The awkwardness of running into someone you dated

Two weekends ago I agreed to be the designated driver for the Racine, WI beer festival.  CP and I headed up with some of his work friends and one of their wives.  I saw a total of two other pregnant women there and it just felt weird to be there (even though I was clearly drinking only water the whole day).  

For anyone who hasn't been to a beer festival, it is vitally important to make and wear a pretzel necklace (something that we learned by going to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver).  Not only are pretzels good for snacking on during the festival but they are a good palate-cleanser.  I wore a necklace, but realized early on that it was too hot and sunny to eat too many lest I get too swollen from the salt!!  People can go all out when making the necklaces and it is possible to get pretzel envy when faced with a necklace full of really large pretzels.  This guy took the biggest pretzel prize of the day though- our whole group had pretzel necklace envy!!

In my mind, this was the best beer brand name of the day.  CP and the rest of the crew even said that the beer was pretty good (although it was at least an hour into the festival so they may not have been tasting too much at that point!).

Funny story from the end of the festival.  There was a brass band that walked around the festival and was fairly good.  My feet got tired towards the end of the festival, so I sat down while CP went to the porta potty and others got their last beer.  One of the guys from the band came up to me and said, "Is your name Non Sequitur Chica?  Hey, it's Dave."  I immediately thought, "oh sh*t this is going to be awkward."  

You see, Dave and I went on a couple of dates when I lived in Chicago the year before I moved out west for law school. He was a nice enough guy and frankly, I was sort of bored.  I didn't date a lot that year, partly because I was out all of the time with friends having too much fun to date.  But I was still trying to get over this guy whose phone calls had started up again, so I thought, why not?  We went out on a couple of dates, but while talking to a friend one day that also knew him, I realized that I was not excited in the least bit to go on our date that night.  That's when I knew that I had to break it off.  I felt bad because he was surprised, but it was also sort of awkward because it's hard to tell someone that while they are nice enough, you just aren't that into them (plus I am super awkward with these types of conversations).  

Here I thought that I would never see the guy again and now almost 8 years later he comes up to me at the beer festival while I am clearly pregnant.  We started to make small talk when of course CP comes back from the bathroom.  One of his work friends jokes that some stranger is hitting on his pregnant wife and I just thought, this is going to go downhill.  Since I was completely sober, I thought it might be a good idea to gracefully end the conversation with Dave and instead get back to CP because he was starting to make loud jokes behind me (ahhhhh drunk husbands).  

(Before anyone freaks out, CP is NOT a hugely jealous guy but it's always hard to think completely straight when you are drunk.  Plus I don't mind him being a little protective of me.  :-)  )

We started to walk out of the festival and CP asked who the guy was.  I told him that Dave was someone that I went on a couple of dates with when I last lived in Chicago.  He wasn't extremely excited about that, but ummm, obviously I am married to YOU and I'm PREGNANT with your child so you have nothing to worry about.  LOL.  

Mostly I just felt bad for CP.  This is now the THIRD guy that I dated before meeting him that we have randomly run into.  The first two were out west- one at an NFL game (seriously?  The stadium holds THOUSANDS of people and I run into one of the two guys I dated before CP?) and one at a grocery store (I ran away from this encounter instead of talking to the guy- YES I AM 13).  Thankfully we have never run into my long term boyfriend from college or the guy from the link above that would continue to call me despite knowing that I had started to date CP.  Especially meeting the latter guy?  Might not go so well.

Have you ever run into someone you dated with your spouse right next to you?  

Big day today

Today is the big day.  Tonight I FINALLY get to start sticking myself with needles- that's right I start my daily Lupron shots!  I'm part excited to GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD and part nervous.  You see, my clinic doesn't bring me in for a class or instructions on how to give yourself these shots.  They give you a link to videos on the internet (which don't play on my iPad or iPhone) and tell you to call with any questions.  I get that this clinic is very busy with a large number of patients but they really don't have 15 minutes to spare to show me how to do this????  

I have always been fearful of giving myself injections. I'm not sure what this stems from.  I have good veins and have no problems giving blood and/or getting vaccinated so I don't have a problem with other people using needles on me....I just have a problem using them on myself.  (I could never have become a heroin addict.)  I do have a funny story about my fear of giving myself an injection though.

When I was in law school I was ecstatic to find out that I could go abroad for the summer to take classes.  I never got the chance to study abroad in college because I played two Division 1 sports, so this news made me very happy.  I researched a bunch of programs, including one to St. Petersburg, Russia, but ended up choosing Buenos Aires, Argentina.  I could work on my Spanish, take two classes, and enjoy the summer in a foreign country.  In addition, the study abroad fee included a plane trip to Iguazu Falls!

Cataracus.  Sadly the first day was cloudy and rainy.

Thankfully the next day was beautiful!  This is Devil's Throat.

Part of Cataracus on the second day. 

