Wednesday Thoughts

I am so excited about this weekend. I love the Fourth of July! Partly for patriotic reasons and partly because of fireworks, bbqs, days off of work, and the three day weekend we have coming up. And plus, I mean, I love America and stuff.

I have plans to see two firework shows this weekend - one over Lake Michigan, one over another lake. I can't wait. But to be honest, I sort of have mixed emotions about seeing fireworks. The nice part is you get to lay on a blanket outside at night with friends, watching the sky light up in beautiful patterns. The downside is the traffic, shrapnel falling from the sky, and mosquitoes.

Just this past weekend I went to a fireworks show and the mosquitoes almost took me down. I combated them by putting on some socks I had in my car and this was the result:


So not hot. Luckily it was so dark no one could see my (un)sexy footwear. I'll be better prepared this weekend.

Ok, here's a little 4th of July question for you. In the spirit of the summer's biggest weekend for bbq's, which do you like better: mustard or ketchup? I asked this question of my family when we were together for Father's Day and all the men preferred ketchup while all the women preferred mustard. Heather wasn't there to break the tie so it left me thinking that condiment preference might be gender related. Weigh in!

Happy Wednesday!

Lion Eyes

I recently heard a really interesting program about deception on Radiolab. In this program, they interviewed a man who’s an expert on lying. He has done studies on how we lie – the way our face twitches when we’re lying, the direction we look, that kind of thing. He’s made a career out of it.

At one point in the interview, he said that he’s made a lifelong commitment to never tell a lie. He defines lying as deceiving someone without informing them (therefore acting isn't lying because the audience has been informed, for example).

Using that guideline, he feels he can tell his wife that he loves her new dress even if doesn’t. He says that because she expects him to always tell her she looks great no matter what, she knows she is at least sometimes being deceived (she has been informed). I feel like that’s a loop hole but in this case, I’ll allow it.

I feel like I’m an honest person. I do my best to always tell the truth. But in some cases, it’s not the easiest thing. Like in social settings. In fact, the lying expert from Radiolab gave an example of how he was put to the test in this area. Someone invited him over for dinner and he did not want to go. This person had invited him over before and he had had an awful time. Not wanting to repeat this, he had to figure out how to get out of going again without lying. Finally he decided to stick to his honesty goal and he told the person that he was sorry, but he wasn’t interested in pursuing their friendship.

Whoa.

He said he felt like he could do anything after this - he felt empowered. I don’t know. I mean, I respect him and all. Actually, I’m in awe of him. But is that really the best idea? Maybe it is. I find it hard though. Who (besides this guy) really has the nerve to say, “I’m not busy that night, I just don’t want to hang out with you.”? That just seems mean. I mean, we're trying to have a society here.

This also applies in dating situations. Isn’t it easier when breaking things off just to say, “There’s just no chemistry” rather than, “You bore me to tears”? Or "We just don't have anything in common - we're different people" rather than, "Here's a list of the things I don't like about you"?

Plus, telling them all the things that annoy you really just makes it easier for them to tell you the things they don’t like about you. Who wants to hear that?

But would our lives be less complicated if we were more honest in these departments? Or would we all just have hurt feelings all the time? How honest are you? When do you think it’s ok to lie?

I'll end with a quote from the Office: "Daryl Philbin is the most complicated man that I have ever met. I mean, who says exactly what they're thinking? What kind of game is that?" - Kelly Kapoor

She had man hands!

Occasionally I am accused of being too picky when it comes to dating. This accusation never comes from people who know me well. It almost always comes from people I haven't seen in years and who, upon finding out I am still single, feel the need to say, "are you really picky or something?" I can't help but be offended by this because I think my standards are pretty reasonable - I'm just looking for a guy who's six feet tall, has brown hair, plays the piano, speaks Japanese and Spanish, has one blue eye and one brown, is rich, has six toes, and has exactly 10 freckles on each arm. I think we can all agree that that's not asking too much.

