The 7 last (random) words of a Wednesday

1) Last night it was 20 degrees too cold to be wearing a knee-length skirt with no pantyhose. Someone please tell my cats to remind me that next time I leave the house.

2) But it was a warm enough too, yesterday, that the buds have popped on the flowering trees of Commonwealth Avenue. Pretty soon they'll explode and bring my pollen allergy along with them. Spring cometh soon.

3) I bought a pair of custom-made orthotics for my running shoes yesterday. They were made by Bill Rodgers' personal orthotic maker. I think that qualifies me as "cool" for at least a few minutes. If they succeed in curing my arch and ankle issues....I will be "cool" forever!

4) Lenten Soup Supper soup at my church is always the best soup ever. The crusty white bread that goes with it is also the best bread ever.

5) Which, speaking of....so my church. Like it did in my match.com profile, it has a place in my OKC profile. Tonight a man wrote who was, like,

"Woah! What is this CHURCH thing?!"

(Mildly distressing that he is the dozenth adult male to ask this same question, including the implied sk8ter boi tone. So much for mature discussion of the issues.)

Digging down into his profile....my suitor claims to have grown up Catholic but is now "agnostic and quite serious about it." So he's hitting on the Christian chick? To convert her to non-Christianity? During Lent?

6) I didn't go to work yesterday expecting my direct co-worker to be laid off.

But when I came back from my noon-hour yoga, she had been. Later, another colleague said to me, "there is more to come....that's what I heard." This makes me a little less excited about Thursday at work.

7) Which means that's as good of an excuse as any to go to bed. Right now.

Photo credit

It's been a quiet week on the OKC. 

One guy asked me out. When I replied that that sounded good.....no return message....5 days later.

I sent messages to 3 different guys this afternoon, in a rare showing of end-of-the-workday proactivity. No replies.

Number of daily stalkers to my profile....down to about 5, from previous highs of, oh, 110.

Random hits from 21-year-old San Franciscan boys wanting to have dirty chats while I'm sitting at the office....pretty much trailed off, too.

My last current is a month-long "conversation" with a guy who is a master at the sly one-line e-mail message.  I now also reply with one-liners.  It might take another month before we get anywhere. But he's not interested in being blogged about....so you might not ever hear about it.

This is the point where I think I'm old news on the OKC.  Probably time to take a break and come back "new" when there are more new people on the site. Or revamp my profile.  Or what?

Someone, give me some hints.

One thing I won't change, though, is my profile photo (above).  My money shot.

Kudos to Claudia, who took it one September day as we walked down the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in the Back Bay.  If I could track such things, I'd guess it is the single highest reason my profile has gotten hit as frequently as it has.  To wit (from a recent inquiry):

"I don't normally comment on someone's pictures, but the photo of you, bespectacled, short skirt, reading on a bench is far sexier than I think intended. Or, maybe it was intended. Either way, bravo!"

So that was nice. 

But I replied to his compliment 2 days ago....and am waiting for a hit back. 

And the search goes on....

Bikini Challenge (Week IX: Damn Cereal)

Confession: I did a dry run with the bikini earlier this week. In my bathroom. Standing on the toilet, to get the full story in the sink mirror. Adjusting, adjusting, adjusting the bottoms.

(I figured I should get to know what I really have to work on these last 10 days, eh?)

The good news: abs aren't a 6-pack, but the stomach is hanging in there. Actually, it's not hanging that much at all. Woo-hoo!

The bad news: when you're angling to look good in a bikini, with all the focus on the stomach, you forget that extra hip flesh is going to be the culprit.

(See: adjusting, adjusting, adjusting those bottoms. New Week IX Buzzphrase: side leg raises.)

The bad news (2): pasty, pasty, pasty skin. Very pasty.

(I wonder if self-tanning lotion is something that I can pay for with my flex-spending benefits card from work?)

The bad news (3): the return of the cereal addiction. 2/3 box of GoLean! Sunday night, 1/2 box Kashi Heart to Heart last night. T

That's 11 servings of (albeit healthy and fiber-laden) carbohydrates shooting straight to the aforementioned hips.

I chronicled this development on my Facebook status yesterday, and bless the heart of my former writing instructor who then commented:

"carb away. you're a running fool."

