating? Does it mean one went to bed hungry? I go through spurts of having 'eating' dreams - right now I am smack dab in the middle of one.

Last night, I dreamt of eating a hotdog. Why a hotdog, I don't know. If anyone could enlighten me, I'd truly appreciate it. What does it mean to dream of eating a hotdog? Anyone know? Anyone have any ideas?

(Sigmund Freud, please sit down and shut up.)

Oh Sarah.

You're breaking my heart. Which newspaper do you read? All of 'em! Back in high school, my ability to BS questions was much better than this. Stop disappointing me Sarah.

Completely Useless, But...

Gorgeous! And, while we're talking about beautiful women, not to be forgotten....



Maybe I need to do the speed dating after all to get back on track with men....

Counting Down the Hours....

Ok - as the season 9 premiere/48 hours of audition footage is right on the horizon, I must declare my feelings on American Idol....

First off, you all know my feelings on the ever-so-useless Kara DioGuardi. Secondly, I didn't like the new format last year of having a top 36, then voting in 3 a week, then some bizarro wild card round...maybe I'm someone who doesn't handle change well in the first place, but the old format of a top 24 was definitely, definitely better. One could argue that with the new format, it's really the fan favorites who advance (plus those extra couple other judge favorites we can't seem to shake, which is true of all reality shows). Maybe a happy medium would be a top 36 that eliminates the bottom 3rd of the contestants (as opposed advancing the top 3)...I dunno. Oh, that, and I hate hate HATED the 'sing for your life' concept of last season. And them all living in one house?! Uh, the real world called, it wants its crappy late '90s reality show idea back. Anyhow - are these changes continuing into this season? Does anyone know?

That brings me to the next major change for this season....Ellen DeGeneres. Whop Whop Whop. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Ellen as a person. And I like her in the right context - doing her own schtick on her own talk show or as a guest on a show - I do find her hilarious. But I don't know that I think she can handle the backseat role that she's got to take here. She was bad as a guest judge on SYTYCD - she talked for too long and everything was a tangent into some joke of hers. That, and she only gave positive feedback - she'll be like Paula but with even less substance. I sense it getting so awkward it will be painful.... However, I can easily forsee Simon getting annoyed at her and trying to shut her up...now THAT might be entertaining.

Speed Dating

So, as most of my readers know, I'm single. I often times wonder if I wasn't single, where would I get a good 1/3 of my blogging material? Would this blog shut down? Or would a lot of my material switch over to bitching about my boyfriend?

Anyhow.

So I'm single, and naturally, everyone and his/her mother is losing sleep over this fact. (They should try a nice vino before bed. Or Ambien. But never both at once!!) I digress. So I'm single. And I just got 'facebook invited' to an event entitled 'speed dating'. You probably all know the gist....a bunch of single guys, a bunch of single girls, each get a couple minutes to chat, then rotate to the next - in essence, one meets a lot of other single people in a short period of time.

Now, at heart, I think there's a very good idea here. However, the one gripe I noticed - $35 for one night!?! Really? REALLY? Now, don't get me wrong - it's not that I find this expensive....it's moreso that I don't know that I'm that interested in attending this event alone and paying this much for it. Are any of my single female friends living in the city of Chicago up for this? Do I have any single female friends living in the city of Chicago? I feel I could possibly walk away with some good blogging material....

Your thoughts? Anyone want to accompany me to speed dating? Anyone out there tried speed dating? Is speed dating worthwhile? Better/worse than online dating? (Editor's Sidenote: I hold George Costanza's view on dating/relationships. That sentence in and of itself oozes with problems. However, I've blogged about this before - George basically says if there's not a good meeting story, the relationship is shot to shit. I know plenty of happy people in happy relationships who can contradict him, however, I'm maintaining this view - for myself and my own life, at least - on this one.)

Noticeably Absent....

Anonymous.

Where have you been? Did the holiday season get the better of you? Is the year off to a rough start? There have not been many blogments...this saddens me. Did you make a resolution to only read high quality intellectual pieces on the internet, like Perez Hilton? Did my blog not make the cut? Was there some offensive material on my blog? Was there some offensive material on Emily's blog, and I was found guilty by association?

Please come back. I have never been good at 'getting people back' - if you will, I'm often times way too stubborn...but in this very special instance, anon, I want you to know there's a big fat olive branch with your name on it.

For Those Who Care....

I am back on the Sasha Cohen 2010 bandwagon. I honestly don't know how I briefly fell off for a moment there!!!

For Those Struggling with the Post-Holiday Lull....

Some things to celebrate:

January 8
National Clean-Off-Your-Desk Day

January 19
Idaho Human Rights Day (ID)

It Happened Again....

I was back in high school...AGAIN...I was a senior and I had to choreograph a dance for my high school orchesis (dance team) show. I was going through my ipod looking for the right song. Gosh, I feel so old, back when I was in high school, ipods hadn't even been invented!!!!! Eek! I guess this tradition of dreams of being back in high school is going to continue into the new year....

Relaxation....

So, once again, I have a coupon from my parents for a massage at a spa (very official looking - it has a snoopy sticker and everything). The past couple times I've gone for massages at Spa Space downtown. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I know they have often come up as a top rated spa in the Chicagoland area....

So, what shall I do? Shall I stick with a winner, or try something new? Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone else have a good massage experience in Chicago (or an experience to avoid)? Which are the best spas in Chicago? Anyone? Bueller? Any thoughts?

Happy New Year!!

Emily was using the horn to her advantage. Happy New Year all!!