But honestly, I don't think I'm too picky. I do have certain hopes as far as religion, goals, and personality are concerned, but I think everyone has some basic expectations. I mean, marriage is serious business, right? And I'm nowhere near as bad as Jerry Seinfeld was. I take comfort in that. I've never broken up with anyone becuase of the way he eats peas.

But while I'm not as picky as people think I am, I will admit that I'm occasionally turned off by stupid things. Things that honestly don't matter in the long run. Don't get me wrong - if I were interested in a guy and he did one of these things, I wouldn't break up with him.

I wish that I could tell you some of the things that annoy me but I think it's best that I keep them to myself. (I may reveal more in the comments section later - it's safer there). I get enough criticism from married friends as it is. But I will tell you that most of my stupid hang ups have to do with word pronunciation. Like ending the word height with a "th" sound. And some others I won't get into but that are equally trivial, to be sure. (This only applies to native speakers of English, of course. How could I get annoyed with a man with an accent?)

I know, I know - it doesn't matter how a guy pronounces words as long as he's a good guy, etc, etc.... I know. (Wow, I'm being really defensive and you didn't even say anything! Sorry. I'm anticipating criticism.)

But I suspect that you have stupid hang ups too - am I wrong? And even if you're married, I bet you had stupid things you hated when you were single. Things that shouldn't change the way you look at your date but do anyway. Just a little bit. Things like the way they eat or the way they dress, the fact that they hate dogs (gasp), or even the way they sneeze. Would you be willing to share any?

Summer Goals

Yesterday was the official start of summer! To me, it had already begun. I mark it's arrival by things like:

• the return of fireflies (which I started spotting a week or two ago),
• temperatures over 80 degrees,
• ice cream cravings (started back in February),
• and of course, summer romance plottings (sort of hard to plot but I do my best)

Several of my friends have told me that because summer tends to fly by, they like to make a list of summer goals at the beginning. I thought this sounded like a good idea so I thought I'd make one of my own. But to make it slightly more interesting, I used one of those word cloud programs:


These types of programs have a tendency to over emphasize words that don't really deserve it. For instance, I am planning a trip to Utah but I'm only going to be there for a week so "Utah" probably shouldn't be the biggest word on there. I kept randomizing it to make it smaller but it kept making it big. Maybe that means something really special is going to happen on my trip to Utah?

Those of you who are familiar with this blog know that I talk about summer romance every summer, so that one isn't new. The rest is pretty much self explanatory. Well except that the program separated "hot dogs" so the word "dogs" is on there randomly which looks pretty weird since dogs pretty much live year round and aren't exclusive to summer, as far as I know. It also separated "farmers market" into two. Oh well. I think you can get the spirit of my summer expectations well enough, right?

What are some of your hopes and dreams for this summer?

My so called love life

I know I told you I would write a dating post later last week and I haven't delivered on that yet. When it comes down to it, I have three reasons for not having written it yet:

1. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to write and frankly, I'm not sure I feel like getting into it. It's this big Pandora's box of the most confusing dating situations you can imagine. I'm just not sure that's a box I want to open in a public forum.

2. I've been working a bit on my other blog (link). I usually neglect my other blog quite a bit but I gave it some much needed attention over the weekend.

3. I'm not sure I have a sense of humor yet about my so-called love life right now.

Since I don't have a sense of humor about some stuff I'm currently going through, I'll tell you a funny story about a really bad first date I went on years ago.

So, this guy I'd known for awhile asked me out to dinner. He'd hinted at us going out for awhile but I wasn't interested in him so I put it off. He wasn't a bad guy, I just didn't think of him that way. Finally, he cornered me and I agreed to go out with him. We decided to meet at the restaurant and when I got there (on time), he was already seated.

I could tell right away that something was up. He was normally talkative and outgoing but he was being really quiet and seemed kind of ticked. I'm pretty good at monologuing so I just started talking, hoping to get him to loosen up a bit.

