Faking it seems to be the way many of us cope with people and events in our life. For example, we smile at the co-worker we really want to punch in the face, or pretend to like our best friends cat loving boyfriend when we meet him for the first time. And how many times have we all eaten a meal cooked for us by someone we love that we really hated, but said it was great anyway? Women are natural people pleasers and we learn the art of plastering a smile on our face, and being nice to everyone no matter how we feel about them. We are constantly told to be polite, kind and sweet because that’s how a proper lady behaves. While I do not feel we should go around punching annoying co-workers, or screaming our way through life, I do feel we need to breakdown the notion of being polite no matter what just so that others will like us. Continue reading
Tag: single life
My Month of Dating Online
Online dating has taken over every one’s life in some form or another right? Whether its your old high school crush reaching out to you on Facebook, a cutie pie sending you a direct message on Twitter, or joining a specific online dating site, this seems to be the primary way people are meeting one another these days. So, I decided I would try it out for myself and see how it goes. Let me state that a few years ago a guy that had a crush on me in high school did find me on Facebook and we dated, and quickly fell in love to which I got scared, and did my usual ‘Let me push him away and run as fast as I can for that long winding road that leads out of town’ and we subsequently broke up. The adventures I had in the past month online dating were something totally different.
I decided to test the online waters gently at first and began direct messaging with a Twitter friend. Of course I will not say his name, and he is also well known so I really won’t give to much info about him. Me and Twitter friend started direct messaging each other and having polite conversation, and I decided to be bold and give him my number. Yup, I just threw it out there and homeboy hadn’t even asked for it! We began texting right away and here’s just a snippet of one conversation:
Does Watching Porn Hurt or Help Your Relationship?
Porn can have many effects on your relationship: It can be a teaching tool, it can be a mood enhancer, it can be an inhibition breaker, it can be fun, erotic, and sexy. But porn can also put you or your partner in a perpetual state of fantasy. You may began to compare your lover to the men and women in these movies. At times you may even form an attachment to an actor and think this is how your man/woman should behave when you are intimate. At its worse porn can become an addiction. My ex hid a porn addiction that I thankfully found out about. He would spend hours on the computer with the door closed, and he actually chose porn over being intimate with me. Here is the thing…I was not upset with him for watching it, I was upset with the addiction he formed to it. Continue reading
The Guy That Only Gave Me Used Gifts
There is something to be said about a man (or woman) who will give you gifts as a way of showing you that they care about, or love you. Let me preface that I in no way feel gifts are the way to a woman’s heart, because I’d rather travel together then receive a diamond bracelet. No, seriously I have a diamond bracelet and don’t need another one. Let’s take that money and fly off the grid and just lay on the beach all day. And if a man does choose to buy me a gift; I am more of an collection of books by my favorite authors, vintage dress, or art piece type of girl, but I digress. In one of my previous relationships I met a man who literally only bought me used gifts.
It was a relationship that started and moved pretty quickly. I have written about him before (see the Break-Up Text edition) and we dated for two years, and lived together for the last year of our relationship. We met in August and became a couple in September…Yup, that fast. By the time December rolled around I wasn’t expecting anything major, and had been looking for a new beach cruiser for myself online. Well he saw this and pretty much hinted at him buying me that for Christmas so I was super excited! Christmas Eve came and we exchanged gifts. I had gotten him digital camera, and excitedly awaited to see my new-and pink-beach cruiser. He handed me a little white box in a Tiffany bag and my heart literally sank.
Most women would see this and squeal for joy, but as I said I am just not that type of girl which I expressed to him, and thought he understood. Anyway I open the box and there is a silver heart shaped bracelet. Of course I thought-and still do-it was beautiful and genuinely liked the gift he gave me. I proudly wore it to my parents and grandparents houses the next day and showed it off. But I also wondered how he decided upon the gift since in all honesty he was very stingy…okay he was cheap as hell! Turns out his friends girlfriend worked at the store and bought it on discount. That my friends was gift number one, and the only new gift he gave me. Continue reading
How First Date Sex Can Screw You Over
First date sex can either be really great, super awkward or the only time this action happens with the person you are doing it with. Really great first date sex is just that…really great and may even turn into a few more dates that conclude in more great sex. Then there is super awkward first date sex that you do when you’re trying to get over an ex, or do because you really thought the guy/girl you met and talked to all night in the darkly lit bar was super cute, and the future love of your life. So, you get to their house and have awkward-you’re-not-as-hot-as-I-thought-you-were-but-I’m-here-so-let’s-just-do-this-kind-of-sex.
