Good, yet scary news

I have a second interview tomorrow for the job in Baltimore! And they want my references! EEK!

I am so excited on one hand at the thought of moving there, but terrified on the other. I have lived in WV my entire life, so it is scary to think about leaving behind everything that I know. At the same time I am thrilled to think of all the new things I will be able to do and experience if I move. I guess I am just torn. If they offer me the job, and enough money, I have decided I will take it though, and just deal with my nerves at that time. Not that money is everything, but, I would be an idiot to try to survive in Baltimore on my current salary, so it will have to be a considerable pay raise for it to make sense to move. There is just so much going on in my mind right now!

Anyways, wish me luck! I need it, if for no other reason than to keep me sane!

Shawn and Crystal aka Fred and Ginger!

I just got back from watching Land of the Dead, and let me tell you, that is ONE GORY movie! I definitely enjoyed it, but there were times that my face was buried in Shawn’s shoulder with me telling him to tell me when it was over! I felt like such a girl!!! lol What I am about to write is a little bit of a spoiler, one of shock value, so skip to the next paragraph if you plan to see it and want to get the full shock value of the scene! In one scene a zombie rips a girl’s navel ring out and you get to watch the blood pool in her belly button. That really got me since my belly is pierced—kind of how all men groan when a man takes a hit to the groin in a movie. That was one scene where the face went buried—I couldn’t stand to watch it—it hurt so bad!!! I foresee nightmares in my near future….

Anyways, good flick, you should see it. The movie was not the best part of my weekend though, far from it. Saturday night Shawn took me out dancing, and we had such an amazing evening! He came over about a half hour early and gave me a crash course in ballroom dancing, and then off to Huntington we went. Just as we figured, we were the only young people there, but I think that made us all that more popular. The older people just loved us and kept giving us pointers! The first few dances were kind of rough, but we still had a good time. Eventually I just decided to go with it and not really pay attention to what I was doing and I actually did quite a bit better after that. We did the cha-cha, tango, swing, rumba, waltz, foxtrot, and probably more that I don’t remember. I even got to where I was doing a decent job on spins and such—nothing too advanced, but still, I was doing them and not stomping his toes. I think my favorite was the rumba or the tango. I could see the tango being an incredibly fun dance if you were really good at it. At one point after we started doing a little bit better, Shawn said to the people sitting with us, “I think we do better when we are just screwing around.” You should have seen them laugh! There was one man that took a liking to us and took me out dancing a couple of times and tried to teach both of us a couple of things. I had this huge smile on my face all evening, and laughed and giggled non-stop; more than a couple of the ladies told me I looked like I must be having a great time. And I was! We have definitely got to go back sometime. One lady that lives near me gave me her number and told me I could borrow some tapes of hers to practice with, so I am going to give her a call this week. Next time we go out, I am going to look like a pro!

After the dance was over we thought about hitting the club on the river in Huntington, but decided it was too hot, so we came on home. After, as Shawn so elegantly put it, “screwing around” all evening, we finally made it to bed at almost 5:30 this morning! Now that I think about it, I am surprised I stayed awake during the movie today. We were up at about 9:30 to shower and head out to breakfast. So, we got somewhere between three and four hours of really bad sleep—my AC is on the fritz, so my house it too hot to sleep comfortably. With any luck, that will be taken care of soon!

Oh, oh—almost forgot something about Saturday evening! For some reason there were fireworks in Huntington last night. So, during one of the DJs breaks, we got to go outside and watch fireworks! It was truly a perfect evening; dancing, fireworks, drinks... :) I have to tell you Shawn; that was one of the best dates I have had in a very long time! The whole night was fabulous, and I hope we get to do it again sometime. ;)

Now I don’t mean to critique you, but….

It doesn’t matter what you say after these words, it is NOT going to go well. Especially if you are on a date with a person that you would really like to see again. And, if you are going to say something like that, yes, you DO mean to critique the other person--giving a disclaimer like that only prepares the other person to get pissed at you!

Yet, last night on my date, the guy felt it necessary to say those exact words. Things had been going well up to that point, but after that, it was all downhill.

You might ask, why would he be so dumb as to say something like that? In his opinion, I don’t know how to flirt. I know, I know—for those of you who know me well, that may come as quite a shock to you. And for those of you who don’t know me, a little background—I am such a huge flirt, that it has been said I would flirt with a lamppost. But this guy not only decided that I didn’t know how to flirt, he felt he needed to bring it up in the middle of our date and ask me to try harder!

Other than that, we had a wonderful evening. We laughed non-stop, had lots in common and never had a problem with conversation. And if this had been the first time he had done something like this, I might have forgiven it. But this was not the first time he felt the need to critique me about something. Always before it was on instant messenger though and I figured I might be taking things wrong, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and went ahead and agreed to meet him in person. If he could have just kept his mouth shut, things would have ended on a much better note, and he quite possibly would have gotten a yes when he asked if I would see him again. Instead, I decided that he is not the kind of guy I want in my life and I told him that I didn’t see things going any further with us, and therefore I had to say no to another date.

What I didn’t tell him is that I see him as the type of guy who belittles a woman to the point that she feels she had better do everything in her power to hold onto him, because she no longer feels she is worth enough to be able to find another guy. Boy, did he choose the wrong girl to try that with! I fully feel that I deserve the type of guy who will treat me with respect and will only make me feel better about myself—never worse. And I refuse to settle for less.

So, a word of advice to you single people out there. Never, EVER utter the words, “Now I don’t mean to critique you, but,” when you are on a date, ESPECIALLY not on a first date. IT WILL NOT END WELL! The only possible reason I can think of to say something like that is if you want to get rid of the other person—you know, the kind that clings and won’t take the hint that you aren’t interested. In that situation, those words just might come in handy.