As you can see from the pictures, Iguazu Falls is absolutely amazing.  Part of our trip there included a zip lining tour through the rain forest.  I was really excited while others on the trip were nervous about the heights.  I got out my camera and filmed my zip through the rain forest.  But I started to get turned around on one of the lines and headed with my back towards the platform.  I freaked out and did the worst thing possible- I reached up to where the zip line met the wheel in hopes of turning myself around.  TO THIS DAY I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I DID THIS.  Unfortunately, two of my fingers on my left hand got run over through the glove.

After we finished zip lining, my fingers still hurt a bunch so I took off my glove and sure enough, my fingers were bloody.  I didn't think too much of it, just rinsed them off with some water, however, the blood soaked through every bandaid the guides gave me and my fingers were pulsing and getting swollen.  It was suggested I head to the hospital.  Now when I say hospital, I mean a small building in the middle of a rainforest.  I sh*t you not, the instruments that they used on me were held in a FISHING TACKLE BOX.  I was pretty sure that my fingers were going to fall off at this point from an infection.  After we left the hospital we headed over to the pharmacy.  This trip was early on in the summer, so my Spanish was still VERY rusty.  I had a law school professor who put together the trip and a guide who accompanied me.  Both of them spoke fluent English and Spanish.  

When we arrived at the pharmacy, the person working behind the counter looked all of 13.  She was talking pretty quickly in Spanish and I wasn't catching all of it.  What I thought she was saying was that I was going to have to give myself a tetanus shot IN MY BUTT all by myself.  I started crying thinking "I don't know how to do that!  Don't you have to flick the needle to get out the air bubbles?  That's what they do on tv!  I'm going to kill myself with an air bubble!!"  Thankfully a few minutes later the professor realized that I didn't catch what the girl was saying and clarified that I wouldn't have to give it to myself, but that the 13 year old girl would.  I was incredulous that she knew how to do it (she claimed that she had been to school for it).  But I headed to a back room with her, she gave me the tetanus shot, and I still have my fingers.

I'm sure that I will be thinking of that story tonight as I give myself my very own shot.  :-)

Any tips ladies?

Magic Mike

Last Friday a couple friends and I went to see the movie Magic Mike.  When I first read an article about the movie, I thought to myself, “why in the world would anyone want to see that movie???”  Then I read a few more articles and heard that the movie actually had a plot PLUS gyrating men.  Why not check it out after a few drinks?

The movie was actually pretty good.  Channing Tatum is HOT and so is Joe Manganiello (also in True Blood).  The “skits” that they do onstage brought me back to many a bachelorette party.

My friend’s bachelorette party right after college was my first time going to a male strip show.  The night before my long-term college boyfriend and I got into a huge fight where he accused me of cheating (something I have never done to any boyfriend) and we broke up.*  The break up was traumatic for a night, and then I quickly got over it because I had been ready to break up with him for a while.  So the next night we headed into Philly to go to The Cave.**  We had a fantastic time at the show and then headed over to a nearby night club to go dancing.  Little did I know, one of the male strippers followed us to the club in order to find me and ask for my number.  And ummm I had been drinking a bunch at that point, but he was HOT and had a fantastic body (his day job- personal trainer).

I ended up dancing with him all night and gave him my number (!) not thinking about it until the next day.  Sure enough a few days later he calls and wants to go out on a date.  Ha!  I think that we ended up talking for a while, but I was cagey about getting together.  I mean, sure it is fun to say that a stripper wanted to go on a date with you, but actually going on a date with a stripper was just not for me.

Do you have any funny stripper stories?  Have you seen Magic Mike or do you plan on seeing the movie?

*I think that he was feeling guilty because he flirted and/or hooked up with a girl earlier that week, had been drinking, and wanted to blame me for something.  Two weeks after we broke up they started dating and within a few months she was pregnant!

**If you are in the Philly area I would HIGHLY recommend this place for a birthday or bachelorette party.

Halloween Ideas

Every year I enjoy the candy from Halloween, but not the actual holiday. This is due to the fact that I never have a good costume. CP and I haven’t celebrated Halloween in a few years now- mainly because he hates getting dressed up for the holiday. This year CP and I have two parties to attend where we have to wear costumes.

Here is where you come in- help me find a costume.

I DON'T use the holiday to dress like a slut, I DO use the holiday to be funny.

For a couple years in a row in college (because I didn’t have any money) I would wear a brown t-shirt and pants, a halo, and a pair of wings. My costume? Holy sh*t. It was, in fact, hilarious because as soon as people got drunk, they would scream across the room “Holy sh*t!” all night long. But I have used that costume too many times.

One year in college I dressed in green and taped fake leaves to my body and wore a fake green leave crown. I was Jolly Green Giant and my best friend J (dressed the same way but 6 inches shorter) was Sprout.

I have been looking online for DIY funny Halloween costumes but thought that all of you creative types out there have some good ideas. I’m looking for something that I can put together myself….not too expensively. Do you guys have any suggestions?

Looking back...

