They're HERE!!

Expect a lot of figure skating commentary to come (that I know most of my most loyal blog readers skip over, but whatever).

Trying Something New...

(When I say this, no, I don't mean blogging about something other than figure skating, facebook or my personal life.)

So, tomorrow, I am going to a workout class called 'the Bar Method' with Kat. Sidenote: you may or may not notice that Kat gets a LOT of action on the blogs, between Emily & myself. Another note: Kat's fiance, Brian, talks a lot about Emily & my blogs. However, he does not read/comment on said blogs - Brian, we're watching!!

Anyhow. I am excited to try something new. One of my goals is to be healthier/work out more - however, the cold weather/my lack of exercise equipment/lack of gym membership make this difficult.

The Bar Method is supposedly somewhat 'ballet' based for body sculpting. It's supposed to be painful/cause your muscles to burn. I can't wait!

Has anyone else out there tried Bar Method Chicago? Review to come.

The Purpose of Facebook

So, recently, one of my good friends did a facebook 'clean-up', in which he deleted a large quantity of friends - basically everyone he hasn't spoken to recently/was never close friends with. So, right now, he's down to, let's say, under 200 friends.

I find this to be an interesting concept. I know some other people who've done the same. I also thought about doing a friend cleanup (mainly deleting some people from college or friends of friends, or friend's exes whom I've met very briefly and never spoke to again) - however, my fear is that I'll suddenly randomly run into one of these people again and there'll be some awkward moment of one of use realizing the other is no longer a facebook friend and wondering what happened (oh, uh, someone hacked my account? yeah...).

Anyhow.

However, this gets me to thinking - what IS the purpose of facebook? For me, it's getting in touch with/keeping in touch with those who would have otherwise fallen off the face of this earth. I don't need facebook for my close friends I speak to somewhat regularly; I know what they're up to, where they work, what they look like. It's the people that I knew at some point but would now be completely out of touch with if it weren't for facebook that really give facebook its value, in my opinion. It's kind of like we use a dictionary for the five syllable words, not 'home' or 'food'.

In fact, if I stop to think about it now - there's a good thirty or so people who are acquaintances from high school or college who I have not seen/spoke to in person in at least four years, however, we regularly comment on each other's statuses & write on each other's wall, so I pretty much feel like I could say I am in touch with these people who would have otherwise been long gone. I am grateful these seemingly random people have trickled back into my life (via a social networking site).

Anyhow. What are your thoughts? Is the point of facebook to keep in touch with the long-gone, long-lost friends, or are these people clutter? Is the purpose of facebook moreso to keep in touch with those who are close? What's your take? Should one 'clean out' those who seem to have drifted away?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....

Emily is in Mexico over the next couple days, including the weekend! What am I EVER going to do? Who am I going to constantly email/text? Who am I going to go to a BYOB with this weekend? Who am I going to report my EVERY MOVE to?

This is devastating. I really honestly don't know what I'm going to do. The only remote consolation for this is Olympic figure skating coverage, but even THAT isn't enough.

While We're on the Subject of Dating and Singlehood....

It's coming soon....

Dun Dun Dun....

Sexism & Singlehood

Ok - so my nameless friend (and Marek) bring up the excellent point of sexism. This is, indeed, a sexist way of thinking.

Why is it that women are expected to pair up by a certain age, and viewed as a failure if they don't, while men aren't subjected to the same double-standard? (Note nameless's Clooney-Aniston comparison.) Why is it that men aren't advised 'marry her! she's good enough! she's the best you're ever gonna get!' (by anyone other than their mothers, that is....)? In fact, if a man seems to remain a bachelor for a while, then one day decides he should settle down, he's not criticized for having passed up a chance with a great girl but rather he's simply advised to 'date younger'.

That, and bringing up the movie analogy my good friend suggested (which I know I've blogged about before...). So why is it ALWAYS that we've got the hot girl and average joe paired up in movies?! I don't know why it bothers me so much, because I honestly don't view myself as a superficial person and I really can't say looks matter all that much to me, but it really really does. Well, in the reference my friend makes - Katherine Heigl & Seth Rogen in 'Knocked Up' - it's not as though Seth Rogen's character is average looking but the great humanitarian/family man on the fast track to success - according to my recollection, he's an unemployed pot smoker who enjoys watching porn on a daily basis.

I think my main annoyance with this subject is that I feel women are portayed as 'prizes' as opposed to equals in this ever recurring storyline. Here's a storyline I'd like to hear - Average Joe passes up the opportunity to be with some superhot leading lady for Average Jane with whom he has a lot in common and a strong emotional connection. It annoys me that it's completely socially acceptable for men to be blatantly superficial in picking a partner, however, if a woman rules out a man because she's not attracted to him/doesn't feel the chemistry, she is ripped apart.

