Colossal rip-off!

A girlfriend and I took our kids to a Discover the Dinosaurs exhibit yesterday thinking it would be a good day out for the boys. And it was. For the boys. Sort of.
The tickets for the kids were $22. And the advertising led us to believe that included EVERYTHING. Uh no. It included the giant  Dinosaurs, the movie and the bounce houses, but not the gem mining or panning.... The part the kids wanted to do! The lines were long, crowded and noisy, the boys did enjoy themselves...

And at dinner late last night I got the most stunning bouquet of roses. He even remembered my favorite color is pink! And well, red would have been a little premature! Lol.

Disastrous Dating

I kinda get a kick out of this now, but at the time I had several WTF moments.

Friday was Valentines Day. I got an invite from a guy I had recently met online to go get lunch, so I thought what the Hell...  He chose a local Indian restaurant, no problem, it's been a while since I had Indian food so I said yes. It was originally set for noon, so I left my house at 11:30, but got a phone call from the guy just as I was leaving that he was going to be late, like 12:30 instead, so I said fine and planned to stop by Jared's on my way to pick up something special for Baby Girl for Valentine's. I got delayed when I got the most inept sales guy (not the cute one), who couldn't figure out how to plug in a code to give me $100 in rewards cash towards my purchase... So I called and said I would be just a couple minutes (it was now 12:20). He said fine, he was still at the house, but said he only lived around the corner from the restaurant so he would wait a couple minutes before leaving....

I got there about 12:35... no sign of the guy. So I call him again. He's on his way he says. Car's already warmed up he says. When he does finally arrive, he's on the phone!! Who does that?

Finally we're seated at 12:45. He's still talking on his phone. I have a 2pm conference call, and it's a 20 minute drive home, so this is already a waste of time at this point.

Anyway, turns out, he's pretty cute, nice guy, not quite the "athletic and toned" that he claimed, more like a few extra pounds, but I'm trying not to be shallow, although the white lie irked me.

So if those weren't enough red flags...

He asked what my evening plans were, so I said I was going to a jazz concert with a friend. Then he wanted to dig and ask details about the friend. Uh. Personal. Nunya!! So that was a major turn off. He continued to quiz me about my evening plans all the way to my car and then made me late for my call...

And then he texts me later wanting me to let him know how my evening went! Including whether or not a I got laid! Seriously?? This guy knows NO boundaries.

Anyway, I'm glad my sister got a kick out of it when I called her to tell her.

Cougar? Moi?

So the Jared's sales guy is 25. And persistent. But that's OK, it's sweet.

And I got my first Valentine's text from a guy I haven't heard from since Christmas. I'll call him Salsa, because he's latino and dances. He's also a personal trainer that I thought about hiring. He's also a couple years younger than me. That seems to be the pattern lately. I should be flattered I guess.

The debate is do I go wine tasting with the sales guy who has been asking me on the daily? I wasn't subtle and let him know that I'm not really into doing the casual dating thing, just to see if that chased him away. It didn't. I reminded him I have 3 children. That didn't bother him either. So we'll see. I have to go back to Jared's at some point this week to pick up a necklace... when the roads are safe again.

Oh what the Hell.... can't hurt to test the waters, can it? My sister married a younger man.... surely I can date one for a little bit? Don't all divorcees go a little crazy?

Fellas please....

The sales guy in Jared's was about as subtle as a brick through a window.

I had taken my grandmother's ring to be reset and repaired yesterday morning so naturally I was dressed appropriately for work. There is this very cute young sales guy who works there who helped me pick out Baby Girl's Pandora gift at Christmas who not very subtly tried to find out my marital status back in December. He was working yesterday, but wasn't the first to get to me as he was already assisting another couple. So I fill out the paperwork, pay the $200 (Yes, for a ring I inherited! Although my grandmother is still alive and well.) and head in to the office. It was supposed to be ready by 5:30, but I had an appointment at the gym, so I went over after 6pm...

This is where he was not so subtle. He was assisting another guy again when I came in sweaty and very unattractive from the gym. Another sales guy came over and took the paperwork and went to look for the ring, but couldn't find it, so the young guy gets rid of his potential customer and comes over to 'help'. The older guy, obviously in cahoots, then skidaddles to "let him handle it with his young eyes"....