It's so funny to think that just three years ago I was freaking out about my life and what I was going to do. In 2008, I flew out to DC for a job fair and had high hopes. At the end of two days I had two job offers- but both of them were located in parts of the country where I wasn't willing to move. Prior to the job fair, CP and I had picked a couple of states where we were willing to move, but the best one for him and his job was going to be MA. Because he was the one with the job and I was still searching, that became the state we were planning on moving to after I graduated law school.

The night before the third day of the job fair, with two job offers in my hand but no intention of taking either of them unless they were moved to MA, I freaked out while having dinner with two of my friends from college. CP and I were not engaged so was I making a mistake moving for him? I didn't want to be "that girl" that moved for her boyfriend thinking and hoping that he was going to propose and then have something happen to our relationship. Was I going to miss out on this fantastic job opportunity because of love? A logical girl like me doesn't do something like that. But I couldn't imagine NOT moving with him.

The weekend after the job fair I flew out to Puerto Rico where CP was working. He hadn't been home to our place on the west coast in two weeks because by the time he flew home, he would basically have to get on another flight back to the island. I was still plagued with worry over missing out on a great job because I was moving with him. We went out to a nice dinner...and fought about our future. I wanted him to propose or at least give me some indication that we would be married at some point, he argued that he doesn't plan his life like that and that he hadn't gone anywhere in two and half years- what made me think that he would end the relationship just because we moved? Reassuring words from your boyfriend when you are completely freaking out. (ha)

While sometimes I am excited about change, other uncertainties make me very anxious. Moving across the country for my boyfriend made me very anxious.

Going back to the scene of the job fair this past Wednesday brought back all of those anxious memories. It's funny to think of it now because I ended up finding a job. We ended up moving to NH for me to study for the bar, and then to MA once I was done. CP did end up proposing (and has said that the night that we fought in the restaurant was the first night that he really started to think about proposing) and we obviously got married.

So while things in my personal life have stabilized (other than the 4% thing obviously), my job situation is right back to causing me anxiety. It has been for a while but I just didn't want to acknowledge it. Now I just have to figure out what to do about it.....

Blood drive

Last night I headed to a blood drive to donate my blood. Not only is a great way to lose a pound (too bad it comes back), but my blood could help save a life! Hopefully I never need someone else's blood, but you never know.

Because of the snow/ bad weather, the Red Cross is having problems getting enough donations this winter. There were a few of us in the room that were donating after work, but I was hoping to see more people.

In law school I always used to try to get classmates to sign up for blood drives…the number one reason people said they didn’t sign up was because they were afraid of needles. I’ll admit, I’m not a HUGE fan of needles, but giving blood doesn’t bother me. Maybe it is because my mom used to take me and my sister to blood drives? Seeing her eat red meat before appointments (she is borderline anemic and sometimes is turned away because she doesn’t have enough iron in her system) and then calmly give blood was just something she did. So to me it is perfectly natural to sit down and have people take blood out of my body.

So as soon as I was old enough to give blood in high school, I signed up. I haven’t always made the smartest choices after giving blood. One blood drive in high school was a few hours before a track meet. I almost passed out after my 200 meter race. Whoops! Nowadays, I give blood and then I wait 12 hours to exercise. :-)

As usual, last night I “competed” against the other donors to make sure that I filled my bag the fastest. Even faster than some people that started before me! Go me?!? My competitive streak is a sickness, a sickness I tell you. I mean, who “competes” to bleed faster than other people in the room???? (The person helping me said that if you drink a lot of water, you donate faster. I do drink a lot of water….)

Do you give blood?

10 years of changes

It’s amazing how something can change so much in 10 years. This past weekend CP and I went down to our alma mater for my 10 year reunion (we didn’t go to his 10 year last year). As we were driving down, we told each other stories about our time at school. We both had very different experiences- which is probably why we never met each other back then!

After we arrived Friday night we met up with J and another friend who drove up from DC. They allowed me to drag them to a track and field party held at a new local bar. I was the oldest alum to show up but got to say hi to my head coach and my former throws coach. It was great seeing former teammates, although there were A LOT of people there that were too young for me to know. CP and my friends were nice enough to allow me to run around the room saying hi and talking to people before we left and went to our favorite bar from college.

When we arrived we were shocked. The bar was half-full with heavy metal playing. They had karaoke going in the other room- something that NEVER would have occurred in our day. It would be too packed with people dancing. The smoking killed all of our throats- at least the alcohol was still cheap! I guess our bar of choice was no longer the “cool” bar for the school. We headed over to one of the hot spots in our day to get late night drunk food- and were shocked to find out that it had been replaced! So sad.

The next morning we got up to tailgate. A large number of girls from my sorority showed up- three of them were pregnant! I think that this event was my favorite part of the weekend because a large number of people attended and the music wasn’t too loud to talk to people and catch up. The actual football game was fun (we won!), but it was definitely more interesting back in college when I knew all of the guys on the team.

First up on Saturday night was a cocktail party for people that graduated in 2000. I was disappointed that more people didn’t show up, but then again we are in our early 30s so everyone might have been resting up for actual party. Once the younger alumni showed up, the dance party music came on and it was hard to talk to people over the loud music. A few girls and I went down to the dance floor for a while, but then it started to get too hot. Around 1am we decided it was time to leave.

