Before I Turn 30

Before I turn 30...
So, some of my closest friends were with me on the night I turned 29. First off, thanks dear friends for making it such a great birthday!  I love you girls :)   Well, on that night my friends helped me create a list of things to accomplish before I turn 30.  From this point on, I have 355 days to accomplish this list. I added a few bonus items that I just couldn't remove from the list!  In no particular order...

1.  Grow a new kind of plant

2. Visit a Nashville church of a different culture (Spanish-speaking, black, etc.)

3. Try a new ethnic food

4.Say yes to a date I know is a no

5. Visit a small town in TN and do all the touristy things

6. Take a class to learn a new skill (cake decorating?!)

7. Serve in a soup kitchen

8. 

9. Make an article of clothing 

10. Ride in a hot air balloon.

11. Go on a road trip without planning it!

12. Buy a stranger their morning coffee

13. SURPRISE for the girlfriends :)

14. Eat an entire cookie bottom sundae by myself

15. Go home a different route to Mississippi

16. Go to a cooking class, bring a man, drink some wine

17. Ask a guy at the grocery store for suggestions on cooking something

18. Buy a new item at the Franklin farmer's mkt

19. Find a good wine and share w friends at a vineyard 

20. Kiss someone at midnight on New Year's Eve 

21. Foam 5k + one more 5k

22. Plan a pamper day all day --mani/pedi, makeover, massage, new outfit

23. Kiss someone in the rain

24. Make a vision board. 

25.  Skip work just bc 

26. Go on a speed-date or 3 blind dates this year

27. Make a digital scrapbook: Instagram counts. 

28. Keep adding money to my savings + Have an outline of what to do in retirement 

29. Get something (an article?) published. 

30.  Participate in this Photo Challenge. Not only did I do this challenge, but I also created Gratitude, Christmas, and 365 Photo projects of my own. 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK9yytYJfOUBLSdLZQOWMJslKfoRFlrpnDy2PpOXzCeWHZH7sRsh7j2ueEn9u-9J3AACLr-W-DnhYSRwtqe24sXhY-z3ej9ucgGTsaCDjzjX2joAX_J1Wk2AkSOoMuz36D3NwFQ8yKMrJG/s1600/2011photochallenge.png 

Take a risk w the house--paint, put on the mkt, etc 

Offer to cook for a man

Ask a random guy on a date

Take a picture a day for a week

Cooking class w the girls (mom, Viv, Allison)

Online Adventures

Alright everybody, I've recently had a birthday and we just entered a new year.  Happy birthday to me!  Meaning... There are New Years resolutions to be made and 28 years to reflect upon. This 29th year is going to be an adventure. So, for my birthday I had some of my nearest and dearest friends to help me do 2 things: 1) to create a list of 30 things to accomplish before I turn 30 and to help accomplish a New Years resolution--to have a subscription on an online dating site. Tonight's post is about the online dating. I'll get to the 30 before 30 list in a few days, but I knew there were a few of you who were dying to hear the online dating report :)

Well, welcome to online dating!  My goodness!  I've spent the last couple of nights responding to emails to the many interested men. I've already deleted several and I still have 47 emails in my inbox. Whoa!  Sounds like I'm bragging, right?  Don't get carried away. This is a meat market and I'm just a new piece of meat. I'm sure it will calm down soon.

Well, there are a few guys who are interesting. Several have very interesting profile names. Some have smiled at me. Some have winked ;)   One of the things on my 30 before 30 items is to say "yes" to a date with a guy I'd normally say "no" to.   So... There are 2 really cute guys who seem to have good profiles, but....one's divorced with 2 kids and one was never married but has one child. So, I might be able to cross one thing off the list :/ if I do go on a date with either of them.

Thankfully, these websites give you room to say "no thank you" pretty quickly. Trust me girls, the grass is NOT always greener on the other side.  I'll keep looking and will report any interesting men!

So one reason I think I rarely post is because, in my humble opinion, the posts I've made have been funny. I'm not funny often, so...it takes a while for me to think of enough funnies to post.  Starting now, I'm giving myself permission to not be funny on every post.  Some will be funny.  Some will serious. Some may be sad. Just sayin...

And She's Back!

Ok, ladies and gents.  I'm single and I have friends who are married. And what do married friends try to do with and for their single friends?  They set them up. Here's how it goes. Friend:  Oh, I have this great guy for you. You: Oh you do?! And what's o great about him? Friend: He's single and ... I thought you two would be so great together!!  You: Oooh, sign me up, but in your head you're thinking... Really, we're single?  That's what we have in common?  My friend knows me so well and that's what she came up with?  We're both single. So, all the single people in the world have 3 choices: a) be set up on blind dates by well-meaning friends, b) start an online dating subscription, and c) be single forever and let's face it, c really isn't an option. So this blog is about options a and b!

