Happy Birthday to Me

OK, so as everyone knows, my birthday is kind of a big deal. I start talking about it, oh I don't know... This is January, so about 3 1/2 months in advance. But this is super exciting!

When I came home from scrapbooking tonight, Heather told me that she saw Ani DiFranco on the sign at Lawlor Events Center. I decided to look her up and see when she is coming to town. ON MY BIRTHDAY! Yep!

So, I ran through the list:

1) I saw Tori Amos on my birthday in San Jose with Tracy.

2) I saw U2 on my birthday in San Jose with Heather.

3) And now I get to see Ani on my birthday here in Reno!

Year of Yes: Date #2

I met The Writer online (of course, where else do I meet all of my dates???) and we seemed to have quite a bit in common. He's a writer. I can write. (I kid, I kid. I consider myself to be a writer. What do you think all this blogging is?!)

No, really, it was kind of strange. We both really like movies and music, but not exactly the same ones. Although we can get on board with each other's likes. It's not like his favorite movies are porn. He called me on Friday night and we talked for about an hour and a half, which surprised me. We made a date for Saturday.

We met at the wine bar at the Sienna, which was fantastic. I had a flight of wine, which was yummy, and my only complaint was that they didn't have any Spanish wines for me to choose from. But whatever. The Writer seemed extremely nervous. Like unbelievably so. I did my best to make him relax. Then of course, some drunk guy tries to but in on our conversation and start hitting on me. (Thanks drunk guy for making me seem so attractive!!!) He had already made reservations to Lexie's upstairs, which I thought was great and showed forethought, which most of my dates lack. In abundance. We had an amazing dinner. He walked me to my car. Asked that I call him when I got home to make sure I made it safe.

The Writer is normal. Out of this world normal.

If he asks, I will go out again. Looks like the Year of Yes is coming along!

I'm a Featured Yelper!

I decided (by Tracy's request) to join Yelp Reno, which is a rating/review website for restaurants, bars, shopping, everything! And today I went to review some things, and I was a featured Yelper!!

I am super pleased about it. I never get awarded anything, except bad dates, and this is really cool.

Anyway, Yelp used to be only in major cities, and now they are branching out to smaller markets, so check it out to see if they have one for YOUR city and join the Yelpers!

PS: Then I navigated away from the page, and my picture was gone, so they must cycle through often, but I was there, dammit!

The Year of Yes: My First No???

Well, when I started my Year of Yes, I did put some ground rules down: 1) No married men, and 2) No YES! if he asked me while he was propositioning or groping me.

So, here comes my first No.

I get an email from a guy online who doesn't really knock my socks off, but it is the year of yes, so whatever. I read his profile and it says 1) he is MARRIED (separated, but married) and 2) he wants kids, and if the girl he dates doesn't want kids, then he is not interested.

I emailed him back a nice little note saying that I do not date married men, even if they are in the midst of a divorce, and that I probably don't want to have any kids of my own in the future. (I did not mention I was up for adoption, etc., which I am.) He emailed me back and said that they weren't even in the middle of a divorce, just a separation!, it didn't matter if he was still married, his wife doesn't live there, they both agreed to date other people, and that he still wanted to meet me.

Huh? You want me to be your "It was just a break" girlfriend?

Oh, and he propositioned me in the email, too. He said, "I'd certainly enjoy getting to know you regardless of these issues, though perhaps they would lead us to more of a friends (with benefits, if we wanted?) sort of relationship."

Wha, wha, WHAT?

So, he broke both of my rules in one fail swoop, and I had to say no.

However, I do have Date #2 coming up tonight. I am even actually excited about it!

The Year of Yes: Date #1

This is a picture of me. On my date. OK, maybe it is a little exaggerated, but it pretty much sums up my feelings about the date overall.

Mr. Boring (I shall refrain from using his real name) was moderately good-looking. A little on the short side (no where NEAR his self-proclaimed 5'7") with no job. And no real desire to get a job. Which is fine by me, as long as you can provide for yourself, because I am NOT paying for dinners, movies, and drinks. But BOR-RING!

Who-hee. Seriously. The only time I wasn't bored was when I was talking. And when he was talking he was trying to discuss architecture. I don't know the first thing about architecture. I know that buildings exist and that some of them are really famous: The Louvre, The Guggenheim, The Effiel Tower, The Basilica. Other than that, I know nothing. I nodded politely but asked no questions, so as not to lead him on to think I was interested in this topic in any way. However, he did not get the hint.

He texted me today to tell me that he was really glad we had a good time and that it was nice that we had so many things in common.

The only things we have in common are we speak the same language and are online dating.

I sent him a polite but firm email stating that while I appreciated dinner, I did not think we made a very good match, specifically in the personality department. I wished him luck on his future search. Mind you, we had discussed the possibility of not wanting to see each other after the first date. We had even discussed our individual styles of rejecting said date if we did not want to continue the process.

His reply:

Hi Micaela,

That's fine, I understand what you mean. Honestly, it's kind of become an expectation, based on recent experience, that people aren't really willing to give someone much of a chance when it comes to dating. And, that's too bad, because in my case they literally have no idea what they missed out on. Anyways, I'll wish you the best as well. Take care.........

(Mr. Boring)

Apparently, I am too bitchy to date this one.