Overall, I’m glad that we headed down for the reunion. It was nice to see people that I hadn’t seen in many years and that I only saw on Facebook. CP and J agreed that I was more excited about this weekend than I needed to be. If I had wanted to stay better friends with the people that I saw this weekend I could have. But there is a reason that when I head down to DC or NYC or wherever I don’t contact them to hang out. I have kept in touch with the people that I wanted to stay close with; Facebook is just a nice way to see what others are up to. In the end, I agreed with them. But it was still nice to see the changes in the campus, even if I wasn’t always sure they were good ones. The current students sure have a different experience than we did!

Do you go back for your reunions?

University

Stolen from Nilsa….

1. Where did you go to college?
A smaller private university on the east coast (but still D1 for sports).

2. What did you study?
Sociology. Minor in Health and Human Development and another minor in Communications.

3. Was college really all that it was cracked up to be?
Definitely. I was a bit naïve when coming to college….but had the most amazing time. Friends, parties, sports, etc. I don’t think that my liver could handle college again, but it was a fantastic time in my life.

4. How far were you from home?
A two-hour flight or a 12 hour drive. I wanted to get out of the Midwest and I’m glad that I did.

5. Did you have the same roommates all four years?
No. My roommate first year was another member of the tennis team. We were complete opposites though- she was a smoker (disgusting!) and also had a problem with coke. So that situation didn’t work out so well. Second and third years I lived in my sorority and had two different roommates. My last year I moved off campus into a house with three girls from my freshman year hall (next door we had four other girls from our freshman hall).

6. Where did you order food from at 2AM?
Freshman year we would make nachos in our dorm rooms. There was also a Wawa off campus which had delicious subs after hours. Mainly I ate at my boyfriend’s fraternity. They would make all kinds of unhealthy things late night (grilled cheese, mozzarella sticks, fries, onion rings, etc.).

7. Did you date in college or were you tied down?
I dated one boy for 3.5 years. I met him second semester of our freshman year.

8. Funniest drunk college moment?
I’m supposed to remember this? There are way too many. Nights spent drinking in the freshman dorms playing “a**hole” with our special a**hole hat. Formals. Date parties. Bid night because my best friend and I were too busy playing sports to learn the pledge dance and thus just drank through the song. Track parties as us throwers would easily beat the runners at Beirut. Etc.

9. Did you make it to class on time?
Freshman year I wasn’t so great at going to class. But when I did go to class, I would be on time. If I knew that I wouldn’t be on time then I just wouldn’t go!

10. What was your favorite class in college?
One of my favorite classes was nicknamed (by the students) “Rocks for Jocks” but was a Geology 101 (or something like that) class. It was a fun class and the professor was great.


Do you have fond memories of college?

Reading about the past

One of the funnier things I encountered while packing up was a box full of letters and cards from ex boyfriends. Specifically, the three long-term boyfriends I had before I met CP.

CP happened to be in the room when I uncovered said box and started chuckling. He was curious, but after I warned him that he probably didn’t want to see them, he didn’t pry. After a few minutes he left the room and I decided to sit down and read every single letter.

The oldest ones dated back to 1997 when my boyfriend from college (R) and I were separated the summer after our first year. We had only been dating for a few months before I went back to Chicago to work as a tennis pro at a local country club. We talked every night on the phone, wrote each other letters all the time and even made each other mix tapes. Yep, BARF. It was hilarious to read the letters from him. They detail a new relationship. A relationship so in love, naive and happy. I lot of “I miss you” and “I love you” throughout the letters.

Unfortunately, a lot of the memories that I have of that relationship now are the bad ones. Having a fight when we were both drunk, me falling down the stairs of his fraternity while he just watched. His brothers helped me get home that night. I had bruises on my back for two weeks. Taking care of him after he tore his ACL in a big game and throughout his recovery process. There was talk that he could have tried to make the NFL (like his brother did before a neck injury). After that surgery though, he was never as quick as he once was and the talk died down. I’m not sure if he was depressed after that or what….but his smiling, upbeat personality was never the same. One of the final nails of the coffin was one night when I got back from my friend’s bachelorette party and he showed up at our off campus house, raving mad, yelling about me cheating on him. I had no idea what he was talking about and had done nothing of the sort. I later found out that he had been talking to a local girl that night- so maybe he was feeling guilty and decided to take it out on me? He ended up getting engaged to her two months after that fight. She was pregnant soon after (according to Facebook they are still together).

In the end, we were both young when we got into the relationship. Despite the fact that we dated for 3.5 years, I always knew that he wouldn’t be the man that I would marry. But the letters were a nice ego boost and a good way to remember some of our good memories.

