domino effect.

okay, i know everyone says that once your first friend gets engaged, many others will soon follow suit. i didn't realize that it would be in one fell swoop in a little over a month! i kid you not, since thanksgiving, i have heard of at least six people who have gotten engaged, and that doesn't include [spoiler alert] the two proposals on grey's anatomy tonight. i know three of these people personally, and the other three are friends of friends. btw, i found out about my cousin's engagement on myspace, when i logged onto her page full of "congrats soon-to-be mrs. v----!" [ominous music] it has begun... btw, my money's on wolka by the end of the year... if only because he said over dinner that i would be an impulse bride in 2007. me, impulsive? does he not know me at all?

so... while we're on the topic, can i confess something? i... am... not... so... into... shiny... sparkly... overpriced... tetrahedrally bonded carbon atoms. and while the whole issue of blood diamonds provides a socially acceptable reason for shunning bling, the real reason is i don't find anything very appealing or exciting about compressed coal. on the rare occasion that i walk into a jewelry store (which i am forced to do every now and then because my mom and sister are diamond maniacs) i will ooh and ahh for five minutes (more perfunctory than anything else) and then sulk in a corner, bored to death. i just don't get it. can someone who really appreciates cut, clarity, carat, and color please explain?

even more lame.

i'm quickly descending into the depths of being the worst online dater ever. *bob*--36-year-old *bob*--(wow i just can't let that go) wrote me a plaintive email to inquire if he had messed up somehow... did he do something wrong? well, other than being a child of the 70s, not really, but can i really say that after exchanging multiple emails with him and giving him my phone number? not without looking like a complete moron. and i am a complete moron, for thinking that the age thing wouldn't matter when it really really really does matter. so i let myself down easy by letting him down easy... "bob, i'm sorry but my circumstances have changed, so i'm not going to be on match much longer..." i know it was a copout, but for the love of god, the man wrote: "i suck at playing the dating game, oh well." i didn't want to kick him while he was down.

the thing is, too, i know i was feeling sorta kinda lonely around finals... but i got back from break and whatever neediness i felt in december is just gone. *poof* and now i'm pretty content to snuggle on my couch by myself and watch grey's anatomy and type on my blog. it's weird how that loneliness can ebb and flow and i can't put my finger on any reason in particular. it probably has a lot to do with feeling reconnected to the world again after my strategery paper/house arrest debacle. i actually met up with a friend yesterday for mid-afternoon tea, chatted with my advisor this afternoon, and i have reunion dinners on sunday and monday. in short... i have my life back. i am interacting with actual live human beings. this diminishes the need to pursue virtual relationships with older men on the intertwang.

fizzle.

i. just. can't. do. it. cap'n.

so, i'm lame. i signed up for match.com almost exactly a month ago and nothing has come to fruition because i can't help but be very very very judgemental online. take marathon man... he's nice enough, for sure. we have great online chemistry. he gets my punny sense of humor and my virtual flirtatiousness. but i can't, i just can't, get over the fact that he is a whole decade older than me. and that his name is bob. i think the fact that he calls himself *bob* makes the 10-year difference seems astronomically large. i mean, how many people my age do i know named bob? robby, maybe. rob. bobby. but i can't do bob. figuratively and literally. call me age-ist and immature and what have you... but i can't.... i just can't.

my affection for match.com has also been greatly diminished by the number of 40+ year old men who have winked at me. every time i log on and see that i've been checked out and pursued by someone who could have babysat for me, i need to shower to wash the ick off me. and why are you writing me from florida and wisconsin??? what about that screams "mail order bride"???

sigh. so, it seems like my foray into internet dating will soon be over and i will be back to wallowing about being single the old fashioned way. but, i can at least now say that i've given it a go and found no one to my liking. sorry to let y'all down.