My Last Post On This Blog

For a number of reasons, time mostly, this is my last post on this blog. I write a number of blogs on a variety of topics. I've decided to try and meld all those into one blog that hopefuly won't be too disjointed. I invite you to join me there as I will continue to talk about all the things I've been talking about on this blog.


Come play with us

Y'all know by now I have an odd sense of humor. Moving on.

I hope to see you over at my new blogging home! It's called My World In Reflection.

Camille's Wishful Wednesday: Daydreams And Fantasies

***Camille is a friend of mine I know from church. She is classified on another blog I read as a "hopeless romantic", and I think that describes her pretty well. I also think she's incredibly well-balanced and able to work on multiple parts of herself at once. She is a law student, a Sunday school teacher, and an all-around good person. She has some pretty concrete ideas about men and the type of man she'd like to end up with. But she's doing the in-my-20s-dating-follies thing as well.*** Read Wishful Wednesday posts.

There's this guy at Camille's school who seemed to never take notice of her last year. But this year, she feels him watching her every time they're in the school's library. This has started us off on a flight of fancy as to whether he was watching her because he was interested, or maybe she just happened to keep being in his line of sight.

Of course, I'm hoping something will come of this, but we'll see.

I kept mentioning another guy who is a friend of Camille's. This is the one who acted crazy when they went to Spain. Also, he's the one who said he's not Camille's type. Well, she brought him to our luau we threw as a group of friends.

I was excited to finally meet him and I think he's awesome. I do see why Camille isn't interested in him. But interestingly enough, he seemed to hit it off with one of Michelle's cousins. She asked Camille for his phone number and he agreed she should have it. Once he dates one of the girls in our group, he's off limits for everyone else, so that will be it for any possibility for him and Camille.

So for now, we'll be micro-dissecting the intentions of library man...

Tip Top Tuesday: The Ex From Hell

***My girl Top is unique and one-of-a-kind. This makes the story of her love life especially interesting. Just when you think you've got her figured, she makes an unexpected move. She's my career-minded friend who's always focused on self-improvement. She's also super-independent yet a closet nurturer. Read and learn how to be fabulous.***

Quick Recap [In my last post, which was a month ago, talked about her birthday and her annual birthday I'm-a-Cancer reflection on life. I also mentioned some stuff about her ex, specifically how I felt that she was emerging from looking at everything through that lens.] Read Tip Top Tuesday posts.

Since that time, some stuff has come to light about her ex. Long story short, he's even worse that we previously believed. Why he felt the need to un-burden himself with revelations to Top I don't understand. I can only assume it's because he's weak and selfish and a Grade A asshole.

Top began to think about all the nice guys she's met in the time since her relationship ended. She has considered how many of them she never even gave a chance to. Whether or not it was directly because of the ex (which I think it was not), the fact remains that she's been turning down nice guys who may actually be nice guys left and right.

This is all while her ex, Grade A Asshole, is walking around pretending he's a genuinely good guy. It's frustrating to think that there are women out there who don't know who he is or how terrible he can be. I wish there was some way, Scarlet Letter style, to mark him and let the world know he was not a catch.

If this were a sitcom, I'd buy a domain from GoDaddy.com and dedicate it to bringing him down. Get him fired, dumped, ostracized by his family. That would be some sweet-tasting revenge. The part of me that feels protective of my friends just wishes he would go poof.

Image via Uncyclopedia

But alas, this is real life. The mature thing to do is keep on moving on with life and leave it up to God/the universe/karma to kick his ass. I will be mature. I will be mature.

I will say this. If he doesn't lose Top's number, I will pretend like I'm on an ABC sitcom and take him down. Prepare the laugh tracks cause it's going to be legen---wait for it--- dary.

Gloria's Romantic Monday: Looking For Improvement

***Gloria is a friend of mine I know from church. She is a single mother. She has a boyfriend, Gregory, who we all love and her son's father, Rufus, who we all hate. She is fun-loving and hilarious. Gloria is the type of friend who'd be there for you at a party, when things get tough, or even if you need help applying for school.*** Read Romantic Monday posts.

In my last post, I talked about how Gloria and Gregory had broken up and how things seemed to be in such a state as not being able to improve.

I talked to Gloria about it again and they're trying to make it work. She's found the root of their problems to boil down to neither of them ever wanting to be wrong. Little disagreements escalate to a point and it seems too hard to keep fighting. Fighting for the relationship that is.

She was over the house with Camille and Michelle. We, along with Easy, just caught up. It's been a while since I got to catch up with my girls outside of a festive occasion. It was also nice not to mention the word wedding once.

Easy and I talked to her about how a couple can come back from no matter how bad things seem and no matter what any one person has done as long as someone is fighting for the relationship. When both people are weary, that doesn't work. At least one person has to rally the troops.

I think things may improve because they have identified their major problems. They're going to work on not letting fights escalate and communicating better. I hope they get things together.

On another note, Gloria's son's father, Rufus, still sucks. They worked out this custody agreement that she wasn't too keen on. But she did it for her son. And now Rufus isn't holding up his end of the bargain. He doesn't pick up or drop off his son when he's supposed to. He cancelled a doctor's appointment for him without telling her! Who does that? I don't know what will make him act like a sane being. But I'm just glad their romantic days are long behind them.

On yet another note, Gloria is still looking for a good job. There aren't a lot of available jobs that pay more than $10/hr, which sucks so much. Cross your fingers that her luck changes.