So, to sum it up, I had a good time on the date, but he is definitely not someone I could ever see myself dating.

Onto other, much better, news...Shawn is coming for a visit this weekend! Can’t wait to see you babe! We might try to go out ballroom dancing, if we can find a place. So, if anyone knows of somewhere in or near Charleston, WV to go dancing, please leave me a comment! Thanks!

I just had a job interview!!!

I finally had a bite with my resume. I just finished a phone interview for a federal job in Baltimore, MD. I am so excited! It seems to have gone well; even the interviewer stated that it “went very well” and said that he would be in touch soon. I am terrified by the thought of moving away, but at the same time, it completely thrills me! They are going to be conducting interviews tomorrow as well as Monday and Tuesday of next week. Hopefully I will hear something shortly thereafter! I will let you know!

Oh, I still have my date tonight. He ticked me off the other evening when we were talking online, so I am not really looking forward to it now. But, I figure I will go have a beer and see if he isn’t so annoying in person. I will post on that later also!

One other thing...

Oh, one thing I forgot to put in my last post! I am no longer a redhead. I am now back to being a brunette. A very, very dark brunette, kind of a dark chocolate like color. At least for now--who knows what it will be a month or two from now! :)

I'm not dead yet!

I am getting really bad with this updating thing, aren’t I? Let’s see…what has happened over the last few weeks…

For Memorial Day weekend, I spent that Sunday at a neighbor’s cookout. I was a bit nervous heading down there, but ended up having a really good time. We had some volleyball and badminton games going on most of the day and horseshoes pretty much all day. And an enormous amount of food—everything you could want at a picnic. Then on that Monday I hosted my own cookout, a small, but enjoyable one. Still had an insane amount of food for the amount of people I invited, but it was so good, I don’t think anyone was complaining. I was up until 2:00 am getting things ready—it was a miracle I didn’t fall asleep in my deviled eggs!

I then spent the first weekend of June traveling the road and partying my butt off. On Friday I traveled to Columbus to celebrate my friend Debbie’s 21st birthday with her. It was such a great evening. We were staying and Chris and Shawn’s place, so of course they were there, as well as Debbie and Kevin, Tricia, Ken, Christina, and me. It is always so much fun to get to see everyone! We went to dinner at a little pub called the Old Bag of Nails, if I remember right. Had a good steak and finally came to the conclusion that I like a steak cooked medium well now instead of well done. I never thought I would say that, but ‘tis true. We then went back to Chris and Shawn’s for a while, where the drinking began. We started with very strong cosmopolitans and once us girls were good and tipsy we headed to Fados. Many, many shots and a few mixed drinks later, the birthday girl couldn’t hold any more, and ended up puking on the floor of the bar. Shortly thereafter, we were asked to leave. I had never been kicked out of a bar before, but I thought it was freaking hilarious that it happened! It was about 1:30 in the morning and all of the bars were closing anyways, so we went back home. Finally at about 4:00, we gave up and went to bed. I am shocked to say that I drank drink for drink with the birthday girl and did not get sick! I of course ended up sleeping in Shawn’s bed with him, and the next morning he was up and talking to Sean online when he said, “I have a woman in my bed!” To which Sean’s reply was, “Hi, Crystal.” Yep, I sleep with Shawn too often. But I am not going to stop!!!!! You can’t make me!!!! :)

After everyone slowly getting up and showered we went to eat at Red Robin, and I unfortunately had to leave to come back to Huntington. Not that I wasn’t looking forward to Saturday night in Huntington—a bachelorette party!!! For the night, my name was Mounds ‘O Plenty. I felt I fell short of the name in the chest area, so I put the name badge on my butt—figured there was more than mounds ‘o plenty back there! We all had buttons with various adjectives on them also, mine being sexy flirt. We did some drinking and eating at the hotel, then headed to a bar on a barge on the river, called Holderby’s, I think. I would give details of the evening, but a pact was signed at the beginning of the night saying that no details of the evening would be divulged, so that is the most I can give you, for fear of the bride hunting me down. We will just leave it that an awesome time was had by all!

This past weekend I had some good ole family time. Izzy turned two on Friday!!!! I can hardly believe he has been around two years. We spent the day at Waterways swimming, then came home to get ready and went to his house for a birthday party. I was so nervous before the party—Cindy asked me to keep Izzy and get him ready for the party so they could decorate the house. I had about an hour to get both of us showered and ready, and really didn’t think it was possible. But, I am proud to say, not only was I successful, I managed to get him to his house 15 minutes early! He had a great party and received a ton of presents. That boy loves to play with his mom and dad’s vacuum cleaner, so I got him his own little play Dirt Devil. When I left he was having a blast pushing it around—it really picks up! Granted, nothing of any real size, but it is still pretty cool.

Sophia is growing like crazy, and getting cuter everyday. I know I am biased, but she is one of the pretties little babies I have ever seen! Every time I go shopping with Cindy, I carry her around and people are constantly stopping me to admire how pretty she is. And she loves to smile also. Supposedly she is too young to really smile and they are involuntary, but I find that so hard to believe. She smiles at the most appropriate times, so I think she knows what she is doing! Maddie and Noah are both still great kids also. Noah always has the biggest grin on his face, and loves to give hugs now! He is growing up to be so adorable! And Maddie is growing up too fast. I swear, that kid is going to be as tall as me before she finishes elementary school!

Other than that, there is not much else going on. I started using match.com again, and actually have a date next week. I have been talking to the guy for a couple of weeks now, and he seems nice enough, so we are finally going to meet and see what happens. Wish me luck!