Other cards and letters were from a guy that I originally met in high school, M. He lived in Kentucky and I randomly ran into him and his friend in Hilton Head, SC. We were basically pen pals and I even kind of dated his friend for a while (M had a girlfriend at the time). M and I stayed in touch throughout the years. At some point, we started emailing and talking about meeting up again. We met in the middle of Philly (where I was living at the time) and Louisville (where he was living at the time) and had a great weekend together. I visited him in Louisville and we started a long distance relationship. The cards from him were sweet. Mainly about missing me from afar and hoping that we would get to see each other again soon. I am still friends with him on Facebook and he is doing well- a bassist down in Nashville. But again, no interest in marrying him either. Those artist-types are a little too in touch with their feelings for me. :-)

The last few cards were from my ex Herb (obviously not his real name). I have chronicled my relationship before with Herb. The cards from him were a mixture of “I miss you” and sex-related puns/discussions. These cards were the main reason I didn’t want CP to read anything from the box! Based on the fact that Herb used to call when we lived out west and tell me that he would never meet another girl like me, CP does NOT like Herb and would NOT be happy that I kept anything, even just a card, from him.

So why did I keep all of these letters for so long? Well the main reason was because I forgot about them! But I had to have seen some of the earlier ones when I put the more recent letters in the box. I guess I kept them because they are funny to look back upon. Also a great ego boost!

However, after I read all of the letters, I put them in the garbage and went into the living room to kiss CP. While the ego boost was nice, I don’t need to reflect upon past relationships. The guys that I did date in the past are in the past for a reason. I had to date them to find out what exactly I was looking for in a husband.

My most favorite card that I have ever received from a boyfriend? A card from CP, from early on in our relationship. He wrote, “I love spending every second with you- no, every millisecond.” I tease him about that line occasionally, but I love it. Only my engineer husband!

Do you keep old letters or other things from past boyfriends?

Closing a chapter

This weekend, CP and I will be closing a chapter in our lives. We will make the permanent move into our NEW HOUSE, leaving the rental house in MA behind. This is pretty significant. We have only spent two years there, but it was the first place that we moved into together. That was OURS.

We also have had quite a few things happen while living there:

*I started my first job out of law school. A job that I started with so much optimism and in the past two years, have grown to dislike because I am so bored.

*CP and I got engaged.

*I PASSED THE BAR! How funny that I said that I would never take that test again…and yet CP and I have been discussing whether I should take the CT bar this winter. *sigh*

*I turned 30 and 31.

*I lost weight. I gained weight. I lost weight. I gained weight. I’m working on losing weight yet again. *sigh* (too many posts to link)

*I had the opportunity to be on “Say Yes to the Dress” and promptly said NO.

*CP and I went to Cancun, Mexico with my family.

*CP and I got certified to be scuba divers in anticipation for our honeymoon.

*I spent three months in DC for work, having fun with friends while poor CP was stuck in MA.

*We planned our wedding in the mountains of New Hampshire (again, too many posts to link).

*I had a really fun bachelorette party after having a mental breakdown regarding CP’s bachelor party.

*After our amazing wedding, CP and I went to South Africa and Mozambique for our honeymoon. (that link is the first of a few posts)

*We entertained the thought of moving to Denver, CO, but despite all of the great interviews, we couldn’t make it work.

*We decided to limit our intake of processed foods and haven’t looked back since.

*We planted our first garden!

*We decided to try for a baby. Hopefully that decision will pan out soon!

*We decided to move down to CT, with our focus on starting a family.

I can’t wait to see what we have in store for the two of us (maybe more?) in our new house!

Memories

There is something that I won’t be able to part with in the move down to CT and this may sound silly. It’s the addidas bag that I use for the gym. It’s a great size because it has a two side pockets I can fit my ipod into, my building security tag, my shower shoes, etc. and then a middle pocket that has plenty of room for my running shoes, workout clothes and knee brace.

The problem with this bag? Is that the fabric flap for the main compartment that is supposed to attach to the zipper is no longer attached, thus creating a big hole. Good for airing out purposes when my stinky clothes sit in the bag after lunch, not so good for keeping stuff in the bag or keeping stuff hidden from view.

THE bag with my gray workout pants poking through the large hole, despite the fact that it is zipped up.

It’s not just any addidas bag though. It is a bag that I received for competing in the Millrose Games.

For those of you that don’t know much about track and field, the Millrose Games are a BIG DEAL. Professional track and field athletes come to the games to compete- the Games are held at Madison Square Garden in NYC. (Funny story- Michael Johnson came to the Games in 2000. I wanted a picture of him, but some security guard wouldn’t allow me to stand next to him to take the picture. So I stood back and took a picture of Michael anyway, with a teammate in the background. Jerk.)

Amazingly, I qualified to compete in both the shot put and the 20 lb. weight throw two years in a row in college. The women that I competed against? Some of them were people that went to the Olympics. In fact, the second year that I competed (2001), I had to throw against the (then) current U.S. record holder. That’s right. NO PRESSURE. Here she is on the far right- Dawn Ellerbe (holding a hammer, the outside version of the weight).

