The Online Dating Chronicles

Online Dating. 

Tinder, Match, Eharmony, Okcupid, J-Date, Christian Mingle...the list goes on and on. 

Does anyone meet organically anymore in this era of e-everything? 

My last relationship ended almost a year ago - since then I've had some variety of involvements, all of which have been initiated primarily by Tinder. 

Tinder is a very simple and efficient way to make connections and find people that you may want to have a date with...or perhaps something else. Some may even say that it's no different than Twitter or other forms of social media. 

Well after being back on Tinder since December or so, I'm calling it quits...or maybe more specifically, I'm going to stop trying and use it for entertainment only. Tinder for me has been a good tool to meet dudes that are not emotionally or otherwise available - I think the efficiency of it lends itself to the pervasiveness of those types of folks using it. 

So, I'm changing things up a bit and decided to join eHarmony so I could do a little compare and contrast. It's no secret I'm in the market for a relationship - I've done the "casual" thing long enough and it's exhausting. 

I'm curious to find out what might be different about using a paid service versus a free site. 

I will be posting my observations and commentary here - feel free to follow along. 

Cheers! 

Failure

Hello friends - 

I just re-read my last blog post and realized I'm in a better place than that now so that's a positive! 

Not often do I have to admit failure fortunately but I do want to report that my attempt at going back to school his semester failed miserably and I had to drop the class I was taking. I was trying to do an online class (which I should know better) and got too far behind to catch back up. 

I couldn't dedicate the time I needed to and also put in the necessary time at work and have a social life. I wasn't compelled by the class material which also gave me the realization that I'm not passionate about the subject matter. All of this pondering made me realize that I need to re-evaluate the whole Masters degree program I'm in and whether I should change to a different program. 

I have not settled on an answer yet to any of the above. 

Is 37 too young to be having a mid-life crisis? 

Sunday Night

Last week was rough. 

So many sources of stress...work, school, landlord from hell. 

I hope this week is better and I can cope with the stress better. 

One other note...as fantastic as a social community is that I have and as awesome as being single can be, slogging through the challenges of life by yourself can be exhausting. 

I'm so tired of being single. 

My personal life misery index is indicating that I might be approaching a major life event - perhaps a big move. 

Stay tuned. Have a great week friends.

San Francisco!

Two blog posts in one week....wait, what???!? 

Current status: Flying back to Minneapolis from San Francisco - on board wifi is the best thing.

Just a quick post regarding my little vacation in San Francisco - three incredibly busy days filled with sightseeing, food and coffee. 

The city is truly incredible - my favorite places that we visited were Muir Woods, the Ferry Building and the Golden Gate Bridge look-out. 

The city feels like a sunnier and brighter New York City. So many incredible neighborhoods - I felt safe every minute and could definitely see myself living there. 

Definitely want to put it on the short list of places that I would like to spend more time in. 

Cheers! 

P.S. For some strange reason, I have been missing Nebraska guy like crazy lately, but what to do about that? 

February Funk

I have decided that I am fairly horrible at this blog writing thing.
I just realized that I haven't blogged since December so apparently nothing interesting has happened since then? Or I've been too busy to blog - little bit of both I suppose.

I've thought of a number of things I wanted to blog about and then promptly forgot them and onto other things.
Part of it is that I am notoriously in a funk with the majority of the rest of MN at least for a good chunk of Jan and especially Feb - this is the point in winter where no one remembers what it feels like to be warm and its freezing and mostly miserable outside and Spring isn't quite visible yet.

Well, I think we've made it past that point - and as I write this, I'm on a plane to visit the San Francisco area for the first time which I'm quite excited about so hopefully when I get back to MN next week, the worst of the winter funk will be behind me and I can be energized thinking of the renewing properties of Spring.