Finally our food arrived and my only thought was "eat as fast as possible and get out of here." He seemed to have the opposite thought - I've never seen a man eat more slowly. And his mood was not changing. Finally, tired of my monologuing and apparently choosing to punish me further, he said, "So, I talked to T-- the other day."

T-- was a close friend of mine who had a bad habit of saying the exact thing he shouldn't say. Right away, I knew what had happened. T-- had indicated to this guy that I didn't want to go out with him (I later confirmed this with a bashful T--). My date didn't say anything else about it so I just said, "Yeah, well, T-- is an idiot (piecing together what must have happened)." And started talking about something else.

Why this guy decided to go on the date with me after all instead of just canceling it, I have no idea. All I know is that when the bill arrived, I put my half of the money down and said with a smile, "see you later." I heard from a friend later that this guy said I was "uptight." The nerve!

Do you have a bad first date story? I'd love to hear it.

Wednesday Thoughts

I have so many thoughts about dating lately, I don't even know where to begin. Are you tired of dating posts? Be ready later this week for some dating Q and A. Or least, attempts at A's. But probably mostly Q's. So start thinking about A's because I need them. (Confused yet?)

But since today is Wednesday, I'll keep it light.

So, you know how much I love James Franco, right? But as far as celebrity crushes are concerned, the Rock is totally next in line. Yes, I know - all of his acting is done with his eyebrows. But come on. I watched part of the Tooth Fairy last night and became smitten once again with the Rock. (No, I didn't just sigh.)

Oh no. I was just looking for an image from the Tooth Fairy to go along with this post and found some posters that say things like, "The tooth hurts" and "You can't handle the tooth." It was almost enough to turn against the movie. Awful, just awful. I'm still going to finish that movie tonight though. And I can pretty much guarantee I'm going to love it.

You know, when I started this post, I had no idea is was going to turn into some kind of stalker post about the Rock. I better turn this baby around before it's too late.

Have you guys seen this video of Salma Hayek's snake freak out? I'd have to highly recommend it. I'm scared of snakes too but I'm not "Salma Hayek scared of snakes."



Ok, here's my last thought. I found this amazing brownie recipe on someone's blog recently. It calls for 1 package of low fat brownie mix, 1 can of black beans (rinsed then pureed with one cup of water) and chocolate chips. Did you catch the black beans in there? Let me tell you, these brownies are divine. Trust me. You would never know they have black beans in them. Do you have a recipe with a secret healthy ingredient in it? Please share!

Happy Wednesday.

Cure for the Monday blues

Remember life before photoshop? Me neither. These are a couple of my favorites. Yes, I know I'm easily amused.

The Hills

Confession. I've gotten sucked into a completely soul sucking show this spring. It's called The Hills and it's the devil.

Spencer's insane, Brody's a jerk, Kristen is completely vapid (sorry Justin), and Heidi no longer resembles a human being. But I can't stop watching. I'm not proud of this, by the way. I feel much like Jerry when he didn't want to admit to his girlfriend that he watched Melrose Place (check out the clip, it's hilarious).

So I pretty much keep this guilty pleasure to myself. But the other day at the flower shop, I had an interesting conversation with the young cashier when I was checking out. It told me a lot about the viewership I am now a part of.

Cashier: I have to ask you something.
Me: Ok.
C: Do you watch The Hills?
Me: Uh...yes.
C: You look exactly like A----!
Me: Really? I don't think so.
C: Ohmygosh, you look exactly like her. Like, your eyes and face...wow. Except that she has brown hair and brown eyes, but you look like you could be her sister. Seriously.
Me: Well, I'm flattered. Thanks.
C: Like, if you moved to L.A. and dyed your hair brown and wore makeup, people would think you were her like all the time. They'd be screaming her name at you.
Me: Really?
C: It's crazy. Seriously.

