Dating in the 21st Century

She Said "Yes"

More later.

Random Friday Thoughts

After the yearly performance review, still have a job. w007! Boss is also very happy with the work I've been doing, so that's a plus.

Damn dalmation chewed up half of the 5 Euro bill I was saving for my brother for Christmas. We were gone a whole 30 minutes. I whupped his ass and he still knows this morning that I'm pissed at him.

It's getting hard doing this whole hunting-for-a-first-house thing. First of all, the market here is ridiculously overpriced - 1400sqft house in a decent neighborhood is running $350k. WTF? In addition, everything that's in my price range goes within a day or two of it being listed. Ugh.

I need a new computer at work. The two I have are ancient - the best machine (this one) is 1.4gHz. How sad.

I am totally jealous of Tom's Tiki Mac. Now I'll have to mod mine into something cool, darnit.

Buncha Questions

...or whatever Tiff called it. Stolen from Tepper by way of the Ankle Biter.

Girlfriend Week

This is by far the strangest girlfriend-related week I've had in a long time.

Monday - get voicemail on cell phone from ex-gf of 2 years ago. Says she heard about layoffs, hoped I wasn't affected (I wasn't), is still in danger of losing her job (maybe because she's a self-centered know-it-all-but-really-doesn't bitch?) and oh, not to hurt my feelings, but she's getting married...this year. Whatever. I couldn't stop laughing, and almost drove off the road while listening to the message, I was laughing so hard.

Tuesday - apparently the ex-gf from Dec-May was on the news. Some man-on-the-street interview about this woman doing facial feature personality correlation or something. Ex-gf cheerfully tells reporter she thought it was "cool" and that her "chin" (or something) showed she was "driven". Hahahahaha. Which facial feature would explain to her that she's an idiot?

Wednesday - current gf tells me she's moving in. Long story, but she's basically been screwed out of her current home and couldn't find anything reasonable where she and the two big puppies could live :(. Give a girl a ring and she takes the whole house. Heh. At least it's good impetus to clean the place.

What will today bring, I wonder?

Two Months

Two months ago today, I went on a first date with this girl. She seemed nice enough, had a good sense of humor on the phone, and her pics were certainly attractive. When we met to get dinner, she seemed nervous, but gave me a hug anyway... I thought that was a nice touch. She was really quiet during and after dinner too - I couldn't tell if she was just really shy or wasn't interested, but she refused to end the date early.

While we waited to get into the movie ("Dodgeball", good first date flick, hehe), she showed me some pictures and came out of her shell a little bit. During the movie, she kept fidgeting, and I finally realized it was because she was trying to get me to hold her hand (aww). She hasn't let go since.

Two months after that date, I've awakened to an e-card and an instant message and a little card in the mail to wish me a happy two month anniversary. She still puts a daily message in the keepsake box she gave me a month ago, still one for every day we've been together.

It just doesn't get any better than this :).

Ring part deux

Last night, we went and exchanged the ring for the right size to fit E's finger. She's a very happy camper now.

I Gave Her A Ring

Nope, not the telephonic kind, a real jewelry-style, no-I-didn't-spend-50-cents-to-get-it-out-of-the-vending-machine-next-to-the-Series-4-Homies-at-Toys-R-Us ring.

You can pick your jaw up now, it's not an engagement ring. That comes later :).

E has been interviewing at the corporate office for her company for months, wanting to get one of the buyer-related jobs so she can move upward and learn something new. Each time, she was told they really liked her but had found someone who already had experience in that area. I kept telling her that her time would come, that when she most needed it, it would happen. I also gave her a fortune cookie fortune I'd been keeping in my wallet for months that said "You will receive good news soon."

This past week, she had a rather random interview scheduled by the General Manager of the buyer office at corporate. She met with the GM for 20 minutes, then was told she'd hear a decision in a day or two. Five minutes later, they called to say she got the job. What job? She doesn't really know, since there isn't a posting - they actually made a position just so they could bring her in. This is such an awesome event, especially in the face of being out of work for a month with a severely sprained ankle, and bitch-ass landlady aggravation. Therefore, I really felt like spoiling her with a "congratulations on your new job" gift :).