Part of a Sports Illustrated spread on Olympic athletes

I consider myself a taller person (I’m 5’9”), but compared to her 6’2” 240 pound body? I was nothing. I’m sure that she looked at my uniform from a small 5,000-person Division 1 school and had no idea where it was even located!! Dawn ended up winning the weight throw with a toss of over 72 feet. My best throw was just shy of 61 feet, but it was my best throw EVER. I even qualified for nationals with that throw. :-)

I know that keeping the bag despite its hole seems silly. I am totally holding on to the fact that I was an athlete back in college. Ummm yeah TEN YEARS AGO. But I can’t seem to give away the darn bag!! I am proud that I competed against some of the best in the world. I am proud that I stepped up to the heavy competition and not only beat people from larger schools, but also beat three women that threw for a living. Using the bag when going to the gym reminds me of working hard and taking names- just the kind of inspiration that I need when I go to the gym.

CP will have to rip the bag out of my cold, dead hands if he ever wants to get rid of it.

Do you have things from your past that you will absolutely not part with?

Open vs. Closed

CP’s great uncle elected to have an open casket. I have not attended too many wakes/funerals so far in my life, but there are two that stick out in my mind. Both were open caskets.

In high school a friend’s father died suddenly. This was a boy that I grew up with- he lived near us so we carpooled to school together, his mother was a teacher at our middle school/junior high so she was even my math teacher one year. When his father died, my family and I attended the wake. It was an open casket and I swear the funeral director did a ridiculously good job with his makeup because I thought he looked alive. It was actually kind of freaky.

The other funeral that I remember well was for the father of one of my bridesmaids. My bridesmaid and I went to high school together and I saw her parents constantly. Her father was a hard drinking, portly Irish man, but was always very nice and fun to talk to. He lost his battle with cancer a few years ago and my mother and I went to the wake. I hadn’t seen my friend’s father in a while so looking at him in the casket, having lost so much weight, he also looked alive. He really looked as if he could get up and walk out of the room.

Despite the fact that I was a senior in high school at the time, I don’t remember much about attending my grandmother’s funeral. I am guessing that she had a closed casket because all I can remember is standing on the grass at the cemetery, watching my cousins play around the tombstones because they were too young to realize what was going on. Of course, I could just be blocking the memories out because she was my last grandparent.

My point is that I think that the few open casket events that I have attended have traumatized me. And I wouldn’t want my death to traumatize someone else that came to pay their last respects. I know that in some circumstances it is not possible to have an open casket- hopefully I don’t die in one of those ways because they are usually horrible accidents. But even if it was an option- I would think that seeing me in the casket would upset friends and family members even more. Yesterday, CP and I looked at each other and both said that there is no reason to have an open casket at our funerals. Maybe it is a generational thing?

I know that it is a morbid thing to think about, but do you have a preference on open vs. closed caskets when you die?

Dating Disaster #5

An occasional series of some of the worst dates in my life and/or general disasters with the opposite sex. I am what you would call a “serial monogamist” so I didn’t go on tons of dates, instead choosing the people that I wanted to date carefully and generally dating them for a while. It’s the guys that didn’t last very long that provide the best material (or the ones that I drunkenly kissed).

Dating Disaster #5

After college I moved down to Philadelphia and in addition to working a 40 hour a week desk job, I became a promotional brand model two to three nights a week. It was a chance for me to make some extra money ($17/ hour) and head out to clubs and bars. My usual brand happened to be Marlboro which was especially frustrating because I had to talk to smokers who would automatically assume that you also smoked (I didn’t), and then proceed to blow it in your face.

Anyway, we generally went back to the same 5 bars or so every couple of weeks so some of the staff and I got to know the bartenders and bouncers fairly well since by the end of the night, we were the only sober people left in the building. That is how I met Rob (I don’t actually remember his name).

Rob was a bouncer at one of the clubs we worked and he was a cute, brown hair, tall and in-shape guy. We flirted back and forth for a while before he finally asked for my number. We talked a bit on the phone and then decided to meet up at a club in Philly on a Sunday night. I am not a club-type person, but I do like to dance every now and then (mainly when I am NOT sober) so I agreed to meet him there. Turns out that night was 18+ because the next day was a day off for high schoolers. GREEEEAT. Despite the annoying young kids that kept sweating on me, I remember having a fun time at the club with Rob. A good enough time to continue talking with him over IM and the phone.

I’m not sure if I have explained this yet, but I was very careful about who I slept with and who I hooked up with. Kissing? I would kiss almost anybody. But anything else? That was a different story- no matter how drunk I was. This attitude occasionally frustrated guys because I wanted to be in a relationship with someone if we were hooking up- nothing casual. I wasn’t planning on getting an STD from anyone! I’m not sure that is what Rob wanted. Other than the club date, I only remember us going on one other date….it ended in disaster when my purse got stolen and we had to call the management company to open my apartment to get my extra set of keys so that we could head back and grab my car. Ahhhh South Street in Philly.

So imagine my surprise when one day WHILE I AM AT WORK, Rob IMed me and wrote “So when are we going to f*ck?” I quickly shut down the window and immediately yelled at Rob for writing such a thing while I was at work. Anyone could have passed my desk and seen that message.