Still struggling with the great dichotomy of marathon training: burning calories like a fool....and consequently eating like a fool and putting them all back.

(But, I should say, despite the constant Kashi infusion.....the burning may be winning.)

Bring on March 22!

Songs for an unhopeful mood

Saturday evening in the city.  Coffee and biscotti with friend B.  A slow walk through Harvard and Brattle squares in Cambridge. Followed by a concert of Brahms and Schubert lieder by a talented choral group I sang with a number of years ago.

The climax--and in my opinion, highlight--of the program was the set of Neue Liebesliederwalzer, op. 65 (New Love Songs).  Brahms alone signifies passion and complexity and sweeping arpeggios. Add potent lyrics about heartache based on Slavic folk songs, sung in the spitting, vigorous Verzicht, o Herz:

Abandon hope of rescue, O heart,

when you venture on the sea of love!

For a thousand ships are drifting, 

wrecked on the surrounding shores!

Dark shadows of the night,

treacherous waves and current!

Who, resting safely

on dry land,

understand your plight?

He alone can do so 

who on the high seas

faces stormy solitude

miles away from the shore.

Such lieder.  I was soon at their mercy. 

It was a glorious melancholy.

Karin....your resident break-up antidote

Well sports fans, it's happened again. 

Man hits on Karin, who responds, and the two get on splendidly.  Karin goes out on a date with man. Karin likes hanging, talking with the man, finds him interesting and attractive, expects maybe they'll see each again.  Man says he likes hanging with Karin, also. There is discussion of future outings.

Then man decides that it's a good time to reunite with an earlier flame.  The end. Poof.

So Karin is once again the cure for a previously untenable situation.  For, like, the 4th time in the last 2 years.

This time it was the Young Scientist.  In these days following our first outing last Sunday, we had fairly involved, personal e-mail and chat conversations.  Then Friday, during an exchange about my "twingey" ankle pain, he tells me this week he also went on a date with a girl he had gone out with this fall, but broke off with before Christmas.  He wrote:

"She was like, 'if we are going to see each other you can't see other people.'  I'm not sure if she knows that I am seeing other people. I'm not sure how i feel about the whole thing but I might end up taking her up on it.

"And why do I mention this to you?  because I wanted to hook up again (with you) but that might not happen."

Tonight, while on OKCupid, I noticed he, today, removed his profile pictures.  Curious.  So I clicked on his profile....and it's been stripped to bare bones.  And he changed his status from "single" to "seeing someone."

To be clear -- it's not like I thought the Young Scientist and I were even dating.  It's more my incredulity that on Sunday he was on a date with me, and talking of how he had moved on from pre-Christmas woman.  I didn't know where he and I might be going, but I was on board and ready to roll with it.

So meh. 

I don't wish him any ill. (Actually, I can't comfortably wish him any ill....he's got this blog address.)  In our brief acquaintance he was always blunt....sometimes startlingly so.  Guess this is just more of the same.  And, as always, frankness trumps ambiguity in the world of dating.

In the meantime I'm wondering if, on my online profile, I should advertise myself as the perfect date for those wanting to reunite with an ex.   

Or not.

3/6/9 (R.I.P. Just re-'Pete'-in)

March 6, this year, creates a roundly perfect set of numbers:

The month 3 times 1. The month 3 times 2. The month 3 times 3.

March 6 is the day in 1985 that my dad's dad died....Grandpa Pete, who with my Grandma Blanche, co-owned the newspaper in Cando, North Dakota for (aptly) 3 decades.

Grandpa had a good heart (and a strong heart) for rural North Dakota, but with that came lifelong heart ailments that eventually took his life one Wednesday morning, early. He was 71. He was foremost a businessman, but secondly a writer, with a weekly column of pilfered stories known as "Just re-Pete-in".

Those 2 roles defined Grandpa's life to both the community and our family. But when I wrote my 2002 master's thesis on the newspaper, many things I remembered had nothing to do with those roles.

Here's a paragraph that I like:

"Grandpa died when I was 12. My memories of him are limited to his hairline and his trembling hands that reached above his head as he argued the value of Reaganomics. Plaid-patterned slacks. An artful dexterity with poker cards. A hankering for a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer on his supper tray."

