Saturday, May 19, 2018

Story #6. Army guy #2. He was amazing. I’d met him on my travels. He was transferring bases soon. He’d been twice divorced (twice cheated on). I could understand him. I’d never had a connection with anyone how I’d had with him. On Every level. Emotional, mental, physical. We had all the same thoughts and opinions about every political aspect. And yet, we had a variety of different interests. He was fun. He was romantic. He even drove out to visit me for 2 week! He shoveled snow in my driveway while I was away. A true sweetheart.

It was a fairytale romance straight out of a Disney movie. I wanted to keep him forever. Lucky for me his exes weren’t good enough for him.

But at the end of the second week, he broke up wit me when he was leaving- for the same reason the last story’s guy did. He was still emotionally struggling getting over his last divorce.

He transferred bases. I contacted him a couple times after that. But he told me to get myself out there and I would find a great guy. That told me he wasn’t interested no matter what.

Well, I have put myself out there. No luck yet.

A few years later, I was in his area and he super liked me on Tinder! I super liked him back and sent him a message, to which he never responded... and never deleted me. Nothing could have made me feel worse. Dude, move on.
Story #5. Air Force guy #1. Met him on my travels per usual. I visited him a few times. He was amazing, successful in his career and constantly advancing. But emotionally distant. He was recently divorced too. How do I end up with all the divorced, emotionally unavailable guys? And I seem to attract more military men than any others.

I’d gone out to visit him and wanted to develop this relationship. He seemed like a great, genuine guy. Turns out he was great and genuine. But not ready for a relationship. I was a rebound. Again. What’s new?

He had transferred to a new base and said he would be unavailable for a while and would contact me when he was done. But he didn’t contact me. I think he was hoping I would forget about him because he wanted to focus on his career after his divorce.

My curious mind wanted to know what was happening now. So I contacted him and he called me back to tell me he was dreading this moment that he would have to break up with me.

I could help but wonder if he just couldn’t handle the long distance relationship thing like most others. He told me he just needed to not be attacked to a woman and focus on his career right now. But I can’t help feeling like there’s always another reason I’m not being told. 🤷‍♀️
Story #4. Marine veteran. MSP. He was a brash character. I’d never dated anyone quite like him before. He wasn’t the type I usually went for. But I’d decided to try him out because I wanted different results than I was getting.

We hit things off well. I spent a night or two per week with him when I was home between work trips. I should have known he was dating multiple people.

A month later, I had to go to training and was gone for a month. I kept asking for confirmation that he would be there at the airport to pick me up when I got back. He reassured me every time that he would be there.

I heard from him less and less the last 2 weeks and became suspicious that he had been dating someone else.

I got in at 1 am that morning, and had messaged him and asked him where he was. He responded he was out with friends. (Which always meant he was drinking). So I responded that means I should find another ride? His answer: yes. “And I need to be honest with you...”

Here it comes. But before he sent me another message (dude didn’t even have the guts to call me) I found my own Uber ride home and was fast asleep. The next morning, I woke up to his message that said he had been dating someone while I was gone and wanted to pursue her now.

Big surprise. I never responded. I deleted him in everything in my life. When I didn’t respond, he messaged me and asked if I was mad. Seriously dude? You cheat on me first, break up with me second, and suddenly, NOW you care about my feelings?

A nice guy would have arranged for an alternate ride home for me from the airport whether he was interested or not. When you commit to picking someone up, a nice guy would still have picked me up or called an Uber or something. This guy was a douche bag. I had to find my own ride at 1 am when it was blizzarding outside.

A nice guy would break up with you first before dating someone else. Not this guy. This guy was a douche. I saw it in the beginning, but was hoping he was better than that. He’s not. Good luck to the gal that’s stuck with his cheating butt now.
Story #3. Air Force guy #2. MSP. Well respected in his career. High ranking officer. He was sweet, but we had trouble working our schedules out together. He was recently divorced with a few kids, and on good terms with his ex wife.

For some reason, after dating for a month or two, I sensed he was feeling some sort of guilt. For what, I’ll never know, as he never confided in me. He had taken me out once and after that, the only time we had available was late on one evening a week (our schedules really didn’t mesh up well). All we did was cuddle and talk. But connecting with him mentally was difficult. He just didn’t seem that open.

Ultimately, he broke things off. Dude just wasn’t ready to date. Mental and emotional blocks on his side. Oh well. He was too calm for me anyway. Haha
Story #2. Ghosted. I’ve only been ghosted once. Just once. Which is unusual for most people these days. This story starts the same as most others. I met him on my travels.

I’d been talking to him for at least a couple weeks. Planned some of my vacation time to go and spend a week with him. The guy had kids and an ex. And a strange situation. But I indulged in experimenting with this as a potential relationship anyhow.

