Friday, August 31, 2007

Off to Chicago....

Heading to Chicago for the weekend!

Everyone have a safe and Happy Labor Day!!! No laboring required!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Does it EVER end?

I travel quite a bit. This month alone I'll be taking 3 trips and several flights. Why on earth, despite the fact that I am nearing 30 years old, do my parents still INSIST that I sent them my flight information every time I fly??! I'm a grownup and if I want to fly around the world without my mommy knowing that I'm in seat 5A and having the vegetarian meal then I should be able to!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

10 days

My insomnia is back with a vengeance. It has been 10 days since I slept more than 4 hours in a night and most of those nights I haven't slept AT ALL.

I've tried (not all on the same night!):

Nyquill
Rum
Unisom
No caffeine before 3pm.
No caffeine at all.
Not eating after 8pm.
Eating a small snack right before bed.
Turning off the TV/Computer at midnight.
Warm milk.
Working out (but not to close to bedtime).
Yoga right before bed.

NOTHING works! Please PLEASE someone come over and knock me out with a baseball bat tonight so at least I get a little rest.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Facebook Archeology

An old friend from high school found me on Facebook yesterday and he now lives in California. He wrote this to me in one of our email exchanges today:

we used to live on the same street and now we live on opposite sides of the continent

it makes you realize the power of the internet.

I couldn't agree more....plus he's REALLY hot now.....

Friday, August 24, 2007

A Change of Face

I wear glasses and I am constantly getting bored with my frames and changing them up. Last week I started feeling the itch to get rid of the "industrial nerdy" look I currently sport and back to something darker and more sleek. I made an appointment with the eye doctor and conned a friend into coming with me to pick out new frames tonight after work, so hopefully by Monday I'll have a brand new "sexy librarian" look!

Before and after photos to come!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Walk Away Slowly

So last night The Young One tells me that the reason he won't be in Chicago for Labor Day weekend is that he is going to visit his ex. Even though we haven't met yet and aren't dating, I have to say I was upset/jealous. He assured me that they are just friends and he's not going to get back together with her, but I've been around the block enough to know how this plays out and I'm not sure I want to be a part of it anymore. I'm not the girl that gets the happy ending. I'm the girl whose guy goes on vacation to a foreign land and dumps me because he fell in love with his tour guide.

After several hours of ignoring his calls he sent me a text asking me to please call him so we could talk about it. I did, but there was no real resolution to the conversation. I told him I wanted to cool things off for a while since he was clearly not emotionally available and told him I still wanted to meet up with him in September, but maybe just for a lunch or something casual. He said he was disappointed and was hoping to take me on a date and go sightseeing with me and spent time with me, but that he understood why I wanted to back off. He again assured me that nothing was going on with his ex and even though she wants to get back together with him, he is not interested in her and he is excited about getting to know more about me. I honestly can't tell if I'm being reasonable or unreasonable and I hate that feeling. I just feel like it's inevitable that I'm going to get hurt and my self preservation skills are telling me to get out now.

I wish I knew if I was just being scared or practical. It's such a fine line it seems.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Meeting the Boy...

The Young One and I have been seriously discussing meeting up soon. Though he's from Chicago, he travels for work a great deal and is currently working on a project elsewhere. We agreed that since he already flies a great deal every week that I would come to him. He is insisting on paying for my plane ticket out to see him, which is sweet, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea. We've agreed on a date (the weekend after labor day (he won't be in Chicago on the days I'll be around for Labor Day)) and it's starting to get close! The city he's currently working in is one I've been wanting to visit and at the very least I know I'll be able to get good photos out of the trip as long as I'm not too nervous to hold the camera steady. I actually think meeting up in a new city and doing touristy things is a pretty cool first date so I'm looking forward to it. I just hope I can relax enough to enjoy it!!!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

I met a boy......sort of

About a month ago I posted an ad on NY Craigslist. I wrote that I was a single female just looking for conversation over coffee or wine. I went on to say I was well-traveled, well-read and slightly overweight, even though I did go to the gym.

I got only 2 responses, 1 from a 50 year old man and 1 from a 30 something guy recently released from prison. Needless to say I didn't respond to either.

I told a co-worker who is also originally from the Midwest about my experience and she made a comment about how if I had posted in any other city in the country I probably would have had an entirely different set of responses. I decided to test out her theory. I posted the same ad on the Chicago Craigslist, just adding a line about how I'm from NY but travel frequently to IL (among other places).