Needless to say, that IM ended our brief affair. He wasn’t someone that I would have considered having a long term relationship anyways….

Dating disaster #4

An occasional series of some of the worst dates in my life and/or general disasters with the opposite sex. I am what you would call a “serial monogamist” so I didn’t go on tons of dates, instead choosing the people that I wanted to date carefully and generally dating them for a while. It’s the guys that didn’t last very long that provide the best material (or the ones that I drunkenly kissed).

Dating Disaster #4

This guy was someone I met on a pub crawl after first starting law school. It was early on first semester, I was completely stressed and needed to knock a few back. A few bars into the crawl, I started to get drunk and talk to some of the guys. I’m not sure what attracted me to the guy that I ended up talking to, but he was tall and seemed interested.

We ended up hanging out throughout the rest of the crawl. The last bar happened to be near my house so I invited him back, making sure to tell him that nothing would happen.* We kissed a bit before passing out.

The next morning, we were both terribly hungover. As soon as he woke up, he asked me to rub his back because he wasn’t feeling well. WTF? Really? I’m not your girlfriend or your mother so what makes you think that I am going to rub your back?

I most certainly did not rub his back, but did feel bad enough to drive him back to his house. At some point on the crawl I must have given him my phone number as he called a few days later inviting me out to dinner. I guess I wanted to give him a chance so I agreed to a date at a nice Italian restaurant.

He picked me up in his sporty expensive car and I automatically thought that he was overcompensating for something (or lack thereof). He was a lot dorkier than I remembered. Damn beer goggles!

Dinner was nice, but there was no connection on my end. I’m not the type of girl that is all about looks, but I do have some standards.

Needless to say, I didn’t return any more of his phone calls as I met CP for the first time soon after and was a smitten-kitten. About two years later I was at our local grocery store and saw him in the aisle. Because I am super mature, I ran away instead of having a possibly-awkward encounter with him (if he would even still remember me!).


*I’m not sure why I used to do this. Maybe I thought that because we were at my place I would be okay?

Now I'm curious!

Today? Well today I just don’t feel as if I have much to say. I’m not sad, I’m not happy, I’m not excited, and I’m not depressed. I am just kind of blah.

The one thing I am sure of? I am most definitely ready for this work week to be over. Not because anything exciting is going on. Simply because nothing exciting is going on. At least next week I will be off-site and thus have a change of scenery!

I did receive a funny email from CP’s best man that made me laugh at work because I have no clue what they are up to.

We are looking forward to seeing you guys this weekend. It should be fun.

During our bachelor party planning, we realized that we may need your assistance.
· We need a few bad pictures of CP.
· A few pictures of his profile.
· Does CP still have his license plate from high school? “THE MAN”? Can we borrow it?*

Are you able to bring them this weekend? BTW please keep this a secret from CP. Give me a ring with any questions.

So ummm his friends are renting a huge house in the middle of nowhere in Maine. What do YOU think they need bad pictures, profile pictures, and his old license plate for? Best idea gets…..uhh nothing. :-)


*Back when CP was in high school you didn’t have to pay for personalized license plates (at least in his state). He thought that it would be hilarious to have THE MAN as his license plate and so that’s exactly what he put on his pick up truck. Thankfully he was smart enough to change license plates before heading away to college. However, he threw them away so whatever plan the guys had for them is shot.

Random CP fact: In high school CP also thought it was hilarious to put racing stickers all over his first car, a brown Plymouth Reliant. I just googled what that car looked like and my was it a looker (see below)!!

Dating Disasters #3

An occasional series of some of the worst dates in my life and/or general disasters with the opposite sex. I am what you would call a “serial monogamist” so I didn’t go on tons of dates, instead choosing the people that I wanted to date carefully and generally dating them for a while. It’s the guys that didn’t last very long that provide the best material (or the ones that I drunkenly kissed).

Dating disaster #3:

My time time on match.com was when I lived in Philadelphia. I didn't tell anyone that I went on the site. One of my first dates was with a guy who said that he was in med school. I didn't actually believe that he was a doctor, but went on the date anyway. During our lunch together, he said that he wanted to go into plastic surgery.

We can go into my views on plastic surgery on another day (and how I was banned from watching Extreme Makeover), but frankly I think that people should work with what they already have. So needless to say, the fact that he wanted to make it his life's work giving people bigger boobs and doing lipo? Didn't make him all that attractive to me.

The icing on the cake? As we parted, we both knew that it would be our one and only date. In the parking lot outside the restaurant, he asked if he could feel my boobs. I refused, incredulous that he would even ask. He went in for the boob feel anyway!!!!!! What a jerk.

Dating Disasters #2

An occasional series of some of the worst dates in my life and/or general disasters with the opposite sex. I am what you would call a “serial monogamist” so I didn’t go on tons of dates, instead choosing the people that I wanted to date carefully and generally dating them for a while. It’s the guys that didn’t last very long that provide the best material (or the ones that I drunkenly kissed).