So, as is my personal custom, after I met him, I allowed myself to fall deeply for him. I always fall too fast. I give guys the benefit of the doubt. But this one..., this one didn’t deserve it.

I spent a week with him, at his house, he let me borrow his car while he was at work, we spent alot of cuddle time together, cooked dinner together. I spent money of so much food for this guy. And I left my favorite lotion at his house with the expectation that I was coming back again sometime.

My favorite lotion. It was a discontinued scent. And I couldn’t bring it through airport security.

In the mean time, my mother had background checked him. Bless her heart. Can’t blame a mom for wanting the best for her child. She found he was a convicted felon. Great.

He had divulged lots of previous experiences, including a criminal record to me. But he must have left out some of the details so he didn’t seem so bad. He used to be a body builder in his glory days. Told me he had also been a navy seal. But wouldn’t talk about it and didn’t have any signs or symptoms. He was a poser. Past his glory days.

Upon my return home, he ghosted me. No contact whatsoever. Complete thieving, lying, Douche bag. With a capital D. I’ve been used before, but this was one of the worst times. After I realized what a jerk he was, I wrote him a letter and sent it to his house requesting he send my lotion back. Never did. I did have thoughts of contacting the police department to get it back. That lotion meant a lot to me. I can’t  wait until he gets judged after this life.
I’ve decided to document my dating stories. Because 32 years of singledom comes with too many ridiculous stories not to share. I would hate for them to be forgotten for future generations. 😆

Story #1. I’ll start with the most recent one. Met this dude on my travels through SLC. Developed a spark. He seemed genuine, but wouldn’t tell me too much about himself. He told me he was dicvorced and had kids by 3 different women. Former marine, business degree, new car. He expressed interest in trying out the long distance thing.

But dude sucks at long distance. At first he called me a few times. I called him, but our hours were never convenient. I started hearing less and less from him. He would respond to my messages and say that he would call me later. But never called. So I tried again a few days later. New message, same response. Really busy at work. I’ll call you later. No call.

He used to tell me he missed me, and call me babe and we’d only been on one date. Player much? And now he doesn’t even have time to respond to my messages. He’s got to be dating someone else. Or worse- married or dating someone and can’t admit it to me. So he won’t even man up and tell me he can’t talk to me any more.

I’ve been ghosted before. That’s a whole new story for another day. But this guy has been stringing me along like it’s nothing. Well, if he wanted something serious, he blew it. Lon distance requires communication. And if you were really interested like you led me to believe, you would make time to  talk to me and respond to my messages at the very least.

And to think, I had hopes for this one. I actually, genuinely wanted to get to know him better and see where things went with him. Maybe he doesn’t realize this can’t happen without communication. 🙄

I was going to fly out and see him. I was rearranging my schedule and maybe even move into his town. But that will never happen with out a conscious constant effort or commitment. I wonder if he is even divorced. Have a nice life with out me, bud. They all come crawling back, but I won’t be there when you do.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Are blogs a surrogate journal? In my opinion, they are. Unfortunately, everything posted for the public's view is open for judgement, analyzation, criticism, and can and will be held against you if at any time in your future you decide against the masses. This means no complaining, no telling things how they really are, nothing- other than supported or non-supported opinions with or without validation. The thoughts here could change the world. Or they could devastate you as a person. Needing an outlet? Oh, don't attempt a blog. It will be used against you. Find a friend. No friends? Sorry, you're out of luck. You are only anonymous until you're found out. If I had reassurance that my posts would remain anonymous and that not even the media would find access to my information, oh, the stories I could tell.

For now, let's start with this: 4 Roommate manners: How polite are you? Do your habits make you a desired person to live with? or do you have some issues to improve on?

#1. Leaving your dirty dishes in the sink when we have a dishwasher and it's not quite full of dirty dishes yet.

OK. Its one thing to leave a few dishes from a meal in the sink for a few hours if you're in a hurry or some emergency comes up, etc. But it is not acceptable to leave them sitting in the sink for days on end while you come in and out and pile more dishes in the sink until all the clean dishes are dirty, in the sink, and taking up space. It's also inappropriate to leave large baking or cooking dishes in the sink- especially for extended periods of time- when the dishes take up all space in the sink and no one else can use the sink. Come on people! Worse than that, not scrubbing the food off your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. Do you not realize that dishwashers don't clean off dried, crusted on food? Gross. Take responsibility for yourself and do your own dishes for heavens sake! For respect of those around you and for respect of yourself, don't be so lazy! No one likes living in the same dwelling as people who don't clean up after themselves. I know everyone gets busy and tired and whatever else. but doing your own dishes after each meal takes 30 seconds to 1 minute. Leaving them there over 24 hours is wrong. You can't tell me you didn't have one minute to rinse or scrub your dishes and throw them in the dishwasher. Seriously, one minute within a 24 hour time period. How much time are you wasting on meaningless activities that make you lazier?