The parting gift

I love my Cousin J.  Two weeks ago she moved from Washington D.C. to Nicaragua.  She had been cleaning house, prior to that, for several more weeks.

The day she flew out, this box appeared in my mail pile, postage on the back:

This is what it looks like out of the box:

Voilà!

Bikini Challenge (Week VIII: WTF?)

I'll confess. Tonight I'm biding time, waiting for the Tylenol PM to kick in. I've got head issues, stuffed nose issues, back issues, cinnamon sugar issues....sleep would cure these things.

But if I wait any longer to post a bikini update, y'all will think I'm hiding something.

Not true. Just forgetful.

Though true....I have been running like a horse these days. I have also been eating and drinking like I bed down in the same stable as the horse who is running. Here lie the most memorable moments of my Week 7 diet:

Monday: supper = one spoonful of peanut butter.

Tuesday: completely unmemorable.

Wednesday: 9 p.m. heat-lamp pizza from the Framingham State College cafeteria, washed down with Gummy Peach Rings from the pick-a-mix bin.

Thursday night menu-on-the-town: Guinness, Blue Point oysters, Trimbach Gewurztraminer, PBR, PBR, PBR, PBR, karoake, popcorn.

Friday: Muffin for breakfast, donut for snack, oatmeal for lunch, pasta and clams and cream sauce for dinner, canoli for dessert.

Saturday: Several passes through the Italian buffet (penne in red sauce, rare roast beef and provolone on a bun, potato salad) at a party that also featured birthday cake with inch-thick frosting.

Oy.

Nonetheless, I'm not hiding out. I've lost 3 pounds in the last 3 weeks. Pants all still fit. Yoga is on the schedule tomorrow. And I know it's just 3 weeks to belly baring. Which means it is time to commence Operation Ripple:

: 100 sit-ups per day.

: 6 planks per day.

: 30 minutes of cardiovascular per day, minimum.

: vegetables by the dozens.

: moratorium on cinnamon sugar.

: sleep. and then maybe some more sleep.

See ya in Week 9, suckahs......!

Monday at the OK Corral

So........Monday.

Market tanked hard. Seven inches of snow with a nice breeze to whip it around in.

Let's talk about online dating, shall we?

1) First, the morning....

....as I recovered from date #1 Sunday night with the young scientist. Who indeed is young, but tall. Ivy League undergrad on his way to Ivy League PhD. Spends his days manipulating strands of DNA in search of vaccines.

He evidently spends all other waking moments running. As in 110 or so miles a week of running, very quickly, several times a day. As in.....for fun, he jogged the Boston Marathon one year just to pace his brother.

Ergo, Young Scientist very much likes the fact that I run. Even moreso marathons.

Our primary difference:

He: Focussed solely on his research and running (with sidetracks to women). Perplexed how I pursue multiple interests... play piano for musicals, write, go to church, train.....spending so much time on things not remotely related to my full-time job.

Me: still trying to compute how one runs 110 miles in 7 days and otherwise has a life.

Nonetheless, good chemistry. The date was dinner in Chinatown, followed by a long walk in the cold and some making out (post-Benadryl by necessity, FYI....) at my apartment. He took the bus home in the blizzard. And we talked online today about getting together again.

I'm pleased to report all this.

2) Then, the evening.....

...where the fun never ends. As you might recall, the drywalling canoer and I enjoyed 1, brief, enthusiastic date on February 11. He was allergic to my cats. He didn't understand why anyone would ever write a blog. It was OK. But that was that, and that was OK, and there was no more.

Today he marshalled his powers and re-entered my life, via e-mail, with his charming entreaty:

DC: "Tonight?"

Hmmm. How to reply to someone physically attractive but who, in all other ways, has little idea how to butter my bread.

Ambiguously. Sure.

K: "Hey blast from the past! Tonight not ideal. Rain check?"

DC: "Rain check would be great.... I'm not sure how tonight is very realistic for me either... So, how's the boy search going?"

I tell him about my recent dates...briefly. The conversations that never turned into dates....more briefly. I joke about his silly made-up screen name and how it makes me want to remember him as that, rather than by his given name. Tell him how I enjoy learning a lot about the mix of folks one meets here.

