hair

This will not make sense to many of you, but as an inside joke for a select few readers, I just wanted to let you know:

I got a haircut.

And according to my guy friends, it doesn’t look too shabby. Thanks guys. Needed that boost in my self-esteem. A new do for the new year. Let the fun begin.  Happy new year everyone.

pre haircut

post haircut - it actually sort of looks like this.

Upsurge,
Sara

funny post follow-up

And just so everyone doesn’t think that I’ve lost it, here’s a follow-up happy post. Because even though some things haven’t gone well, the rest of my life has. On that note, here’s a quick rundown of funny and/or good things that have happened recently or that I’m looking forward to:

1) Volunteering in 2011. My efforts in 2010 have been lackluster. Will make amends in 2011.
2) NEW YEARS EVE. Okay so the past few years I’ve decided to stay in or head to a house party, and I’ve had a blast. This year I’m trying something new. Hanging with UBG, et al., we will be hitting up a dinner and then heading out to one of those all you can drink fiascos. Except that this one is actually a good deal, and the crowd number is limited. Best part about it is that our group keeps exanding. For dinner alone we now have about 15 people. The friend list expands exponentially for the party. It is nice to have a solid group of friends and I’m super pumped. It’s nice to be popular. Love you guys. LML
3) That’s all for now. I really just got excited about NYE.
4) Oh wait…quick recap on an eHarmony date I had the other night. Besides him likely being gay, we were eating a pork belly sandwich which ended up being way fattier than I had anticipated. Since I couldn’t chew it, I logically spit the fat into my napkin [flashback to our childhood during steak dinners when we would stick the chewed fat under the dining room table so our parents would think we ate it…yep, normal upbringing]. About half an hour later, I forgot that I had spit the fat into the napkin. As we were talking, I picked up the napkin to wipe my mouth, and out fell the fat onto the floor. It was rather…Sara-like. Luckily he laughed. Too bad he’s gay.
5) Regardless, eHarmony is a done deal (see prior post). In fact as soon as I post this I will get on that site and cancel the subscription for good.
6) Can I get a paycheck please? Work somehow managed to not pay me last week when they were supposed to. So, rent will be late, I’m running on a $0 checking account balance, and NYE is rapidly approaching. Things are looking up.
7) I bought a new pair of boots today to make me feel better. I know, I know…I literally have no money. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Sometimes a little retail therapy will help.
8) Good: My neighbor is a chain smoker and when he smokes in his apartment it drifts into mine. It’s absolutely disgusting. Well, he just came by to make sure his smoking was no longer bothering me…he has agreed to smoke out on the ‘balcony’ or downstairs. In fact, I hadn’t even noticed any smoke today and hopefully the situation has been rectified. There are kind people in this world.

That’s all for now folks. More to come soon. It’s been a good 2010, but it’s time to start anew in 2011.

Groundswell,
Sara

moving on

[Spoiler alert: this is a semi-depressing post. I know everyone wants the upbeat, funny posts all the time…but you gotta take the good with the bad. I am a Leo afterall…I have a flare for the dramatic. However, not to worry, I will post some 2010 highlights or something to cap off the year and bring in the new one soon. But writing this helps me sort things out, so here you go.]

You know what? I have a problem moving on. This must be rectified in 2011. It is soon to be a new year…and it’s time to move on. No one likes change; change is hard. But it is time for change.

I haven’t posted in a while; I haven’t posted about Christmas, how I went home for the holidays, how I avoided the storm in order to be back to work on Monday, even though I love snow…I love acting like a kid and sledding and not having to go to work. And there have been funny things that have happened to me that are worth a post…I mean, this is my life afterall…but recently I’ve really been thinking about how I’ve messed things up.

I know I’ve been posting a lot about going on eHarmony dates. You know, I really just got on that site in the first place to get over someone. Well, it’s not working. No matter what I do, I always realize how much I miss him and wished I hadn’t messed things up in the first place. But you can’t change the past. I did what I did at the time, and I did it for a reason, and I can’t change it. Maybe it was right, maybe it was wrong. At the time it felt right, sort of, but something was off. I always questioned if I had made the right decision. And now I don’t believe that I did. Regardless, I did make a decision, and now I need to move on. There is no more ‘us.’ He has moved on, and I need to as well. I don’t know why I thought I could just go on eHarmony and I’d find the love of my life. That is not even possible if you haven’t gotten over someone. I know this. Maybe I figured it would take my mind off him; and it has. But when it really comes down to it, right now I can’t even imagine myself with anyone else. I know that sounds crazy, it’s been forever since we even officially dated; but I am still in love with someone else.