#2. Take your turn taking out the trash, vaccuuming, and other chores in communal areas. (and buying the necessary cleaning products.)

Again, out of respect, don't wait until it is clear that no one else will take it out, or clean. If it needs to be cleaned, do something about it! You are so guilty if you notice it and do nothing. Off with your head!

#3. Laundry manners.

Don't wait for your roommate to mention that she is going to do her laundry before you put your own load in. If no one's using it, or previously called it, its free game for anyone living in the residence. If you know your roommate was planning on using it, don't be rude. It's not polite to race them. Are we not all adults here? Can we not discuss these things and come to a compromise? And if your roommate has their clothes or things in the dryer (or any of their belongings anywhere else for that matter) ask before touching or doing anything with them!!! Common sense! Especially if the clothes are not dry yet. If they are still wet, don't freakin take them out of the dryer! Ask permission. And don't move someone's clothes into the dryer and start it for them thinking you are doing them a favor. You may not be. You may end up shrinking a favorite article of clothing or ruining a fabric that will end up stained, etc because of your carelessness and lack of knowledge how they care for their clothes.

#4. Maintenance.

Some of us are accident prone, or careless, or just break things a lot. Are you one of THOSE people who leave a trail of disaster for others to take care of? You break things and never say anything about it because you don't want to take the blame even though the blame is yours? Shame on you. You should move back home where your parents can take care of you. Clearly, you aren't ready to leave the nest. Develop some maturity and responsibility. Take matters into your own hands. You plug the toilet, you fix it, or you call the maintenance. Don't leave it for your roommate to find. Gross. It's not their responsibility. The light bulbs burn out when your hand flips the switch? You go out and buy new light bulbs and put them in! If it needs fixing, fix it! Don't wait for the other roommate to fix it. They may never notice. You spill something on the stove? You clean it up! Don't make your roommates atone for your mistakes. You might come home to a nasty burnt smell filling your house because your roommate didn't know that you spilled something on the burner. They went to use it, and now the household suffers because you didn't clean up after yourself. Don't be such a jerk. If you take care of the mess or breakage when it happens, it takes less time to resolve than if you wait until the next day.

And pahlease don't just keep thanking me for doing all your cleaning, etc, and apologize for never cleaning up after yourself, and then just keep letting it happen. If you are truly sorry, you won't let it keep happening. You'll do something about it. Everytime you thank me, I don't believe you. You lose all my trust and I come to the understanding that you are using me and I don't appreciate your behavior. I will eventually get upset, break down, begin to strongly dislike you, and I will stop cleaning. Then we will all live in your filth and tension grows until you decide to take responsibility for yourself. Look, you don't live with momma anymore. She's not going to do everything for you. You make your own decisions now. Take responsibility for yourself! When roommates sign a contract, they aren't signing thinking they are committing to clean up after or babysit each other. When I signed my contract to live there, I wasn't signing to be your live-in momma. Do yourself and your roommates a favor and develop some self-discipline and self- control. PS. There is no app that cleans up after a person. You have to do it YOURSELF. There's a thought. Try that on for size.

Confrontation vs conflict. It's a choice.
I hear from people so much that they don't want to talk to a roommate about a problem because they don't like confrontation. Its a lie. Look here, confrontation is not a bad thing. Some people attach negative connotations or have negative associations in with the word, but it isn't a bad thing. Conflict, on the other hand, always yields negative results. What we don't like, is the conflict and negativity that results from a concern offending the other person. It's completely a choice in how you approach the problem. If you go straight to the person you have a problem with, take them aside one on one respectfully, present your concern with love and charity in your heart for the other person and not just yourself or selfish reasons, confrontation is likely to have a positive outcome. If you angrily present your concern to them telling them they are wrong, of course you will be received in an enemy light, communication tends to shut down, and you will get that dreaded confliction of interests. Are we not mature enough to present ourselves in ways that we can avoid offending others? Or do your actions and words consider no one but yourself? If you are trying to live like an adult, become an adult. Mature adults can talk about, discuss, and resolve problems. They have no need to hide things, be dishonest, cheat, steal or any other manner of dishonesty.

I am a tolerant person (no OCD whatsoever), but taking advantage of people is not right. and these are very simple concepts! they are all common sense and in no way inferior. These are a few guidelines for living in harmony. I strongly suggest holding monthly house meetings to discuss the issues so they get resolved before someone has a breakdown and goes a-wall.

People who don't abide by these principles will find themselves struggling to get along with their roommates. Be polite and considerate! It really doesn't take that much effort! Its a choice to be someone who is easy to live with. If you are one of the people who doesn't care, please check yourself into a hobo colony. No one wants to live with you except maybe others of your kind... who, I should warn you, will annoy you worse than you can imagine.