Truisms
Monday, May 24, 2010
"A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love."
--Henri B. Stendhal
"A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love."
--Henri B. Stendhal
"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde
A couple of things have happened in the past week or so that makes me think I need to go on a dating hiatus.
Exhibit 1: The lawyer (see here and here) and I went out on Tuesday and had beer and wings. I happened to be wearing an Herve Ledger dress because I'm low-maintenance like that (and because I was coming from somewhere else...more on that later, maybe). While we were gnawing on chicken bones like well-coiffed Neanderthals, he drops a bomb on me. Remember when I saw him with his on-again, off-again, it's complicated girlfriend? Well, it turns out she recognized me that night. How? Because she facebook stalked me.
The bitch in me had texted him "I'm cuter", just out of spite and because it was true ;) Apparently he decided to show her the text to "bring her down a notch". Seriously? I try to stay away from drama and that was just a little too much drama for me...from all sides. The final straw was when I checked my LinkedIn profile and she had checked me out there too! Who knows what that crazy bitch will do. It's likely that she checks out my blog too. In that case, she's a total crazy bitch (yes, I'm asking for it).
Exhibit 2: I had been seeing someone more on a regular basis than the others. What can I say about him? He's insanely attractive, cheekbones that could cut glass. His body is smokin' and our first date was amazing. We sat and talked for 4 and a half hours over coffee. Best part? We're ridiculous in bed together. I didn't necessarily blog about it because I had hoped it would turn into something...eventually.
So imagine my surprise when I receive an email saying how he feel like he's an asshole around me, that he's usually not that closed off. So his logic dictated that we should stop sleeping together and just "hang out and know each other". What the hell does that mean? Is it the brush off? Does he want to be, gasp, friends? I'll post something about the "f" word later, but basically, no one actually wants to be friends. After spiraling into the whole "what does he mean by this" phase where you talk to all your friends and get their different takes (which I HATE), I've just decided to check out. I don't want to be friends, we're not friends, we were NEVER friends and I told him as much. Needless to say, I'm still mad...and hurt.
My dad is a total asshole and we don't talk, but he did say one thing that always stuck with me: if you put your arm out in front of you and spin in a 360 degree circle, everything inside that circle you can control. Everything outside remains outside of your control. So, taking his advice, I'm just going to say I can't control how Hotness feels or acts. I'm just going to be and move on.
Exhibit 3: Had a couple of dates that went well by dating standards, good conversation, good food, interesting guy. But the bottom line was not there was no tingly feeling. You know, where you grin like an idiot and your breath gets slightly taken away when you kiss. Came away from them feeling "meh" and felt like it was at least something to do because I don't have a tv (sidebar: not having a tv is totally awesome. You should try it.)
I'm still open to going on dates and meeting up with men I'm interested in. I just think that I'm not going to be so proactive and aggressive for a while, like, a week...maybe. What do you guys think? Keep actively dating until I get a good one or just kind of chill out for a bit?
Lesson Learned: Some bitches be triflin'
My birthday's in July. Hint, hint.
Build a roster, fill a rotation, creating a starting team. Call it what you will, but when you're casually dating, you need to be filling a rotation of go-to guys. Since I'm not looking for the perfect man right now (not sure that he exists), I need to be finding a rotation of guys that when put together, make the perfect man.
Call it my little Frankenstein experiment if you want, but it's essential for me to have a couple of pokers in the fire at once (didn't mean for that to sound dirty, but it kind of does). One man can fill the looks quota, while another can fill the emotional quota. One guy can be manly and build things whereas another can be the artist. I say this is essential because it's a way for me to keep from getting attached to one person and getting a little too invested in how one person is feeling. Also, if one guy is busy (people in New York City just are, all the time), then someone else is always available.
I'm a serial monogamist, I just am. It's something about me that I want to change for a undetermined period of time. I need and want to be single and unattached, but there's that pull for me to nurture and to connect with just one person.
The need to be single stems from the fact that I want to find out what I like and find out what I ultimately want. I've felt like Julia Robert's character from Runaway Bride. There's a scene where Richard Gere asks her how she likes her eggs and she always gives a different answer depending on what her beau at the time preferred. Ultimately she quits everyone and finds out what kind of eggs SHE likes. I want time to find out what kind of eggs I like.
The system of building a roster doesn't always work, it's definitely not fool proof because inevitably you either start having feelings for someone or you sabotage any chance of having something real because you've built this wall around you.
For those of you who are keeping track, building a roster:
Pros
Saw this really hot guy on the way to brunch this morning. Then saw him wearing these "shoes". He went from a 10 to Pauly Shore in 2 seconds flat. Men, let that be a lesson. P.S. I don't care how comfortable they are.
"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."
-Harrison Ford
I was talking to my friend the other night about the different uses of facebook. I use it to catch up with friends and to reconnect with people I've lost touch with. Apparently he'll use it to scope out girls who are friends of friends. By "scope out" I mean he goes through their profile to see what their interests are and who the mutual friends are. That way, if there's a party coming up, he can approach them and casually drop things into the conversation that he learned about them through facebook.
I can't decide if that's brilliant or a little creepy. I'm all for things happening organically, but maybe this is better and easier to make a connection if you already know what they like. However, it's one thing to choose things to discuss that you have in common. It's another if you're pretending you like Justin Bieber because she started his facebook fan page.
You figure the idea is really the same as Match.com or JDate. You sift out the things you find interesting about that person and decide whether or not you're going to talk to them. Do you think that kills the romance? Isn't the fun of starting something new and getting to know someone the fact that you're always in the discovery process? I'm kind of undecided at this point because I do think we live in the age of efficiency.