So…this is a new year. And I’m moving on. I made a mistake, and I forgive myself for making that mistake; it is a lesson learned. No more dates, no eHarmony. I’m just going to forget about this person and be happy, because I am happy. I have an amazing group of friends and family, a great job, and love my life. The only source of negativity in 2010 has been this, because I haven’t been able to let you go. But I have to now, and I will. I want to be happy, and I want you to be happy. I love you and I miss you, but I am letting you go.

WOW

My morning commute is always something special. This morning I happened to witness a random act of kindness that you just don’t see enough of in this city. As I was entering the U Street metro station, I noticed two men running at me full speed. Then I realized one person was chasing the other. Next thing I knew, the chaser actually caught the chasee on the escalator, jumped on him, and got back whatever the person had stolen. At this point it dawned on me that it was probably an iPhone, since I had been hearing about an increase in thefts of these devices over the past few months. Now, I figured it must have been the guy’s phone that was stolen. But as he turned around to come back into the metro station with the reclaimed device, the guy handed it back to a girl. All I heard was “You got it??!!!! Thank you SO MUCH.” Honestly, what do you even say to that? This was a true act of kindness right there, for a complete stranger. I guess there are some decent people left in this world.

If you thought this iPhone theft increase was a hoax, I witnessed first hand that it most definitely is not. Clearly it is no joke. So keep an eye on your phones – in fact, don’t even use them at all when you are walking around the city, even on the metro, if you can help it. I think it is happening the most at metro stations when people least expect it. Seems like they are preying on women as well, since the boys probably think the women can’t catch them. This kid who sped past me was fast. There just so happened to be a kind stranger who saw the incident and made a split decision to track this guy down. He got on the same metro car with me right after and acted as if nothing had happened. Nice way to brighten up my morning.

Update: I wrote to Prince of Petworth about this cause I figured this guy deserved some recognition. Check here for my letter and comments!

refocus

So I’ve decided that I need to make a change and focus more on what’s important. Last night, my sister invited me to this event put on by this guy, Reed, who was out of work and decided to give $10 a day for a year to someone and see what they did with the money. This party was the celebration of that year ending. You can go to his blog here to read each person’s story of what they did with the money. In fact, my sister was one of the recipients, so that is how she knew about the event. Not knowing too much about Reed’s story other than that he gave $10 to my sister, I was particularly moved by how many people showed up. He has even been featured on CNN, and ABC was there covering the event last night. The diversity of the crowd was particularly touching; some of the people he gave money to were homeless or Street Sense vendors and one of them spoke. I actually caught myself tearing up on multiple occasions.

I got home from the event and decided to check out Reed’s blog; and then realized at midnight that I had been reading it for almost two hours. As I was reading, it occurred to me that I definitely have not been doing enough lately to give back to my community. Why am I focusing so much of my time now on online dating? Clearly it’s getting me nowhere. I am a happy person with a lot of friends, and even if I don’t have a special someone right now; I really don’t need one. It would be nice, but in all likelihood I’m not going to meet that person online. I will meet someone out doing things I care about and doing activities I like to do. That being said, I was so moved by this guy’s story that I vowed to start doing more for the community. I’ve made the excuse the entire time I’ve been in DC that I’m too busy. Yes, we are all busy. But we make time for things we think are important. Life shouldn’t be about working 24/7; unfortunately in our culture, this mentality is pretty much drilled into our heads.

When I lived in Atlanta, I used to volunteer at a nursing home; and all I would do was visit the residents. Such a simple act, but one that made a huge impact on their lives. They came to depend on my weekly visits and we grew very close. The funny thing is that I didn’t know it would have that much of an impact on my own life. I learned a lot from them and learned how much they valued just having someone to talk to. It made me feel good, knowing I was having such an impact. I wonder how they are doing and if they are even still alive. It’s funny; if you read Reed’s blog, you see that a lot of the people on the street just simply want someone to talk to. So when I talk about giving back to the community, I’m not necessarily talking about monetary donations. Just being friendly and talking to someone goes a long way in making that person’s life better.

I emailed Reed to see if I could continue on his legacy of giving for a week, but then I realized that he’s only asking people who are out of work to do it. Regardless, I want to help out some of the people on his site; even though some are homeless, many requested that people just offer a smile and talk to them when they walk by. I now plan to make more time to give back; and I’m really thankful to have met Reed and have been very touched by his story of giving.  I hope that you guys will read his blog and will be moved to give back too.