The number of quality responses I got was astounding. Mostly men who are required to travel frequently for their jobs and who have trouble meeting women because of it. After some email exchanges with a few, one started to stand out, a guy who works as an IT consultant for a large company whose job requires him to travel M-Th each week. We've been emailing and talking on the phone now for about 3 weeks, and I am starting to really like him. He's sweet, makes me laugh, we can talk for hours about everything and nothing, and from the numerous photos I've seen of him, he's cute. The downside...he's only 22. Most of the time I try not to think about it....until it hits me that he's only 14 months older than my sister....or the thought crosses my mind that when I was learning to drive he was 10. We've been talking a lot lately about meeting up when I'm in Chicago for Labor Day weekend, but I'm nervous about it. Our conversations are great, we talk for hours a day...I instantly become in a better mood when I see his name on my caller ID....I feel like meeting up will change all that. I've met people from online before....and the outcome is hardly ever good. You meet up, you have dinner and then you never hear from the guy again. I guess it all comes down to that I don't feel pretty enough for him, even though he said to me the other day that "it's past the point of me caring what you look like, I already know I like you". I just don't want to lose someone who I enjoy talking to....I guess though if he does disappear after meeting me then he wasn't who I thought he was anyway.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Conversation With a Bell Hop

Me: Can you get me a taxi to the Los Angeles Airport
Bellhop: Sure. Where are you going?
Me: Um...the Airport
Bellhop: No I mean where are you flying to?
Me: Oh, sorry. I'm going home to New York.
Bellhop: What are you going home to?
Me: um....what?
Bellhop: Are you going home to a boyfriend? Cat? Dog?
Me: Er...no, none of that, just going home to work I guess.
Bellhop: Well isn't that what you were doing here? Traveling on business?
Me: Yeah.
Bellhop: Well then why go home? It's not like you have anything there.
Me: um yeah....guess I'll think about getting that cat.

First my Mother hounds me about not having a boyfriend and now Bellhops in Hollywood, CA???? Who's next? The guy from the deli that sells me my morning coffee??? Random people on the subway? Grr can't a girl be single in peace??

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Less than 24 Hours Notice!

I found out yesterday at 3pm that I have to go to Los Angeles for work TODAY! I can't complain though 3 days in the sun on the opposite coast...not a bad deal really. A little fun in the sun never hurt anyone!

Friday, August 10, 2007

10 years!

I just got an email invite to my 10 year high school reunion in November!!!

I feel old.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

More Commute Fun

Time it usually takes me to get to work: 35 minutes
Time it took me today: 2 hours 45 minutes

# of blocks I usually walk to and from trains: 2
# of blocks I walked today: 35

# of subway lines usually running in NYC: 26
# of subway lines running this morning: 1

Time I usually get to work: 9:05am
Time I got to work today: 11:15am

And all this in 95 degree heat and 60% + humidity

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Text Messages Grow on Trees

You may remember that last week's incident regarding apples that grow on trees. The "Comedy of Errors" that seems to be my life has struck again and I had this (accidental) exchange with the SAME executive on Friday night.

Upon arriving home on Friday night I decide to send a text message to my friend Grant to see what he is up to. I write "you out causing trouble?".

Shortly thereafter my phone beeps indicating that I have a text message. It's from the executive from my company, Gregg. I open the message thinking that perhaps I forgot to do something at work, or he needs me to come in. The message states "um why do you ask?".

Apparently I scrolled down 1 name too far in my contact list and sent the "you out causing trouble" message to the executive "gregg" NOT to my friend "grant"!

I wrote back apologizing and made a joke out of it, and he texted back joking in return, so I'm sure everything is fine, but I think I better be on my best behavior around him for awhile, just in case!

The Distance Between the Two is the Same, No Matter Where You Start

Several months ago I applied for my old job back in IL. I hadn't heard anything about it, so I assumed they had hired someone and the search was over. Last week I found out they contacted all of my references, so I guess the search is still on and I'm potentially still in the running. Now that it's a possibility again I can't help but think that the possibility is real that I could be moving in a month.

A part of me feels very ready to move on and have a different kind of life, but a part of me feels so not ready to leave NYC for reasons I can't even quantify. My whole life I've felt torn between the two sides of myself, never feeling quite complete when in either place. My mom was raised in Wisconsin, my dad on the upper east side of Manhattan, (though I'm adopted) I've always felt the pull of both places. I sometimes wonder if I need to find a place that is uniquely my own, out from underneath the influence of them both. Though I've traveled all over the world, the only places I've ever even considered living are NY or IL. I've spent my 28 years on this planet acquiring frequent flyer miles going between the two, and wonder if I'll spend the next 28 doing the same thing.

Maybe ultimately it doesn't matter where I live as long as I'm near an airport.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

STILL no lease

After three months I STILL don't have a signed copy of my lease. I sent my rent check in this month with a letter stating that I still don't have a copy of it and asked them to mail me another one and got a voicemail back saying that they gave it to my super back in May to give to me and he has it. I've seen him SEVERAL times since then and he's never given it to and I have no idea why they won't just photocopy the one they have in the office and stick it in the mail. In fact, because I didn't have a copy of it I had NO idea what my rent was this month (it went up per the lease) so I wrote a check for what I thought it was, but I was $20 off so they sent me my check back asking me to write another one for the full amount. How about maybe sending me a copy of my lease with the check so I know the amount???!!! Ugh.

All this is annoying because I need to see the sublease provision of my lease because I found out recently that I am still in the running for my old job in Illinois and may still be moving shortly. Nobody from the old job has contacted me yet, but they contacted all of my references last week so I may still have a shot. More on that later.....half the time I'm excited about the prospect of returning to Illinois and leaving NY and half the time the mere thought of it sends me into a full blown panic attack.....

All I want is a copy of my lease! Is that too much to ask for???