Good Reads!

My friend, Holli, who also blogs (see sidebar) wrote about this great website, www.goodreads.com.
I immediately had to join because I want to track the books I want to read and have read.

You should check out this website, and when you do, link me up! We can be reading buddies!

If you see my list, it is obviously a very long work in progress. But I can't wait to organize it!!

Happy Reading!

*Post Script: Tracy mentioned that she uses librarything.com

Eight Things Meme

Tracy did this meme and I decided that I would do as she wished and do it as well.

8 Things I am Passionate About
Life
U2 / Bono
Myself
Friends and family
Food (mostly eating it but sometimes making it)
Reading
Writing
Scrapbooking

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die
See a U2 concert in Ireland
Get married to a wonderful man
Go to Mardis Gras in New Orleans
Take my nephew to Disneyworld
Become a Jedi
Write my memoir
Buy a Prius
Travel

8 Things I Say Often
"He's such a douche."
"F**ck."
"F**ck that noise."
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph."
"That's what I'm talking about."
"I love you, Bono!"
"Thank you for calling Cheryl Latham State Farm. This is Micaela."
"What's UP?"

8 Books I Have Read Recently
(see sidebar)
The Year of Yes - by Maria Dahvana Hadley
The seven Dresden books- by Jim Butcher
(And since that is kind of cheating...)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - by J.K. Rowling
The Pillars of the Earth - by Ken Follett

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over
"One" - U2
"Missed the Boat" - Modest Mouse
"One Tree Hill" - U2
"Pretty Girl" - Ani DiFranco
"Never There" - Cake
"Could've Been" - Frank Jordan
"Icky Thump" - White Stripes
"Raspberry Swirl" - Tori Amos

8 Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends
Loyalty
Humor
Same taste in things (music, books, cigarettes)
Aura of kindness
Dependability
Conversation (the fact that I can go on a road trip with any of them and never lack anything to say or discuss)
They laugh at my stupid jokes
Respect for others
Looks (Oh, just kidding!)

8 People Who Should Totally Do This Meme
Emily
And 7 other people I can't think of who I think should do it, but won't

Yes!; Or The Funniest Book I Have Read in Quite Some Time

Rarely does a book make me laugh out loud. But I am telling you, my new pretend best friend, Maria, made me laugh my ass off.

She wrote the book I could only dream of writing.

I want to tell my embarrassing stories of my horrible dating experiences, but somehow I have shut them out of my memory. Maria on the other hand, wallows in the craziness that are her dates. For instance, she literally had a man ask her to bite his penis.

Yes. Bite his penis. They were in a Starbucks.

And I was immediately reminded of Pee Man.

(Maria also has nicknames for her dates. Although I think hers was to ensure a sense of anonymity, rather than her actually forgetting the man's name and just giving him a witty name, like Pee Man.)

The greatest theme of the book was the fact that in all the crazy dating she was doing, she actually had an opportunity to see good qualities in all of these men. OK. Most of these men. She really learned to have an open heart as well as an open mind. And I think that is what I, and many other women, can take away from this memoir. That throughout all the craziness that is this world, there is a lot of good (and a lot of bad) and that we better just make the best out of it.

Now, she didn't write a trite memoir. It was seriously funny; this is just what I got out of it. All in all, it was simply brilliant.

Aidan's First Santa Picture

I know it isn't a very good quality picture, but my baby nephew is seriously one of the cutest, happiest babies alive! Look at that happy smile, tellin' Santa what he wants for Christmas.

I mentioned to Steph that she was a good mom for finding a Santa with a real beard and an awesome background, but she said Santa was grumpy. I said, he doesn't look like it in the picture, but maybe that is because my nephew is the cutest darn thing ever!

Update: Year of Yes

Apparently, my Year of Yes is looking to be promising. On New Year's Day, Tracy & I discussed why the Year 2008 had a much more positive feeling than last year. We could name a few reasons why, but honestly, I can't put my finger on it, I just feel better about it.

And almost immediately, people started saying, "Well, there's this guy. He's not perfect, but..." Now, I have waited patiently for someone to set me up on a bona fide blind date. (My mom & dad met on a blind date, so I have faith...) But I ended up waiting and waiting. But all of a sudden...

Now, none of them have called me. Maybe they won't. But who cares? It is my Year of Yes. I'll do what I want.

Apparently, what I want consists of sleeping 12 1/2 hours, watching 4 movies, shoveling snow, and cleaning the house. All in one day. It was a nice Yes! day for me.

Let it SNOW!

For the last couple of days, all anyone could talk about here in Reno is "the epic storm of the century". Meaning a blizzard.

Since I have moved to Reno, I have been snowed in twice. Unfortunately for me, both have been on New Year's Eve. But this year, the storm came a few days later, (unfortunately on a Friday night, so no work off for me!), and here are a few pictures to show you the view from my front door. One from last night and one from this morning.
And now, off I go to shovel snow. My work out for the day.

The First Post of the Year

Ahhh, New Year's. I love you because you represent a new start, a fresh begining, and a day off from work to recover from the LONG night of partying the night before.

OK, I didn't party that hard, but I did stay up until 4:30am, and woke up at 7:30. That's rough on the ol' 30-year-old.

And I was on TV. I'm famous.