One thing that I keep thinking about recently is what is my passion, what do I like doing, and how can I turn that into a career. I like my job most days and it pays the bills but sort of fell into it and I'm not sure its what I want to do for the rest of my life. Throughout my entire career, I have been very fortunate in the opportunities that have been afforded to me and that I have been able to take advantage of. I am in my core, an ambitious person but I am getting to that point in my career where I need to decide what the end game looks like and I don't know that I want to do what I'm doing, even at a higher level for the next 20-30 years. I need to explore this more. I need to decide what risks that I am willing to take and how to I make things happen.

Relationship status: Meh. Not much more to say than that. Some flirtations and some dates but nothing to write home about. I think I am still working out what happened with Nebraska guy and can't say that I'm not still bummed that didn't work out. I don't know what's next but what I do know is that I'm not going to waste energy worrying about it. What will be will be.

As I say with each blog post, I will try to blog more. There is some catharsis in blogging that I enjoy.

Cheers to Spring and Warm Weather ahead!

Catching Up

I just realized its been more than 2 weeks since I posted!

Time flies in general but especially this time of year - its almost Christmas, eek!
I suppose I should probably start Christmas shopping sometime soon - honestly I feel like everyone already has too much stuff so the idea of buying more stuff kind of makes me cringe.

Relationship Status: Friend Zone - and its not great, actually fairly miserable but more about that later.

So......let's see. What have I been up to? Its been a busy few weeks.

Visited the Italian Art exhibit at Minneapolis Institute of Arts.....twice.
Its a really beautiful exhibit and I would definitely recommend even if you aren't particularly into fashion. What struck me is how styles are recycled and recycled - you can really see that in the progression from the 1940's to current day. No pictures are allowed sadly but it is worth the value to go and there have also a LivingSocial deal for half off the price of admission.  

I've been to several shows since the last post: Wet with Bae Tigre, Har Mar Superstar with Pizza Underground, and Shakey Graves with Sean Rowe. All the shows were awesome. Har Mar Superstar was definitely a super fun dance party but I was really blown away at the Sean Rowe and Shakey Graves show - the other opener was Esme Patterson and she was fantastic too. Barr Brothers was definitely my favorite show of the year but this show was certainly in the Top 5.

Thanksgiving! So much to be thankful for this year. Spent the holiday in Nebraska with the family and had a wonderful time. My niece and nephews are growing up so fast - its sort of incredible actually...and makes me feel a little old!

Visited the Minneapolis Holiday Market last weekend. There have definitely been many mixed reviews on the holiday market. Here is my take: Yes, it is a bit crowded and the set-up could have probably been done better to allow for better flow. Yes, it is challenging to access for anyone with any type of physical disability. Yes, you do have to pay $6 to get in when the Holidazzle Parade was free. All that being said, it was really enjoyable and helped me get into the holiday spirit. There are lots of good eats and drink and wares to be had. If you keep your expectations in check, I think its an enjoyable experience.

Circling back to relationship status.....so yeah, during the Thanksgiving trip, I saw special someone from Nebraska and we ended up deciding that we were best off just being in the friend zone. He can't see past the distance to what could be which is too bad. So.....friend zone but also going on some Tinder dates to get back into the groove here locally. Hopefully Prince Charming will show up sooner or later.

This week I'm in town all week! Looking forward to getting life maintenance stuff done and Third Thursday at MIA and then seeing Jeremy Messersmith on Friday.

Cheers to a great week!

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First Aid Kit

So much good music this week. 

By the time I got around to seeing First Aid Kit on Thursday night, I was almost a little burnt out of going to shows but this was the show that I was most looking for and it did not disappoint. 

The way I would describe the show is magical and ethereal. There were moments of humor and also one instance of an ugly cry from me when they sang "Ghost Town" completely unplugged. 

In the end, it was a really beautiful show. 

My favorite song that was performed was: Master Pretender 

Just have to add was that the Bleachers and Stars shows were really fun also - great songs, great energy, had an awesome time. 

Cheers to Sunday Funday!