Then again, I think maybe people tend to be more honest on their facebook page because most of their "friends" are actually people who know them in real life. On Match and other dating websites, you're looking to put your best foot forward and sometimes people write profiles for the person he wants to be rather than the person he actually is.
Lesson Learned: If you're at a loss as to what to talk about with a girl, just reference Twilight, Glee, or Sex and the City and you're in. Bieber forever.
They don't call it "social" media for nothing. So you see a guy you think is worth following. Sure, he's kind of sexy in his avatar picture but you're not actually trying to pick him up. So what's the natural progression of social media mediums for you to take it to the next step? Check out my nifty flow chart, may or may not be based on actual experiences ;)
"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition."
--Alan Alda
Yes, I know I make this huge deal out of how my ex betrayed my trust. Fact is, I'm a cheater too and I've had a history of it (consider it karma, I guess). It's not something I'm proud of but it's definitely part of my past; it's also something I do not want to be part of my future.
It all started sophomore year in college. At the time, I was dating a guy I had met during orientation. He was Chinese and from the midwest, the only Asian guy I ever dated (I'm Chinese too). I think I was his first serious girlfriend and he ended up losing his virginity to me. We dated for about a year and a half. He was a couple years older, so he was getting ready to graduate. What we were going to do post-graduation was a topic that had come up but not seriously discussed. I think what had happened was that we said "I love you" too soon, well, at least I did.
He first said those three words to me in September of 2001, we had been dating for less than a month. September 11th had just happened and since we were both in DC, I think it struck closer to home for him. Not wanting to waste time and feeling like he wanted to take stock in the present, he told me he loved me. It was the first time a boyfriend had said that to me and in a moment of panic, I said it back. This set an awful precedent as I didn't know if I truly did love him. Those words became as automatic for me to say as "hello" and "good bye".
Even with that rough start, we had a great relationship. It was only toward the end of our relationship that I started seeing someone who lived on my floor (I ended up dating him for three and a half years). I'm not sure why exactly I did it. I think I wanted the relationship to end and just didn't have the heart to tell him. Cheating is the coward's way out of a relationship and that's something that I've always believed...and have tried to change.
My next boyfriend in college, the one I had cheated with, never said "I love you" in the 3 and a half years we were together. I guess I went from one extreme to the other. He also never told anyone we were in a relationship. Years later, I was talking to a mutual friend at a happy hour and he said, "oh, I just thought it was casual". Looking back, maybe it should have been. I had cheated on him on multiple occasions, usually with friends. They provided me with the (false) sense of need that I had been craving from him. There were numerous reasons why I didn't break up with him. One was that he had family problems and I didn't feel like I could leave him to fend for himself. That was one relationship that I look back on with a lot of regret.
Lesson Learned: If the relationship isn't working and you're not willing to work on it, just walk away. You'll be doing both of you a favor.
If you expose too much online, are you virtually naked? - Kenneth Cole
Read more...So why don't I write about the men I've met that I'm actually smittened with? Well, first of all, I think bliss is boring to read about. The tragedies and ridiculous men are much more fun to read/write about. However, I want to make sure that you all don't think I'm a man hater or that I haven't had ANY luck with men.
There is someone who I think about and talk to on a regular basis. He's probably most things that I would want if I were emotionally available. Unfortunately I'm not. There's still this empty feeling within me and it's a reminder that I had invested so much in someone else for 4 years and that it just did not work out. There were many ways in that we (the ex and I) worked, but when someone cheats, it calls into question all the things we ever did. He took me to St. Martin last year for my birthday and we had a wonderful time. But now, I think about whether or not he had someone else at home who he was seeing. It puts quite the damper on what would have been a great memory.
Anyway, back to Mr. Right. He's smart, funny, caring and of course, attractive. Exactly my type really. We speak/chat almost every day and I know that I can call him for anything. So does this make him my crutch? I've thought about this occasionally and I don't think it does. He's a support system and has become one of my closest friends. The physical chemistry is certainly there AND we could talk for days, but there's no way it could work right now.
I'm in a selfish frame of mind and need to remember/find out who I am separate from someone else. Did I mention that I'm a hollow shell of emotion? I'm not sure where exactly he's at mentally but I think it's fair to say that we're on the same page. Maybe someday it'll work and maybe it won't. The great part about being in this head space is not freaking out about what the future holds. And to be honest, I wouldn't even know what to do with him if I had him...
Lesson Learned: Sometimes you have to live in the moment and not worry about what the future may hold.
Dear Ex,
Your new profile picture on facebook is ridiculous. As in, ridiculously stupid. Where the hell did you buy that hat? And who are these new friends who are supportive of said hat? Because they are not your friends. Seriously, where did you happen to find this Eurotrash trend that you're now sporting? It does NOT suit you and you actually look like a douche now (rather than just acting like one in the past).
Get your J. Crew/Abercrombie clothing out of the donation pile and back into your closet. As much as I despise you, I'm doing you a favor. Good god man, what have you done to yourself?
I would rag on the PBR that you're holding, but I can't blame you. That shit is good for hydrating because it tastes like water. By the way, thanks for being a dick. The breakup was probably the best thing that's happened to me since online shopping. I'm back to being a size 2 and I'm dating men who are much more attractive and interesting than you can ever hope to be.
Call me never,
Me
P.S. I blocked your ass on facebook so I won't ever be tempted to see what a trainwreck you turned into.
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