Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Secrets, Secrets. . .

First a few awesome updates:  

  • My friend and her best guy friend are officially dating now.  I haven't talked to her since it's been official, but seeing as I haven't heard anything bad. . . I'm going with it has worked out.  
  • Apparently the bar I was a bartender at for BaconFest served and went through the most liquor.  We were the most successful bar.  I am not surprised by this at all.  ;) 
  • The snow storm we weren't supposed to get shifted 100 miles and I ended up with 7-9 inches of snow. . . I use a dash because when I left for work this morning it was still snowing and I had 8 inches of snow already on my deck.  
  • I got to see my friend Jared who I haven't seen since 2007!!  He was one of my first friends outside of the girls I lived with in college.  He was definitely my first guy friend.  He lives in Hawaii now and was in town for work.  I wish we would have gotten to catch up more.  

This last weekend I had a Girls Night with my friend Christine, or as AJ pointed out to me "a typical Monday" for me anyway.  I had won tickets to the Symphony and Christine was needing to have a night out.  She's a stay at home Mom, so she was needing to have some drinks.  We ate at the new sushi place downtown and then went to the Civic Center.  This should have been the biggest indicator of how our night was going to go: Our drinks were more than our sushi AND we were pretty much still buzzed when the symphony ended.  

We, of course, decided to have a drink at Cooney's on our way home.  Well my roommate had a date and after dinner they decided to watch a movie, so Christine and I decided to stay for another one at 11pm.  Well. . . pretty much that lasted until close.  Ooops!  Robb texted me at 2:30 and asked where Christine was and I said "Ooh her phone died. . . she just left my house."  

As Christine was telling me she's going to set me up with her brother once his divorce goes through, we start talking about all the bad dates I have been on and weird guys I've dated.  And about how over protective my friend Tim is of me.  Well then she brings up "Boatman".  I've told the story a long time ago on this blog, but he was a friend of my friend Josie and John's.  I didn't necessarily want him to come here and visit, but he persisted and basically that night told me he was in love with me.  

Anyway, she tells me that my friends were all so concerned after we had hung out that night, that they followed me to my place and sat outside all night in case he murdered me.  I was shocked that they instantly went with him murdering me, but I guess Robb and Tim after having alone time with him at some point in the night, just got this really weird vibe about him.  So Jamie, Tim, Robb, and Christine sat outside my place all night to make sure I wasn't going to be axed to death.  I made the comment "Well, after I told him there was never going to be anything, he got really mad at me, and I'm not even sure what time he left in the morning.  He was going to leave right away, but I reminded him that he had been drinking a lot and shouldn't drive back to Chicago."  Well then Christine says "Oh he left about 4-4:30am."  I was like "WHAT??  You guys seriously sat outside all night???"  And she said "Yes, we were really concerned.  The lights kept going on and off too, so we just kept waiting for a scream or for him to drag out a body.  Don't get me wrong, we did pick up a 24 pack and some cigarettes so we weren't just sitting there doing nothing."  I seriously just started laughing uncontrollably.  

I love that my friends were that concerned about my well being.  It also makes me realize that my fears of worrying that my friends won't like who I am dating are pretty founded.  This happened like 5 years ago too.  I can't believe it took that long for me to find out.  It's also both sort of creepy AND completely sweet.  

My Gramps turns 88 on Saturday.  I have had so many good times with that guy.  Granted, he wishes that 7 years ago he wouldn't have made the pact with me to not die until I get married. . . but I'm happy. :) I am soo excited to give him his gift.  He has a thing for the weather gals on a certain TV station here.  So being that I'm good friends with one of their husbands, Megan so nicely got me signed pics of her and of Jeriann.  I put them in a frame and wrapped it up for Gramps.  He is going to be soo surprised.  

Happy Hump Day everyone!!!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Do as I say. . .not as I do. . . or had done. . .or whatever that saying is. . .

Have you ever given people advice and then think "Oh I hope that it turns out exactly opposite of what happened when someone gave me that same advice and I took it?"

I also don't know why people come to me with love advice.  Ummm. . . we're friends, so you're completely and utterly aware that I have no love life right??  

Anyway, I tend to get myself in these awkward friendships with guys that ultimately turn into this "Will they? Won't they?" scenarios.  The latter usually being "They won't."  I always had friends say to me "you guys should date.  Would you date him??  If so, just tell him how you feel (especially in the case when feeling were there).  However, I seriously gave my friend the advice of not losing something that seems so great due to a friendship because it's far worse than not knowing what could have been. 