Then, there is the most repeated scenario these days: the one night stand sex, and you will either leave in the middle of the night, or fall asleep and escape at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. Why is it that waking up at 6:00 a.m. for work is literally the worst/hardest thing to do, but when escaping a one night stand, is the easiest action to accomplish and you didn’t even have your alarm set.?
My friend came into my office and we had a first date sex debate. She stated, “I never give it up on the first date. I make them work for it…at least six months!” To which I replied, “Honey he can dump you after the first date, or just as easily six months later.” Here is my issue with first date sex: It can ruin everything! Okay that was super dramatic, but I have made the first date sex mistake a few times in my dating life, and I have come to the conclusion that it can speed up (an often one-sided) emotional attachment without an emotional attachment. The one-sided attachment formed is usually on behalf of us women, because once we surrender our body to someone we do form an emotional attachment to them whether we intended to or not. Continue reading
Being the “In-Between Girl” Sucks
So, let’s say you meet a great guy online, or at a bar. You go on dates, talk on the phone, he introduces you to his friends and vice-versa. You are sleeping together and spending most of your time together, may even spend a holiday or birthday together, but he has yet to refer to you as his girlfriend, or fully commit to being in a relationship with you. Now you as a woman say to yourself, ‘Self this is okay…you’ve met his friends, he took you to dinner for your birthday, and you spend your weekends with him…you are his girlfriend, you don’t need a title.’ Really? You don’t need a title? Everyone has a title honey. Your boss is your boss, your best friend is your best friend, your mom is your mom, and your boyfriend is in fact…your boyfriend.
Why I Don’t Really Love Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching and according to every single commercial, and retail store you must celebrate it. What are the exact origins of Valentine’s Day anyway? Well kids, I did my research a’la Google and honestly, there is no definitive answer. There was said to be a Bishop named St. Valentine who secretly married people (around 270 AD) when it had been banned by some dude named Claudius as he saw married men as being to weak, and therefore unable to fight as soldiers in war. Although there is no solid proof of this, and it is said that St. Valentine signed a note he wrote to his lover “From Your Valentine”.
When I was a kid I obsessed over buying the cutest Valentines from the store. Why? Because we all had that handmade card holder attached to the front of our desk at school for people to drop their Valentines Day cards and treats for us into. I would really, really, stress about how many cards or treats I would get, and who would give me one. Just think of Charlie Brown with his briefcase in class on Valentine’s Day…ummm…yeah that was me..kinda…well a lot. I put all of my hopes on this one day.
There is something about Valentine’s Day that drives women into a frenzy of emotions. There is the bitter girl, the angry girl, the ‘I don’t need a man anyway’ girl, the over emotional girl, and the ‘I’m in love with love’ girl. Which one are you? I think on some level I may have been everyone of these girls at different points in my love life. There were the high school years of pure naivety when I thought the girls who had huge flowers bouquets, candy-grams, or dates for Valentine’s were the luckiest and prettiest girls. Then came the college years when I had my string of heartbreaks and thus can care less about Valentine’s Day.
5 Signs He’s Not Over His Ex
Dating someone new is fun, scary, nerve-racking and mysterious all at the same time. It’s fun to be excited about a new person in your life. It’s also scary to let your guard down and be vulnerable, and I don’t know about you, but I love it when a new special someone gives me butterflies in my stomach. Well, then there is the mysterious part…Most times we are so busy enjoying the newness, butterflies, rainbows and unicorns that have suddenly appeared in our lives along with this new person, that we may not notice some other issues. One major issue I have dealt with in relationships past: Is he really over his Ex?