He continues the charm offensive.

DC: "Why do I have a feeling you are having all these experiences to fill the pages of the book!? ...You may hate me, but I actually forgot your name / Nonetheless / i think i would like it if you made one up too ;-)"

Loverly.

All that and a slice of baloney to sleep on.

Blogger's Bible: Steal from Facebook

25 Random Things is a viral forward that went around on Facebook this winter.

Instructions are self-explanatory: "if you receive this, write 25 things, facts, habits, or goals about you. Send to 25 friends. "

I received 9 versions from friends---all entertaining in individual ways. For no specific reason, it took me until tonight to answer them. Exhausted after finishing, I'm letting them do double-duty on the blog.

Why not?....the topics should be familiar.

Cheers!

(But apologies to those of you already saturated with it on FB. Fresh text tomorrow.)

- - - - - - - - - -

1) I actually first started this list on January 31st. Then I accidentally hit "refresh" while I was on number 16. It took me until tonight to feel like starting it again.

2) I believe it has taken me this long to get back to this list because I've been blogging hardcore lately. I try to steer the creative energy in that direction.

3) It is half past midnight and I just ate a banana and drank a can of Fresca. About 20 minutes ago I finished off my lo mein leftovers from Pho Pasteur. And I would do anything for a couple bowls of GoLean cereal right now. This is completely normal behavior in this house.

4) I think it is OK to listen to Sufjan Stevens Christmas songs on the early morning of March 2.

5) In 2 years, I have had 7 dates over to this apartment. 5 of them (including one from earlier this evening) have been allergic to my cats. Those seem like ridiculous odds. I now tell men ahead of time to bring Benadryl with them when we go out.

6) I am a Christian in Boston. You'd be surprised how many people are amazed by this.

7) Ditto on being from North Dakota. Today I met someone who, when I said, "so, you know where Fargo is, right?" he said "no." Then again, he didn't know where Minneapolis was either.

8) I have stayed up too late nearly every night of the last 6 months. I have a difficult time going to bed when I'm tired and I figure a couple years of therapy might help me, someday, discover why.

9) I simultaneously long for a boyfriend and want to be alone so I can do whatever I want when I want without regards to anyone else. Which might be why I don't have a boyfriend at present.

10) I'm a ridiculous narcissist about my writing. Sometimes I am so proud of an e-mail response to a friend I'll go into my sent box and read it several times just to admire it.

11) I honestly wish I could be more selfless. This kind of goes up there with #8......I have a very difficult time honestly being altruistic. It takes work.

12) I pilfer wireless from my neighbors. In the summer I sit out on my patio in an adirondack chair because of the superior connection there. Often very late at night (see #8). My neighbor comes out randomly, occasionally, at 1 a.m. to walk his dog. He has never once commented on seeing me sitting there in pajamas with my laptop. I admire his lack of curiosity.

13) I have not balanced my checkbook in about 6 years. Which means I have way more problems with overdrafts than I will ever tell my mother about.

14) I have a similar problem with library books.

15) I really, really, really need to buy a dresser for my bedroom.

16) I've scrubbed my bathroom floor once since I moved here. Once.

17) I just opened another can of Fresca.

18) Damn. I would do anything for a bowl of GoLean cereal. Right now.

19) It is 12:52 a.m. It is too late for me to be up. I know this.

20) I also know I will set my alarm clock for 6:30 tomorrow morning and I won't get out of bed until 7:45. Or maybe 7:55.

21) But I still might go after this and check my Yahoo! account. Then my Gmail account. Then maybe okcupid one last time. Then probably my blog. Then the NYTimes editorial page. (see #8, #19)

22) If I had ever got around to purchasing a piano, and it fit in this one-bedroom apartment, I would then probably start playing some Brahms intermezzi. In fact, I would do anything to play the opener of Opus 119 right now.

23) I just read #'s 16-22 in order. Would I do any of this if I were married? I hypothesize that having someone to spoon with regularly might cure me the constant midnight eating and trolling.

24) Most of the time, however, I am a happy girl.

25) And I am grateful for everything I have, and everyone I know.