I. Completely. Lied.  

The one time I actually came out with "I have feelings for you," I was shot down faster than it took me to get the words out.  Well maybe not that fast. . . but pretty quickly.  I was so heart broken.  It crushed me.  I mean literally crushed me.  I have no idea why I gave her this advice either.  I know that I really think it will turn out differently than my situation. . . although hers is very similar to what mine was like.  It's probably the optimistic romantic in me.  I am the exception to the rule in all cases and I've learned to accept that.  :)

However, I did run into this guy on Saturday, and he was telling me about something sweet he did for her. . . so I'm thinking she will fair better than I did.

And on that note. . .

I feel that everyone should volunteer.  If not for the benefit of knowing you helped someone less fortunate, but for the sheer value of just helping. . . or in my case, I volunteered at Baconfest this past weekend.  And they stuck me and my friends at a bar so I ended up bartending for like 5+ hours.  It was awesome.  The guy in charge of our bar didn't want us to leave, which is why we worked a few hours after our shift.  I am pretty positive I will volunteer next year as well.  We definitely contributed to the intoxication of hundreds if not thousands of people.  Wait. . . I can actually say thousands because it's an over 21 event AND the 8,000 tickets available for purchase sold out in under 4 minutes.  It's insane.  If you don't like bacon, I would probably not go to this event.  If you love bacon. . . you will actually get sick of it by the end.  But it's delicious.  :)  I had the best slice of pizza with the oddest combo on it imaginable.  It was called "the Elvis" from Gusto here, and it had a peanut butter sauce, topped with bananas, bacon, and cheese.  It sounds absolutely horrible, but before we started we gave them some Bloody Marys in exchange for some slices, and let me tell you, that was the first thing I went back for when I was finally able to walk around because I only got a bite the first time.

I also think I missed my calling in being a bartender.  I was a barista in college at a small cafe and then was a barista at Starbucks for almost 3 years.  I do have the innate ability to have people yell 3+ mixed drinks at me and be able to make them without question.  Granted, most of the ones made were Bloody Marys but we had regular, bacon (bacon Bloody Mary mix) , or bacon bacon (Bacon vodka, bacon Bloody Mary mix).  But I mean sometimes people wanted to try the cucumber vodka with the Bloody Mary instead.  I had about 7 Pearl Vodka flavors and often people would ask what is good with them.  My favorite was part blueberry vodka, part orange vodka, and lemonade.  It was really refreshing.  Oh I might have gotten to drink on the job. . . in fact, our manager encouraged it.

I'm looking forward to a calm weekend for sure.

Have a good one everyone!  :)      


Thursday, February 7, 2013

Just stating the obvious. . .

I am a hopeless romantic.  HOPELESS.  Those who know me, know that someday, I keep hoping my life will be that rom-com.  I do know that now, well into my 30s, my life will not turn into a rom-com.

However, after having a conversation with a good friend, I realized. . . I might actually get my rom-com.  Or at least my romance/tragedy movie.  You see. . . I made a pact with one of my good guy friends that we would get married when I was 34.  Which I thought seemed so far away. . . until I realized I am frickin 33.  I haven't seen Jake in huge YEARS.  I'm talking like 6 years.

What are the odds that he remembers this?

I mean, in my head, this is how my rom-com would play out:

I am randomly minding my own business and my phone rings from a number I don't know.  I answer it, and he says "Hey, we haven't talked in a while, but I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to marry you."  Then we start this long distant talking back and forth.  And we pick up where our friendship left off.  Then my 34th birthday comes, and he comes to see me.  He gets down on one knee and proposes. We marry and live happily ever after.

However, my life has never been this simple.  I don't ever realize when a guy is interested in me, let alone, think I would ever have a chance with a guy I could possibly be interested in.  These last couple of weeks, I keep running into a guy who I had the biggest crush on.  I hadn't thought of him in ages and BAM! I literally run into him everywhere.   It's really starting to creep me out.  Like what if Fate is telling me "Hey, don't forget about him."  haha!  If only it worked like that.

Then on Tuesday, a friend of a friend needed a euchre partner and I said I would play with him.  Ummm. . . he is gorgeous.  And tall.  And Funny.  And he actually knows where my hometown is.  And people from my hometown.  And I know pretty much his entire life story in those 3 hours we played.  I, however, did forget to say get his last name.  Who does that?? I do.  My flirting consisted of me high-five-ing him after every hand we won.  I don't have game anytime, let alone playing euchre.  I do know where he works, where he went to college, and where he lives.  So I'm sure I could easily find him.  But how creepy would that be?
I hadn't watched HIMYM yet this week and they had a whole episode about it.  When does the action go from Dobler to Dahmer?  When are you John Cusak in Say Anything and when are you being Jeffery Dahmer?  With internet these days, there is definitely a fine line.  And there's always this peace of me when I meet someone, I wonder if they are googling me like I am googling them.

And now I'm starting to ramble and my friends who read this are starting to wonder if they should worry about me and get restraining orders for any future men in my life. . . ;)