A Brief Recap of Season 9 of SYTYCD

My favorite dancer is still Allison.

Anheuser Busch

I figured I'd have an educational, historical experience whilst in St. Louis for a good friend's wedding.

I was told that they have a rigorous quality control test at the Anheuser Busch facility.  In the instance some of their beer does not meet their standards, they simply 'send it up to Milwaukee'.

Ground Zero

These are the new buildings from the World Trade Center site.  America - we might get knocked down but we can sure get back up again!

Salary Requirements For Dating

So, as my readers know, I occasionally do some online dating.  Yadda.

I am currently a member with an active profile of, ahem, two major sites, however, I have hardly been active lately.  Yawn.  I hate dating.

Anyhow.  I was browsing through some older 'gentlemen' (not sugar daddies, keep your mind in a good place) - older than me, if you will.  Let's say the 35-40ish range.

I noticed a recurring pattern.  On one of the websites, men can check off boxes preferring certain salary ranges (women can too).  In my experience viewing profiles of these 'older' gentlemen (who probably wouldn't enjoy such a label) - often times they put a minimum salary requirement.

This begs a lot of questions.  As usual.  Do women often put a salary requirement?  How do men perceive it when women do?  Is there a difference here between the genders?  When men say they only want a woman who is 'slim and slender', it rubs me the wrong way on behalf of women, if you will.  I would think men might see it the same way when women post that they need 100k+.  In online dating profiles, are women wise enough to not 'show their cards' on this one?

I am not sure I really care much either way about men expressing this requirement.  I can understand that maybe these men are advanced in their careers and either a) want someone else who is invested in her career or b) are used to living a certain lifestyle of traveling and going out and want someone who can keep up with it or c) don't want to have to support someone financially and want to be up front about it, and ultimately, this salary minimum is their way of conveying that in their profile.  However, I must say, I saw at least several profiles that set the bar pretty high.  I consider myself a financially independent adult who lives a good quality of life, and, well, I would have been 'weeded out' by their minimum.

What are your thoughts re:online dating and being upfront about a salary minimum?  Should one be upfront about his or her preferences?  Are men of all ages concerned about their future mates' salary, or is it more specific to the 35+ crowd?  Has anyone else noticed this trend?

Time for a Seinfeld Quote

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

This weekend, there will be some Jaime public speaking.  If there's public documentation and it's not too horrible, I'll provide it afterward.  When I was younger, I would have TOTALLY freaked out about something like this.  Now, at this older, wiser, more confident place - I'm only quasi-freaking out.

Shoe Time!

Hello, lover!

I got these shoes at Zigi in New York.  Well, I'm saying 'these shoes', but there's only one in the picture.  You can safely assume he has a counterpart.  They are oxford style shoes, which are apparently big for fall.

This brings me to a point, which I'll get more into later - everything old is new again.  Isn't it crazy how fashion cycles like the seasons?  Oxford shoes are popular, flare jeans seem to have gone out of style, again, and skinny jeans are the thing now, like they were around a decade or so ago?  It makes me think I should never give anything away.  It'll just come back in style and have that extra 'vintage' glow.

I am also looking for a version of this baby in black & white.  Please advise if you know where I can find this future friend.

A Little Fourth Grade Humor....

An intersection in NYC.  For no particular reason.  No big deal.

In the Words of Betty White

"Facebook just sounds like a drag.  In my day, seeing pictures of people's vacations was considered punishment." ~ Betty White whilst hosting SNL

I've been out of town for two weeks.  Get ready to be punished!

Upcoming Travel

So, this is out of character for me, but in the next six weeks, I have FOUR (!!!) trips coming up.  I am super stoked.  One of them will be to San Francisco.

I will be there on my own over a weekend.  I'm a little weirded out about the idea of traveling alone, but it just so happened this way and I'm super pumped to see San Fran.  I'm now taking any/all suggestions on what to see and do while I'm there.  I'll probably do Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, and, of course....

The Full House House.  Duh.  Like there are other choices.  #1 priority.

Any other recs, dear readers?

Olympics

So, I recently spent a lot of time watching the Olympics.  I am going to do my best to not use this as an excuse as to why I haven't been blogging (seeing that it wasn't simply at 16 day hiatus).

Anyhow.  I really love the olympics.  I don't know why I like them so much.  I even like watching sports that I would normally have no interest in watching if it were ANY OTHER COMPETITION.  It's almost a branding issue.  It's THE OLYMPICS!  I'll watch competitive paint drying, for goodness sake!

Regardless.  There's one thing that's hard to deal with in the Olympics.  The thought of the heartbreak.  All those who've worked so hard the previous four years (or their whole lives) who don't make the team.  Or make the team but then have a bad meet the day of competition.  Or those who are injured at just the wrong moment.  I feel for these peeps.  For everyone who wins, there are ton who end up unsatisfied.  Sigh.

Anyhow.  I am secretly glad to have several hours of my day and my weekends back.  Till the next four years!

Come Back, Ellen!

One of my very good friends, Ellen, just left the United States to go teach in Korea for a year.  I cannot believe it will be a whole entire year before I see her again.  I am sad.  I am supportive.  But I am sad.  We have really connected over the past two years.

Ellen will point out here that I can come visit her in Korea.  If anyone would like to donate to the 'send Jaime to Korea' fund, please contact me directly.

Struggling Blogger

So, as my (now few) loyal readers might have noticed, this blog is struggling.  Or perhaps, this blogger is struggling.  There has not been much posting lately.  This problem has been a bit consistent over time.

I'd like to blame life having gotten busy (which is true), but a) I have always been somewhat busy and b) we always cover our priorities.

Another issue that comes to mind is that I've been struggling to find material.  Some topics I used to write about I've lost interest in (politics), others I feel I've exhausted (dating).

It's not that this blog isn't a priority to me, and it's not that I don't care about it any more.  The best thing I can say to explain this situation is it's as if my blog and I are an old married couple that have hit a rough patch.  I still love my blog.  I still want it to continue.  But for some reason, the feeling I once had for it - the excitement - seems to be lost.

I would like to continue my relationship with my blog.  I hope to get it back.  An honest question, other bloggers - have you struggled in such a way?  What did you do to combat it?  Did you abandon ship/blogging?  I am not sure the average shelf-life of a blog, but I know it is probably shorter than this blog has lasted. Did you come back from a rough patch?  Your thoughts?