Did you like that bit about "if you wore makeup..."? So did I. For the record, I was wearing makeup. Also for the record, I really don't look like the girl she said I look like (although I wish I did).

Do you have a guilty pleasure show? One you don't really like to admit you love? You know you do. If you don't, I saw one last night called "You're Cut Off" on VH1 that I would highly recommend for it's soul suckingness and addictive qualities. Plus it has that element of "I feel much better about myself because I'm not as bad as these people" to it. I think that's one of the major appeals of reality shows, isn't it?

And if you watch the Hills, fess up. We have much to discuss.

Wednesday Thoughts

Today we're going back to basics - before Wednesday Thoughts got all fancy (didn't realize it was fancy, did you? Well, check out this link to the first Wednesday Thoughts.) So here are some random thoughts for you on this wonderful Wednesday.

Once I notice the laugh track, it's impossible not to hear it. I start listening for certain laughs and I question how funny the show really is. Why do I need to be guided into thinking something is funny?

Do all jokes really have a little bit of truth in them? I think so.

You know what's weird about dating and crushes? The fact that you can be totally oblivious to the person, then wham - suddenly you feel like your life revolves around them. It's unsettling.

And lastly, my luck finally ran out recently and I got a speeding ticket. My first thought was, "I can't believe I got a ticket! Did I lose my charm?" But I was asking for it - no amount of charm could have gotten me out of this one. I should have cried...

Happy Wednesday.

Autobiographical Mosaic

Ok, so I don't normally do this kind of thing but I thought it might be fun just this once. Plus, my sisters did it on their blogs (and so did my friend Jessica) so I was feeling pretty left out. So without further ado, here is my autobiographical mosaic:

(I get really uncomfortable being cornered with the "what's your favorite..." questions so these are subject to change. In my mind that is. I'll leave the mosaic as is.)


QUESTIONS:
1. What is your name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your hometown?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. What is your favorite movie?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What is one word to describe yourself?
10. How are you feeling right now?
11. What do you love most in the world?
12. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Directions
- Go to Google image search and do be careful.
- Type in your answer to each question.
- Choose a picture from the first three pages
- Use this website (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php) to make your collage.

Finally!

Blogger has not been working for me (and many others) since yesterday. And I had tons of seriously interesting things to tell you guys about over the weekend! The most interesting things ever, basically. But now I forgot them all. Every last one. That's what rage will do to you.

So until I'm able to calm down again and think clearly (I may be exaggerating my anger just a tad), here's a link to the Singles Ward blog where they talk about crushes guys have on girls in response to my post about crushes girls have on guys. It's pretty interesting! Check it out.

Ok, I'm starting to feel calmer now...blogger is working, I can update both of my blogs.... all is right with the world (minus everything that's wrong with it).

I'll be back later with some actual content.

Wednesday Thoughts

Happy Wednesday! I love four day work weeks - today feels like Tuesday. But there's only three more days of work. I love it.

Plus, I had a great Memorial Day weekend. Here's a quick run-down of some of the joys I experienced this weekend:

*Northern Michigan (gorgeous)
*Fluffernutters and pies cooked over the campfire in a pie iron (heavenly)
*Hikes along the trails at the Ludington state park (glorious)
*Falling asleep on the beach and getting sunburnt (worth it)
*Long walk along Lake Michigan (there are no words)
*Twilight boat ride (amazing)
*Free to wear white again, now that summer's here (woohoo!)

You were expecting me to end one of those with "priceless" weren't you? That's because you watch too much t.v. (and by you, I mean I).

What did you do over the weekend? Where is your favorite place to get away for the weekend?

I can't even tell you how happy I am that the warm/hot months are upon us. Fireflies, summer romances, bbq's, bike rides....summer in Michigan is the best. (If you can ignore the humidity...)

Here's a question for you: does every state joke that their state bird is the mosquito? I'm sure Michigan can't be unique in this.

Happy Wednesday.