Dating disaster #2- a gem from high school:

Andrew was the new guy in school. I don't think that he was the same year as me, but somehow we got to talking- sadly enough, I think that it was about Great America (a Six Flags theme park in IL). Anyway, I guess that he picked up on the "ask me out" hints that I was sending and we made a date.

In high school, the cool place to go was the Olive Garden (ha ha ha). I don't remember much about our conversation, but at some point, it turned into Andrew talking about wanting to go into the military. He then said, "If a grenade was to fall into the Olive Garden right now, I would jump on it to save you."

Ummm huh? Why would a grenade fall into an Olive Garden in the suburbs of Chicago? And why would you jump on it to save me, someone that you barely know? In my mind, if this was Andrew's idea of "romance" then there was no need for a second date....

Have you ever had a guy say something he thought was romantic, but something that totally turned you off??

Dating disasters #1

An occasional series of some of the worst dates in my life and/or general disasters with the opposite sex. I am what you would call a “serial monogamist” so I didn’t go on tons of dates, instead choosing the people that I wanted to date carefully and generally dating them for a while. It’s the guys that didn’t last very long that provide the best material (or the ones that I drunkenly kissed).

Dating Disaster #1

Case in point: one summer when I was living in Philadelphia I went to a downtown bar with two of my friends. For those of you not on the east coast, most people flee for the Jersey shore almost every weekend. So, the bar was pretty dead. We had a great time at the bar that night- the bartender gave us tons of free shots and we basically hung out with him all night.

I had a BRILLIANT idea to invite the cute bartender and the bouncer back to my place in order to continue the party. After they got off their shift, they came by and we played some drinking games. Sooner or later, the bouncer ended up in my bed (we just kissed and then passed out) and the bartender ended up hooking up with my friend on the couch in the living room.

Although I was pretty drunk, I woke up to the sound of someone peeing….but it sounded a lot closer than the bathroom. Why? BECAUSE THE BOUNCER WAS PEEING INTO AN OPEN DRESSER DRAWER ALL OVER MY BRAS. Oh yes, I bring the classy ones home!!! I asked what he was doing and in a clearly put-out voice, he replied that he was peeing. I then yelled, “but you are not in the bathroom!!”

The guy had the nerve to finish up what he started in the bathroom and then get back in bed with me to try to continue to sleep. WHAT???? THE???? HELL????

For some reason, I couldn’t handle kicking him out myself, so I walked into the other room and woke up my friends and the bartender.

“CS, the bouncer just peed in my dresser drawer instead of the toilet.”

“WHAT?? Do you want me to kick him out?”

“Uh huh.”

CS then went into the bedroom, threw off the sheets and said, “Alright piss boy! Time to get out of here!”

The bartender kept apologizing profusely for his coworker, while the bouncer just seemed dazed and unapologetic. We think that the bouncer might not have been 21 at the time and maybe didn’t know how to handle his liquor??

Regardless, I had to wash everything in my dresser drawer and try to clean the wood as much as possible. At the time, I was in a really low-paying job and could barely afford rent and expenses so I wasn’t able to buy a new dresser. Ewwwwwwwwwww.

Lesson learned

Is it bad that I am currently so bored at work today that I want to send an email to a random friend saying “So…ummm…I just found out that I am pregnant. Haven’t told CP yet. Oh crap.” I almost wish that today was April Fools Day and not two months later. At least the responses would have been funny!

I have decided to be good and not send said email.

But it makes me think of another email that I sent out a few years ago. I was down in Argentina doing my law school study abroad summer program. The program took us to Iguazu Falls which was absolutely amazing!!! The first day we did a zip line over the jungle which was cool. I decided that I wanted to take video of the zip line, so I got out my camera to film. Halfway through, I started to get turned around and freaked out. FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON I thought if I grabbed the line with my left hand, I would be able to turn myself around so that I was facing forward. It was quite the smooth move when the zip line track run over two of my fingers and through the glove I was wearing. After we finished with the zip line, I thought….man my fingers hurt. Then I took the glove off and only saw blood.

Needless to say, a hilarious adventure ensued because when we were done for the day, I had to go to the sketchiest health clinic imaginable where they kept the instruments in a FISHING TACKLE BOX because I was in the middle of the jungle in Argentina! I then had to go to a pharmacy in the town to get a tetanus shot because I hadn’t had one in a while. My Spanish was still a bit rusty, so I started to cry when I thought that I would have to give MYSELF the tetanus shot IN MY BUTT. Instead, the girl behind the counter of the pharmacy who looked all of about 13 gave it to me. Hilarious.

When I get home from my AWESOME day, I decide to quickly write an email to CP and my parents. Being the AWFUL person I was, I wrote something like “had to go to the hospital today after zip line misadventure- hope my fingers will be okay in the future. Gotta go- will write more later.” Yes, yes, I was AWFUL. I thought it was hilarious though. My poor mom thought that I was going to come home from Argentina missing some fingers based on my message.

Needless to say, I calmed her down after telling her the story and won’t be sending out emails like that anymore....