An ex-boyfriend of mine owned a cat. Let’s just say that besides being deathly allergic to them…I just do not like them in general. Yeah, okay, some of you may have just gotten pissed off, but hey I like dogs, don’t judge me! But I digress…So, my ex had a cat and one night my throat closed up and I could barely breathe from said cat, so he promised to vacuum and keep the cat in another room anytime I came over. While I did not like the whole ‘guy with a cat’ thing, I did really like him and I tried to deal with the cat.
One night while discussing our pasts he tells me that the cat is actually his ex-girlfriends cat that he inherited. Here’s my issue with this scenario…okay well here is my second or third issue with this scenario. Firefighter (did I forget to mention that we will be referring to him as firefighter? Sorry, we will be calling him firefighter because as you all know I don’t use names unless I have been given permission.) really, really, loved his cat. But I wanted firefighter to really, really love me, and every time I looked at that cat I saw the life he had before me with someone else. Continue reading
Am I Too Independent?
The other day while literally staring off into space I think I had a epiphany…Really am I being that dramatic in the opening line of this post? Yes, I am. Here’s the thing…I was thinking back to all of my relationships past and the one recurring theme, or should I say issue that has been brought up with me is that I am too independent. This was very prevalent in my last relationship I was in. And thinking back my independence has distanced men from me my entire life. When I was younger my dad wished I were more dependent all the time. As an adult he told me that my independence actually bothered him as he had constantly complained to my mom that he wished I would come to him, or them when I had a problem.
I had my first real boyfriend at age 18 during my Senior year of high school and he had serious issues with my independence. I distinctly remember him getting mad at me because I wouldn’t let him wash my car for me, and wanted to do it myself. Sounds really trivial right? Why wouldn’t I just let him do it? Maybe because it was MY car and I worked my butt off getting good grades, and not getting in trouble so my parents would even get it for me. Maybe because I felt that the car was MY responsibility and I should be the one to take care of it. And maybe I just wanted him to know that I could take care of my car, and myself, and felt a need to prove it to him for some reason.
As a kid I was bullied and tormented by my classmates and even some teachers. I never once told my parents. It started in the first grade and unlike any other kid who would share what was going on with their parents, I felt that I needed to deal with my problems myself and not burden my parents, or have my parents “save” me. But where this feeling came from I have no idea. As I got older and as the bullying, gossip and my classmates torture became worse, I closed up even more. I only went to my parents once, because I got in trouble at school for finally fighting back, and they were called. I felt showing them and anyone else that I could not handle my own situations myself showed weakness, and I never want to be weak. Continue reading
Listening to Your Friends Can Keep You Single
If I read one more tweet about how relationships are supposed to be easy, or how if a man really loves you he’ll never make you cry, or that arguing leads to the demise of a relationship I am going to lose it! Seriously who the hell came up with these naive and dare I say idiotic rules for relationships? I know who did…your friends, and their friends, and their friends, and so on. Yes, that’s right listening to our friends-or strangers who we call friends on Twitter or Facebook-can literally lead to you being dumped, cheated on, forgotten about, or avoided by the one you adore
Think about this…how often do we look to others for advice or direction on what to do in our relationships? How many times have you called up your girlfriends to tell them what your boyfriend did? And ladies we are not the only guilty parties in the bad advice pyramid scheme…Men are just as bad! And yes I referred to bad relationship advice as a pyramid scheme, because to me, it is!
Here is how the pyramid developed: There was this one man or woman who decided they had all the answers, so they went to their friends and told them all of the “answers” to life, which evolved into those answer loving recipients to continue spreading out the answers to life all over town, which eventually ended up being told to your mom or dad, who told them to your big brother or sister, who told them to you, and you tell them to your friends. See…see how easy it is to ride down the slippery pyramid scheme slope?