Anyhow. I am not sure, necessarily, what I wanted to address in this post, but it seemed too long to simply be a comment. Is anyone else annoyed at the constant storyline of Average Joe getting the hot girl (whose role is simply being 'a hot girl')? Anyone else frustrated that women are criticized for being single? Can anyone think of some good examples/arguments I'm missing?

Snow

Why does the city of Chicago freak out every time it snows? Seriously, do we have short term memory? It does this EVERY year - multiple times. It'd be one thing if we were Florida or something like that - THEN maybe a 'ooh, there's going to be six inches of snow tomorrow, what are we going to do?!' would be in order, but to my knowledge - we have resources such as plows, salt, etc. (or at least we should) in preparation for such events. Although, maybe they were cut from the budget, in which case I'm the one talking crazy and we do have reason to panic. Anyhow. Is it just me who doesn't get the reason for the 'OMG SNOW!!!'?

Just Sayin'....

Rejection

Last night, I faced the ultimate form of rejection. My speed dating was CANCELED. Well, it was rescheduled because the organizer had the flu (or had to wash her hair. whatever).

Anyhow. It has been rescheduled for MARCH. Wtflock? That's a month away. What if it gets canceled/rescheduled AGAIN? Is this a scam? Did they just take my $28 and run? I was supposed to come back with all this good blogging material. Sigh. Maybe by the time speed dating actually happens, everyone who was signed up for the original session will be off married living in the burbs with 2.5 kids. Sigh.

Is this a sign? A good one or a bad one? Your thoughts?

Mr. Right or Mr. Good Enough?

So recently, a good friend relayed the following article.

Basically, it says, in short, that wise women settle for Mr. Good Enough. That the Sex and the City 'some are settling for nothing less than butterflies'/feminism movement have led women to have unrealistic expectations in men while time and the decent men (and chances of having a 'traditional family') slip away.

Now, I have a couple thoughts on this. I am all for being realistic. However, I am all for holding out mad/passionate/crazy love. There's some old quote 'don't wait for someone you can live with, wait for someone you can't live without', or something like that. Now, I am ALL about this way of thinking. However, might I mention that I honestly don't know if I ever want children, and, for that reason, I am not concerned about marrying by some certain time (if you listen carefully, you can hear my parents panicking in the background).

However. I realize there are a lot of women who feel differently. I've always personally thought that, if one's main priority is having babies, she should be looking more for a 'co-parent' as opposed to a lover (someone who shares beliefs on religion, what kind of life he wants to give the children, discipline, etc.) as opposed to someone with shared hobbies, a sense of humor, romance, passion, etc.

It's not necessarily that I think the latter group of qualities isn't as important; it's moreso that, kind of as this article implies, it's hard to find it all in one person. That, and someone who might be the ideal partner in terms of romance and companionship might not want the same things with respect to having a family/certain kind of life. If, say, one is in a relationship with someone she is crazy about, but said person has a conflict of interest (such as not wanting to get married or not wanting children), should one move on and try to find someone who can give her what she wants and risk losing the passion?

That, and sometimes, we all find someone who has all the qualities we want - and then that person is not so crazy about us. I've always vowed that if I couldn't have both, I'd rather have someone I was really crazy about than someone who was really crazy about me. However, realistically speaking, as an adult, I don't think I could be with someone who wasn't crazy about me.

However, I guess the short of it is I think it's really hard to find someone we're crazy about who wants the same kind of life and has the same values who is also crazy about us. It's really hard to find the total package - should we keep holding out for it? Do we need to be more realistic about people and love? As this author states, we cannot expect a complete and total fairytale - we are dealing with other human beings, and the better part of this pool of human beings begin to get taken as we continue to hold out for perfection. However, I am a firm believer that once one settles, he/she gets even less than he/she settles for. So, I dunno if it's ever a good omen if one goes into a marriage feeling he/she is settling.

Anyhow. Your thoughts? Should women (or people in general) settle for 'good enough' when it comes to marriage? Is it settling, or is it being realistic? Have women's standards become too high?

No Soup for You?

So yesterday, for the first time, I made homemade soup (recipe courtesy of Becky, aka Thyme for Wine). Mmm. I did a fantastic job, if I do say so myself. Martha Stewart, move over.

My only complaint about this recipe is that it didn't have any wine in it. I'm all about cooking with wine; sometimes I even use it in the recipe.

Back to This Subject

Remember that whole ordeal of 'if you're caught by the cameras going one single solitary mile over 45 in a construction zone, you'll be mailed a $375 fine on your first offense, a $1000 on your second'? Did this actually happen? Did anyone out there actually get the dreaded ticket, or know someone who did? Was this just an empty threat? I ask this because, every time I drive through said zone, NO ONE seems to have slowed down 45, or even close to it. So, either hundreds of these offenses are ticketed daily, or none are and it was all an empty threat to get people driving safer (which didn't work). Your thoughts? Anyone know someone who got a ticket?