Sonny's Sunday: The Honeymooners Deck

***Sonny is an old friend of mine. We went to elementary, middle, and high school together. He's also my friend who's doing the super-adult thing. He and his new fiancee Cher just bought a house. They're working on planning a life together as well as a wedding next April. Even with all that stability, their love life is still interesting.***

Quick Recap [My last post about Sonny was back in the middle of June. In that post I talked about their Save the Date for the wedding next April. I took crappy photos with my BB. I also speculated about a possible double date so Easy could get to know them better. Lastly, I made plans to book our cruise so we'd meet the deadline in the STD.] Read Sonny's Sunday posts.

Since that time, it took me forever to actually book our cruise. I literally just did it Wednesday. But Sonny told me they put that date there to give people urgency, but there really wasn't a big rush. The rooms they set aside for our group were okay rooms. But the last time I went on a Carnival cruise, my parents were in one of the really nice rooms on the top deck.

I wanted to be in one of those rooms, so I paid the extra money and we'll be up there! The best part is Sonny and Cher also booked the nicer room. We joked that it would be the honeymoon floor. Now that the cruise is booked, I'm very excited for this event.

Things have been sailing smoother for Sonny and Cher since he switched jobs. He's finally in a job that uses his degree in finance. Cher helped him apply for jobs and he landed one as an investment banker. We live in Chicago, so he's no Wall Street fat cat who will be instrumental in our next recession.

Now that he's switched to a new job, he keeps more regular hours. That means he gets to spend more time with Cher. I'm hoping that means we can spend more time with them. He was finishing up at his old job just a few weeks ago so they missed Easy's and my engagement party. I'm dying for them to meet since Easy has hit it off so well with all the rest of my friends.

For my next post, I'll try to pry some wedding planning details out of Sonny.

Lion's Life Saturday: Getting On The Road

***Lion is my best friend from college. He's a very focused young man working on getting his MD. This focus makes having a love life a very difficult undertaking. But he's making it happen somehow.*** Read Lion's Life Wednesday posts

Last week, I talked about Lion's adjustment to single life. I mentioned that he'd had a bit of fun while on an away rotation down in Florida.

I also mentioned that he met a friend of mine at my engagement party. He invited her down to St. Louis next week when my fiance and I head down for a gig my fiance has in the St. Louis area. She agreed to come and we began making plans.

Lion isn't really much of a talker until you've gotten to know him. When I talked to my friend about the trip, she told me that she and Lion hadn't actually talked since our e-party, just via Facebook and text. For a grown-ass woman, that's not really talking like how it is for someone in their young 20s.

I told him she mentioned that and he should probably give her a call. He called her and they had a nice chat. He seems to be looking forward to her coming down with us.

He's actually coming to Chicago the Wednesday before we head down so he can take Step 2. He will stay with Easy and me at our apartment and then after my friend's class Thursday night (she's a college professor), we'll head back to St Louis. Easy will join us Saturday.

I'm thinking it will be a great trip and I'm excited for the chance to show her St. Louis and to get to watch a possibly budding relationship for Lion. I've never been witness to it before, so it could be quite interesting.

In St. Louis, we're all staying at his brother's house. His brother has a 4 bedroom house, so there's plenty of room, but it's still an intimate atmosphere. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Michelle's T.G.I.Fridays: Pacing In Place

***Michelle is a girl that grew up next door to me and we attended the same church. Now she's in her early 20s and living the single life. She goes on these dates that are either lovely or horrific. She's slightly terrified at the thought of committing to someone any time soon. And of course, she has the occasional man who really catches her eye and her heart.***

Quick Recap [My last post about Michelle was back in June. In that post, I described life changes she was currently making. They were pretty big changes so she had a lot to look forward to in the road ahead.] Read T.G.I.Fridays posts.

Since that time, things have been moving at a slower pace. The job offer Michelle thought she had has been on hold. She's still waiting to hear from the internship people about a full-time position. In the mean time, she's still applying for jobs and hoping something pans out. She had a job, but the management was so terrible, no wonder they have such high turnover of employees.

On the romance front, she's still talking to the old man. I guess we'll have to give him a name since he's still around. I'll call him Mister, out of respect for his age, ha ha. It's more so how much older than her he is than his actual age. But they're still hanging and they had a talk about the state of their relationship now that she's staying in Chicago.

It basically amounted to him saying he wasn't wasting her time. I'm still not sure what that means, but I guess we'll see as time passes...

Once she gets a job, she'll be figuring out a living situation so she can be fabulous in her 20s in the city.

She's working on the GRE prep, but I'm not sure if she's taking the test in October still anymore. We'll see.

There's so much to still be decided in Michelle's world right now. I have to admit I'm excited for her because they're just so much potential there.

Big Bad Thursday: All Work And No Play? Not These Two

***Big Bad Thursday is all about Bad. He's one of my best friends and was a charming, if commitment-phobic bachelor. He finally realized a woman was worth giving up complete and total bachelor-hood. So now Bad and Jordan are in love and working towards building a life together. They live in a wonderful apartment in Chicago and they are quite a fabulous couple.***

Quick Recap [My last post about Bad was three weeks ago. I talked about how he and Jordan worked to find balance between their personal and professional lives and how it was serving them well in their relationship.] Read Big Bad Thursday posts.

Another thing they do that makes them so awesome and strong is they they really make time for the pleasures large and small in life. The biggest example of this was the second weekend of August. It was the weekend of my engagement party.

They both had finals during that time. Papers, projects, tests galore. Yet they made time to come out to the party and really seemed to let their hair down and have fun. The next day, Easy and I invited them along to amazing seats at a White Sox game. They came to that too. We all had a really good time. Personally, I love having adult friends who understand responsibility but also understand how to have fun.

More recently, they went on vacation. They set the timing so they could go right after finals. They go on vacations and have fun. I kind of envy their vacationing. Easy and I haven't been on vacation yet. Travelling for two days to go to an out-of-town gig of his doesn't count. But back to Bad and Tia. I can't wait to hear about their vacation. I know it was great.