I know how to pick ’em

Last night I received an update on the ongoing Rico saga from a dear friend. Rico is a boy I dated back when I was on the match.com mealplan two years ago. Please read here for a bit of background on what type of pathological liar this kid is. Long story short, I only went out with the guy about three or four times before he told me he was moving to Colombia, with the brilliant excuse that he didn’t want to start something only to end it a few months later. Boy am I thankful for that, looking back on it. My friend yesterday told me that she just saw him the other day; clearly he has not moved to Colombia to start up his “hookah bar”…and we are two years out. Further, she found out that he is actually 23. That would put him at 21 when we dated. I was 30. I was in fact a puma, without even knowing it. He had told me at the time that he was 28. Lovely. This is precisely why I am staying away from match at this point, not that eHarmony is getting me much further. The Rico story just keeps getting better and better.

Dating has got to be the most frustrating thing imaginable. Boys and girls, if you are happily in a relationship; count your blessings. Because dating in DC is definitely no walk in the park and I’m considering throwing in the towel very soon.

One love,
Sara

**Quick shoutout to my friend Big D, who plans to start up his own blog very soon. Be on the lookout for drunkdiariesofdc.com. I kid you not, he carries a little notebook around with him when he goes out and just jots down what’s on his mind. It’s hilarious…and has got to be more interesting than my dating life.

from art galleries to raging dance parties

It is with great hilarity that I present to you the most recent edition of a day in my life. You all may recall that I am currently on eHarmony. Well more recently I figured I’d put a little more effort into it than a simple once per week check of my email. Without fail, that has resulted in a plethora of what I have thought are pretty legit men with relationship potential, i.e. three dates this week alone, similar to my run two years ago on the match.com mealplan. My Tuesday date was inexplicably HOT. When I say hot, I mean melt into your eyes hot. But that is not the point of this post. Let’s just say that the eHarmony selection has not been too shabby as of late.

And this brings me to last night, my second date of the week. I was pretty excited for this one. For some reason as soon as I saw the profile, I felt an instant connection, at least on paper. The guy is a bit on the eclectic side, an artist, different than the typical lawyer or Fed who works 60 hours per week. He looked cute in the pics, and his emails were adorable. So when he asked me to go to the Phillips Collection Art Gallery in Dupont as a first date, I thought that was a brilliant option considering usually online dates consist of drinks at a bar and then food if it goes well.

I arrive at Phillips and look for him at the front door, but no one stands out. I see a guy walking around who looks like he’s looking for someone; it must be him. I go up to said guy and ask, “are you Fred?” This question is always a gamble in the online dating world.

At this point I’m getting a better look at this guy and he’s not really looking like Fred, however, he looks very familiar. I think with dread that this could quite possibly be another guy that I’m currently talking to on eHarmony. But no, it can’t be. What are the chances of that?

The guy responds with, “no, I’m Chris. Are you…Sara?”

My worst fear is confirmed. I have just asked a guy who is not the guy I’m meeting that night if he is Fred, and he is not Fred but Chris, another guy I’m talking to concurrently on eHarmony. Seriously? Did that really just happen? I make things even worse by saying, “oh, did I just email you today?” I did not email Chris.

At this point I’m of course laughing my ass off; I could not help it. It was too absurd. There is no way out of it so I tell Chris that I’m actually meeting another guy from eHarmony there, and that I’m sorry. Chris just replies, “you must get a lot of dates.” Wonderful. Chris goes along to meet his friends and I continue on my search for Fred.

I see another guy standing against the wall. Doesn’t really look like Fred but I figure at least this guy doesn’t look familiar so maybe I’ll ask if it’s him. Not Fred. I’m now batting 0 for 2.

Finally, I get a text from Fred saying he got my ticket and is at the front. I don’t see any more single guys standing around, but he finally appears. Oh, this looks like the guy in the pics. Fred. I’m still in shock and of course laughing at what just occurred so my big mouth goes and actually tells Fred what had happened. I’m sorry, but if you can’t see the humor in that, then we are not meant to be together. I don’t think Fred got the humor. So clearly we were off to a really great start.

No need to go into the details of the date because there is nothing spectacular to report. Besides awkwardly running into Chris during the course of the time at Phillips and Fred later actually asking me to split the bill at the restaurant we went to afterward [guys – this is the kiss of death on a first date. DO NOT DO THIS], I’m sure prim and proper artist Fred was very impressed that right after the date, I was heading off to a David Guetta show at Fur Nightclub, sure to be a completely ridiculous rager full of dancing and staying out till 4am. I don’t really think he got that. Frankly, I didn’t get it either. Point is that he clearly is not my future husband, as I had predicted.

Now, if Chris sees the humor in what happened last night and responds to my apology email, maybe he is actually my future husband. Here’s to hoping there is one out there. And the search continues…