<sigh>

He finds the ring and starts the paperwork. Now, I've had them repair jewelry for me before. Once they have the return slip from me, there is nothing else to do except hand the item over. This guy wants to procrastinate. And starts dropping hints to ask about getting something special for Valentine's. So I told him I had been in two days before to buy myself something sparkly. So then he asks if I like reggae. I do, but not as a preference, but here's where I actually broke out in a grin: "the club I work at is having a reggae night Friday, you should come". Two things: reggae, to me, is not romantic; what quicker way to find out if a chick has a significant other than to invite her to a gig on Valentine's Day? Not subtle at all. He might as well have just come right out and asked if I was booed up....

I politely declined telling him that I already have tickets to a jazz concert Friday, but then he reaches into his pocket and hands me a card with his name and number on it. Hand written on it, not a Jared's business card....

So since I had plans Friday, he said that they have another band playing on Saturday, but i have no idea what I will be doing Saturday so I took the card and told him I have a friend who loves Reggae and maybe she'll want to go....

It put a smile on my face to get hit on, even while sweaty and not made up :-) And I have at least 10 years on him!!

Valentines week

The single girl's nightmare.

This year I bought myself something sparkly from Jared's and tickets to a jazz concert Friday.... I stopped just short of sending myself flowers.

I'll be ok. Just one more week to get through and then Easter will be here.

It's only human to crave affection, right?

Radio Silence

After sending that email to my mum a couple of weeks ago, I had only heard from her to ask when I would be sending the money to my lazy, good-for-nothing sister. Curly, my older sister had attempted to reach out to me via Facebook a couple of times and emailed me about my kids birthdays, but I hadn't responded, so I was surprised to get a phone call from her yesterday afternoon.

Well, not really surprised to get the call, but expected it to come on a weekend, not in the middle of my work day...

And it was fortuitous timing as I had just had a truly awful morning. We seem to have that connection sometimes. I didn't want to talk to her, I was still pretty upset, but she's persistent and kept at me anyway. Until I finally spilled the beans about what I'd been going through for the last month and to be honest, it felt really good to finally cry. I really needed it. And it was only made worse by her saying that she wished she could be here in person for me to soak her shoulder properly. So even though I know the call was prompted  not only by the email, but also by me ignoring them all on Facebook, I still desperately needed someone to talk to. I love her to pieces and I'm glad she's in tune with her ESP. An hour and a half on the phone and I was at least able to get through the rest of my day.

And then Firefighter seemed to be tuned in as well, as barely two hours later I get a text from him asking how my week had been so far. We have agreed that he will come hang out at my place with me and the brats on Friday so we can both get drunk and vent about our weeks.

It was a long day all around yesterday having woken up at 3am, I worked out at 5am, cooked myself breakfast before getting the kids up, was at work by 8am, then met with my attorneys at 10am, which is when things went downhill... so then I went to the mall for some retail therapy, before lunch at Hooters with the fellas... I couldn't face going back to work at all until my sister called and talked me through it. So after leaving work at 5:15, scooping up the boys and then going to the gym for an hour, I didn't get home until 7:30, then had to go back out to the store for dinner for the brats (Lil One also needed some stuff for a project so he came with me). It was after 8pm before they got to eat, and then after I took a shower Lil One read to me (I almost fell asleep) and then I helped him answer questions about Teddy Roosevelt.... I was EXHAUSTED! But for the first time in I don't know how long, I slept for 8 hours!

So I'm a little better today. Still angry, but I have an action plan which gives me something to focus on. And hey... the weekend is only a day away. It's another busy one!

Still cringing...

That awkward moment from Sunday when Firefighter's friend, B-Ball, asked if he was planning on moving in with me after he had stated that he wasn't sure he would be renewing his lease on his apartment, is still with me. I hadn't quite realised how much I fear living with someone again.

I've spent the last couple of days trying to figure out what exactly my issue is, but I haven't come up with an answer yet. The insecurities are still there, that I will never be good enough. That no man will ever say those three words to me again and mean it. That they will love me for me. I still over-compensate in an effort to gain approval.

My comfort level with Firefighter is that I know it will never happen, which makes it easy to just be with him and be me. I don't have to try and win him over because he has already said it will never happen. So instead of trying to find that guy, I get to just kick back with someone who is totally perfect, but I have no fear of disappointing. A cynical view, I know, but I get to love him and treat him as a boyfriend knowing that one day he will move on, and it won't be unexpected. It might be tomorrow, next week, or next year, but the inevitable will happen. I'm not the kind of girl that a guy falls in love with and I am on my way to accepting that.

I'm apparently good enough in bed, but not a keeper.

So yes, caught off-guard by his friends question, I may have over-reacted and been a little emphatic in my denial of that event ever happening, but it was part self-preservation, part fear and part get-the-denial-out-before-he-does. I didn't pay attention to Firefighter's reaction.