I bought it for her last night, and I gave it to her last night. It's the wrong size because
a) I'm a man, and
b) I'm a dummy
but we're going to trade it in for one of the right size, no problem. Best of all, she loves it, and can't wait to wear it. She says I'm stuck with her forever :).

The picture of the ring is in the continuation. This is the first time I've ever given anyone a ring, much less one with a diamond in it.

Take Note

After thinking through the past couple years (who knows why), I came up with this...

The Relationship Bill of Rights

1. I deserve to be in a reciprocal relationship. This means many things, but above all, I deserve someone who gives as much as I do.
2. I deserve to be a part of your life. A relationship is a partnership, and I want to share my life with you as well.
3. I deserve respect. If this doesn't exist, neither does the relationship.
4. I deserve to be let in when you're having a bad day or feel stressed or are upset. If you shut me out, I can't be your partner and help like I want. Push me away enough times and I'll finally just go away, and I'm sure you don't want that.
5. I deserve honesty. That's also my pledge to you - a relationship without honesty and trust is nothing.
6. I deserve affection and intimacy. I'm not here just to fulfill your needs, we are here for us.
7. I deserve to be my own person and have my own life. This doesn't mean I don't love you, or want to be with you. If you're the one I always come home to, there's a reason for that. It's the time we spend away from each other that makes us appreciate each other more.
8. I deserve to be loved for who I am. I love you just as you are, and if you can't do that, hit the road.
9. I deserve some big titties in my face. [Ladies, feel free to replace this with something related to shoes/handbags/etc.]

Anniversary

Last night, E gave me a card to wish me "Happy 1 Month Anniversary". We've been dating for a whole 30 days now, but it seems like a lot longer (I guess since we've seen each other 27 of those 30 days).

I gave E a necklace as a little gift to show her I cared about her. When I gave the ex a Christmas gift from Tiffany's, the Tiffany's box and bag (and the associated mystique) were things that really excited her. When I gave E her necklace, also from Tiffany's, the blue box meant nothing to her - she was excited just because she'd never been given jewelry before. I did tell her I found that hard to believe, especially from someone who had grown tired of being a "trophy" for previous boyfriends. At any rate, I was more than happy to have the honor of being the first (and hopefully last :) ).

Aside to Stephen - it wasn't Paris so much that I didn't like as the person I'd taken there with me. Paris was actually rather nice, except for the weather. The Parisians were pretty friendly and easygoing, it was the other foreigners I could've done without, frankly. I just wish I had memories of Paris that were happy, romantic ones.

Equality

I have a problem.

Before I describe my problem, I first want to make it clear that this is not open season for golddiggers.

For as long as I can remember, I've been very uncomfortable letting someone else pick up the check, especially a date. Splitting the check with friends is totally cool. Letting the parents pick up the meal once in awhile is perfectly fine too. However, in a dating environment, even when she's been my girlfriend for awhile, I still have a problem with letting her pay.

I was raised in the South with a focus on being a gentleman with good manners. Maybe part of this problem stems from youth (I won't go into it here), so who knows.

Sometimes it's a question of money. At least for the last several years, my income has always been higher (sometimes significantly) than that of my dates. I feel that when I'm with someone, I want to share what I have, but never with any expectations from the other person. Maybe society has so firmly ingrained into women that guys are willing to pay for dinner only with the expectation of getting something in return, I dunno. Personally, I feel like having her company was plenty worthwhile in return for dinner.

So last night, E paid for dinner and refused to let me pay instead. What made me really uncomfortable was that she'd already mentioned that things would be a little tight for awhile since she was off work due to her sprained ankle (sprained by falling off the sidewalk at my house, coming to visit me... oy).

Hmm, maybe I just don't want to feel indebted to anyone for anything. I guess society has turned the tables on the innocent here...