I am just as guilty of this as well. I remember going to someone for advice on every little aspect of my relationship with the Baseball Player. He and I fell for each other quick and hard. And instead of admitting that to one another, I discussed us with my advice giver, and he discussed us with his best friend who I’ll refer to as The Weasel. Oh yeah I said it…he was a weasel. Anyway the weasel had just gone through a bad break-up and the Baseball Player and I were doing so well that he had a typical case of jealousy and did everything in his power to tear us apart. Continue reading
My Live-In boyfriend Dumped Me Over Text
D and I met at a time where I just began to exert my feminism and independence with confidence in my life. I had just moved into my first apartment-by myself-and returned to school. I felt amazing, beautiful, smart and accomplished. I also had absolutely no desire to be in a relationship or need to meet someone new, and I meet this D a few weeks later. Yes, weeks…four weeks to be exact.
I was not attracted to him physically, but after our first phone conversation, which can I just add, lasted four hours…I figured saying yes to him asking me out would not hurt. He told me he was part French and could help me with my French as I was studying the language in hopes of taking a backpacking trip there. He also liked the same type of music I liked, and was eager to explore LA, and try foods from all of the restaurants I told him I loved.
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Why I Choose to Live My Life Childfree for Now
I like shoes, I like to buy them, wear them, and match them up with my moods and outfits. I love to travel, eat out, and get up and go whenever I want. I love to spend my money how I please, spend time with my family and friends, and I love kids, but…here is the kicker…I do not want to have any. I am 32yrs old and have no inkling whatsoever to have a baby. The funny thing is people either do not believe me, tell me I just haven’t found the right person, or think I do not like kids.
My Date with the Jokester Part II
I tried….I really did, but Mr. I think I’m a comedian, lost me, and it only took one date and a few text conversations later to do so. So how in fact did Mr. Comedian lose me in just one date? Here’s how:
1) Showing up a half hour late and not calling or texting to tell me: Mr. Comedian is the first guy since high school to show up so late for a date, but here’s the difference. In high school cell phones were just gaining popularity-well for my generation anyway-and we still used pagers. Now in 2012 the age of the cell phone, there is literally NO excuse for not calling or at least texting a woman to tell her you’ll be late for a date…especially your first one!
2) Using the date as a one-man show performance: Mr. Comedian did exactly that! Placing the spotlight completely on himself in a very obnoxious way by turning every topic, or situation into a joke. As I said in my earlier post I love to laugh and be with a man who is funny, but when everything is a joke, or being made fun of how do I know when to ever take you seriously? And can we just turn it down a tad bit on the first date please?
My Date with the Jokester
My date thinks he’s a comedian. At least that’s how he acted. I felt as though I was his personal audience of one, and I did not know how to react to the perpetual spotlight he seemed to have carried around with him, along with his mic of course. The thing is we have had many phone and-of course in this day and age-text conversations and while he throws in jokes here and there, they are actually funny. What can I say he gives good phone!
When we were out I expected to get to know the real him…no I actually hoped to get to the root of him, you know the meat, the insides, and see what was underneath the joking exterior layer he has presented to me since I met him over two months ago.
With this expectation in mind I agreed to our first date Friday night. We went the usual route and had dinner at my favorite Italian eatery (Al Fornaio) if you have not tried it, I suggest you do so immediately, but I digress. And followed dinner with a PinkBerry run and a movie. Pretty normal date activity, but there was something off, something that I could not quite understand about my date. He showed up late and did not call or text to say he’d be late.
Honestly, I was not ready at our decided time, so I did not mind him being late, but it would have been nice if he would have acknowledged he was late, and at least apologized for it. Instead he made a joke about it. That was Joke #1. When he saw me he stated something to the effect like, “Oh I didn’t know this date was so formal…look at you all fancy!” That was Joke #2. Here’s my question…why not just say, “You look great.” Instead of making it into some weird self conscious thing?
In the car on the way to the restaurant he continued with the jokes about helicopters and jogging suits and any other random thing he could think of interjecting into the conversation…we’ll just label those Jokes #4-#10 for the sake of this post. At the restaurant he seemed to have let his spotlight dim a bit, which I was very happy about, and we had conversation about all the regular first date subjects you tackle.
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