Event Number One

Alright for all you blog followers...I know you've been sitting on the edge of your seats just waiting for me to post the next blog about my awesome adventure in my efforts for finding Mr. Right!!  Well, wait no longer!!   Actually, nothing super exciting happened......... Thank goodness for my dear friend *Claire.   She willingly attended the first event with me at Mafioza's for pizza in the snazzy, up-and-coming neighborhood of 12th South.  So first, to keep with the motto of "power in numbers", Claire and I met at her house to ride together. Riding with your "social supporter" to an event is key. You show up together, you mingle together, and you leave together.   On the drive there countless thoughts swirled around my already cramped brain! What if I meet my husband here?!!  What if I meet a stalker here???  What if someone asks for my number and I do not want to give it to him, but I don't want to be rude, how do I say "no."  Funny, I have trouble saying "no" to other people in my life, like Can you do this?  Can you do that? Will you pay too much to be in a "non-dating" dating service? Always, always, always... yes.   

So, we get there and are looking for the event hostess, although I have no earthly idea for whom I am looking (young/old, short/tall, male/female).   She's actually a red-faced "Anne of Green Gables" meets "Pippy Longstocking" of the 21st century.  Needless to say, she was an interesting character. So before meeting "Pippy," Claire and I go stand by the bar trying to figure out if this group of people is the group we're supposed to meet.  So... we stand there... waiting and deciding if we should walk up to "Pippy."  We're not really sure if she's the hostess or not, so we go for it.  We introduce ourselves and then she takes us halfway around the room introducing us to all of the other folks there. Several people are native Nashvillians, while others have moved here for jobs and other reasons. Ragardless of their native homes, this was an awkward way to be meeting people. 

Finally we settled into a small, comfortable group of rather new people. There was Adam, the starbucks barista with a college degree who clearly was suffering from a small case of social handicap. But nevertheless, Justin and Jon came to his rescue. Justin, the occupational therapist from New Jersey, tired hard to impress but just couldn't quite keep up conversation. Jon though, Jon was in rare form. Funny, friendly, and  flirty, he was like a night in shining armor compared to what we were looking at already. But alas, while I was in the bathroom Claire found out that he was 37....so why is he at the 30 and under adventure??? Hmmm, creeper? Probably...

So, after a few cocktails and a pizza that we were forced to share with all the men we had just been introduced too..(our treat fella's, no problem!) We paid our tab and said farewell. Maybe next time...

And now, as I sit with my bowl of ice cream on Claire's bed, I can't help but wonder, was it worth it? What will happen now? Who will I meet next? What adventures await me in my journey to find my true soul mate?? 

Only "Pippy" knows the answer!

*note: Names have been changed to protect the single and innocent.

Day 1: Should I or Shouldn't I ...Join??

So I've been hearing everyday for the whole summer on the radio about this "non-dating" service group who plans events for singles in the Nashville area. So...I look up their website to find out more about them. Whoa!! They've got a fantastic list of events that sound like so much fun...so I call for more information thinking, "What the heck? I should at least find out about the "non-dating" service! So I call. They call me back. They set up an "interview" for me. Hey, shouldn't I be interviewing them?? So the big day comes when I go meet the crew who will help me find Mr. Right, although not by dating him. Remember, they're not a "dating service." Enter Adventure Girl at 10th Ave South at Cummins Station. I'm almost late so I ask the cute receptionist boy for the suite number (I did NOT tell him where I was going). Needless to say, he asked anyway. Humiliated, I told him the name of the "non-dating" service. On the way to the elevator another guy asks where I'm going. I reluctantly tell him and he gives me advice on another "activities" group in town. So, I'm in the building for 2 minutes and already I'm talking to new guys!! Do I really need this "singles" club??! In I walk to the office where I'm met by a nice lady who proceeds to tell me all about the singles club and how I am as "cute as pie." She doesn't understand why I haven't already found Mr. Right. Automatically...feeling pretty good! Then she asks me what ''m doing to meet guys. In my head, I'm questioning my philosophy on dating. Will God bring me the right guy through a "non-dating" service such as this or will Mr. Right enter Kroger the next time I'm grocery shopping and we'll casually run into each other in either the fruit aisle or the Mint Oreo aisle??? I'm not sure, but back to the question at hand, "What am I doing to meet guys?" "Nothing," I reply. I hang out with my single girlfriends or other girlfriends who have boy friends. Wrong answer. So, officially I''m the 3rd wheel--not a great way to meet guys, she tells me. So, anyway, she tells me how great the "non-dating" service is...you can meet good guys there who "are employed, heterosexual, non-felony-committing guys who have their own homes--you get kicked out if you still live at home." Yep, that's right--you can get kicked out for living at home with the 'rents. Anyway, she asks me all these questions about if things were perfect in "Adventure Girl Land," where would I meet Mr. Right, when would I marry him, what would we do in our spare time...." I answer all the questions. I get to the end of the interview. Do I really want to do this?? Am I really this desparate?? I hate to think of myself as desparate, but really, I work with 50+ year old married people and go to a singles' class where half the people in the class are engaged or are in a "serious relationship." The rest... I'm just not that interested in. Call me picky. I call it a defense mechanism! So, do I join?? "What can it hurt?" I think. At least I'll have some fun activities to attend and maybe I'll find some new guy friends. So...I joined. Tune in next time when I've actually been to an event and met potential "guy friends" or potential "Mr. Right"....