Best Song Title Ever

I Love You (But You're Boring) by the Beautiful South

Update re: Out of Place

So, last night, on a whim, I visited the LunchDates website. They called me today to hard sell me their dating service and it works out to a really expensive investment. The longest plan is $1500 for 1 year or 20 dates, whichever comes last. The shorter plan costs about $125/date. I think that's kind of expensive. Maybe it's worth it, but I think I'll wait until I have extra money to burn like that. Maybe once my zip code changes Match.com will be more successful.

Let's Talk Baseball

The other day, my neighbor, who is apparently a HUGE Red Sox fan, said that she thought that Dice-K had an "elegant" pitching style. That's the first time I've heard baseball described as elegant, but after watching him, I have to agree. He's so clean - he breathes, and pitches. His style is nothing like the other pitchers'. Those guys have to fix their gloves, rub their eyes, fidget with their hats, spit, look around, spit again, and then pitch. It's amazing how much OCD is in this sport. The players have so many things they HAVE TO do before they bat. Seriously, if I had to do all that shit before I got on with my life, I'd still be in 5th grade.

So, things I like about Dice-K:

The announcers actually don't call him Dice-K
He pitches. He doesn't give in to every obsession before pitching, he just pitches.
His uniform fits

Out of Place.

So much of the time in my life, I feel out of place. Even (and often especially) with friends and family.

I'm 35, single, and not happy about it. So, what's unusual about that, you might ask?

Well, I'm 35, so older than ALL of my friends.
Not happy about it, which means I want to, even enjoy, going out to places where I might meet someone.
Single: most of the people I spend the most of my time with not only aren't single, but don't know any single people. It's not their fault, nor do I expect them to know single people to set me up with. I enjoy them for them, not for who they know. But sometimes I think, if these people are my friends and family, and I love them, then if they know someone who's single, wouldn't it be nice if that single person were for them them what my friends and family are for me? Wishful thinking.

If anything, it's my fault. It not like I haven't had my marriage proposals, or "really nice boyfriends". I have. I know. But, none of it worked out. And now, it's 2007, I'm 35, it's Friday night and I'm blogging. If it were 1996, I'd be journaling. I still have them, the old journals. Hate reading them, but can't bring myself to throw them away. Even when I thought I might die during surgery, and told my friend where they were just in case.

Most recently, I felt out of place at a knitting class. Teacher: 35 and pregnant with her 3rd. Other classmates: moms with kids. Other classmates: grandmothers. Me: ONLY SINGLE PERSON. Nothing to add to the pre-natal testing conversation, the 'kids going to college' conversation, or pretty much anything related to kids. Nothing to add the husband/boyfriend talk. I mention that I feel outnumbered and it's "Have you tried Lunchdates?" I just wanted to leave, cry, and throw the goddamn size 1 needle socks out the window. But, I tapped into the positive side of myself, which, I have to admit, is pretty strong, and participated, and did a few rows of the sock leg.

So, there should be a moral or a lesson or something to this post, I suppose. Well...plans to make myself feel better: manicure, pedicure, 3+days/week at the gym or exercising; positive attitude; best part: appointment next week to get a market analysis on the house. It's time. I'm moving out of Worcester. If nothing else, I'll be out of the line of sight.

The Ride In

Things I noticed on the way to work today:

• A woman driving with a small, amost toy-like dog on her lap. The pet-owner's version of pulling a Britney Spears.
• A dark green Volkswagen Eurovan. Love them. They were driving too slowly so I had to pass, and I happily spotted a big box that was bright yellow and had the word Happy typed on it.
• The woman in line behind me at Bagel Time had a hat on. Kind of like a going to church hat, and her hair was in a low bun. It was pink (the hat, not the hair), and she had a cute skirt suit on. Nice to see someone dressed up.
• A large hawk, circling over the mall.

Baseball

I don't watch a lot of baseball games on TV. I'm a fair weather fan. The last time I watched regularly was the first time they almost made it to the world series. I guess that would be about 4 years ago. This year, I want to get into it, and I've actually paid attendtion to a lot of games. It helps that I get both NESN and ESPN and that TV comedy is in reruns. Last week, I went to a Cincinnati Reds game and it kind of got me excited for baseball.

I like baseball because I understand pretty much all of the rules. 3 strikes, 4 balls, 3 outs. Home team bats last, pitchers don't hit in the American League. The thing that I'm noticing this year, for the first time, is that the Red Sox don't always wear the same uniforms. Tonight, they're gray and they have both a number and name on the back. The other night, maybe last week, they were wearing green t-shirts. And yet another night, the shirts were white and only had a number, no name. What's the deal?

back to work - the fun never stops

At like 3 o'clock today, I starting feeling sharp pains in my body - like, above my armpits. I figured it wasn't a heart attack since it wasn't in my chest. Then I took note of my position - hunched over the keyboard, chin jutting out, frantically typing on a presentation that was due before the end of the day - and realized that merely 7 business days after I returned to work, I had let the job get the best of me.

Before I went back, I told myself (and many others, as a matter of fact) that I wasn't going to go back and work like crazy. I was going to take a lunch break every day and make sure I didn't stress out. Well... I've been sort of successful on the lunch break thing but I wish it involved more than getting up from my chair, going outside, and sitting my fat ass down at the picnic tables. Especially since the picnic tables were built with someone other than humans in mine. This is where an engineer would come in really handy. My friend's husband is an engineer and I think he's designed some furniture - I can't remember what kind of engineer that is though. Racking my brain. But it's too full of work stuff. Industrial?

So, the pains set in, I did a lap around the cubes, came back to my desk, and finished up. Looked up, it was 5:01, and left.

I did a run/walk today, a 2.7 mile look, and feel much better. I think I'll do this every day. The run/walk. Not the excessive hunching, to the point of having body pains.