Glass Half Full

Snarky Mascot

2008-08-01T02:17:12Z

Since her appearance in the Snarky Circle of Trust, little Evie-Belle (BFF Jill) has basically been our mascot. Her mom whipped out the scissors for Jilly's first haircut, and the results were quite adorable. Thankfully, the camera bag had come with me to Knit Night.

So, how are we all feeling about it? Everybody say, "YEAHHHHHHHHH!"

Feeling Nostalgic

2008-07-29T15:52:10Z

Some of the knitting was set aside for a time so I could contribute some crocheted squares for an afghan. Now that those are completed, I'm trying to get back on top of the To Do List. At least one project was completed rather quickly:

This is my somewhat thrown-together version of the Pastel Marley hat from Itty Bitty Hats. I think it turned out OK. But, if this project has taught me anything, it's that often random-seeming stripes or texture sequences need a little planning to achieve the right look. Next time I think I'll follow the pattern.

One thing I love about summer is the Farmer's Market and fresh produce. When I was young we would go visit my grandparents in rural Georgia during the summer. Granny was a fantastic cook and favored tried and true southern food. I remember snapping peas on the cement carport, and walking down to her catfish pond to catch, and then prepare and fry up our dinner. I also remember shucking corn and using a scrub brush to get off all the "silks," the filaments that are inside the husks and sometimes cling to the cobb. I thought of her this weekend when I got some fresh corn and prepared it. Maybe a bit more work than the canned variety, but SO good!

Last Saturday I went out to a Lindy Hop dance. It's a swing dance similar to the West Coast swing I usually prefer, but a lot more energetic. A few years ago I thought about brushing up on it, but the timing wasn't right--I had just gotten off a dance team and wanted to put more energy into non-dancing activities for a while. Now I've had my break, usually only dancing once or twice a month, and I'm eager to go out more frequently and learn something new. So with more than a little excitement I prepared for a night out at a new place. The dance code tends to range from super casual, especially with the well-represented college set, to heavily 1940s inspired. For a big event guys have been known to show up in vintage WWII uniforms, and the girls in print dresses with pin curled hair.

So I did a little research, mostly on hair and makeup from the period. After road testing some swept up rolls, I went with a simple (and heavily bobby-pinned) style with the back brushed out and rolled on a jumbo curling iron. Makeup then was pretty simple: pale and heavily powdered face, clean eye makeup with a strong line of black liner, and a defined mouth, usually a shade of red. Normally a lipgloss girl, I was a little concerned about my mouth full of red lipstick migrating all over my face. Following instructions from a movie makeup site, I did a multi-step process that involved prepping with chapstick, lining the entire lip with a matching lip liner, a thin layer of loose powder, a layer of lipstick, blotting and then powdering, followed by another layer of lipstick. And I'm here to tell ya, those red lips were bulletproof, people. I went, I danced, I sweated, my hair fuzzed and I pulled it back with an elastic.....but when I got home, the lips were still red.

Our grandmothers clearly knew a thing or two about looking sexy, whether they were working in a factory as a Rosie the Riveter or welcoming their soldiers home in a housedress. Next project: asking Grandma Parker to help me with finger waves.

New home for the stash

2008-07-12T02:19:50Z

In my never ceasing quest to keep my little bachelorette pad streamlined and organized, The Stash has resided in several different locations. There were the under-bed storage containers, plastic bins in the closet, and most recently, jumbo Ziploc XL bags. The biggest problem was access: digging through the bags or through layers to find what I needed, when I needed it. That and the lack of being able to scan over the entire contents of what I have.

After recently getting rid of a round pappasan chair and acquiring a sewing desk from my sister, I had a bit of room in the corner next to a bookcase. Using that space for a stash storage option seemed like a wise choice. Between that and a chair, it was an easy decision: company can sit on the floor, by golly--the stash can't.

Having already pilfered Steph's IKEA catalog, I had a good idea of what I wanted. Mom had been wanting to go to IKEA since the store opened, and still had not been, so it was also a great excuse for a mother-daughter outing. We had fun, and my first choice from the catalog looked perfect on display at the store. I got it, loaded it into Mom's minivan, and took it home.

Once I put it together and added the glass door I encountered a problem: due to either the heaviness of the door of uneven flooring, the unit was pitching forward. Uugh. I tried wedging some of the cardboard from the packaging underneath the front edge, but it didn't seem sturdy enough, and didn't really give enough height, anyway.
Like most shelves, it comes with the hardware to secure it to the wall. But due to where it was sitting, in a corner, the back wasn't flush against the wall. The sides weren't against either a wall or the other bookshelf, either, so it couldn't be bolted to anything for support.

Having already committed to helping my sister today, I knew I'd be driving up to Wade Green Road, so I decided to stop off at Home Depot on the way. There were multiple options, but I ended up getting some small plastic knobs that are nailed on, ideally to make furniture easier to slide around. A set of 4 was less than $1, and once distributed across the front edge of the unit, steadied it nicely.

Now my only challenge is figuring out how the HECK to get ALL the stash squished into the thing.

(Early prediction: ain't gonna happen!)

Hear the music.....before the song is over

2008-07-07T21:04:16Z

Received via email today.....enjoy!

Too many people put off
something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about
it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are
too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about
all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that
fateful night in an effort to 'cut back the calories'. From then on,
I've tried to be a little more flexible!!

How many women out there will
eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner
until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration'
mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped
in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Who wants to be a
millionaire' on television?

I cannot count the times I
called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?'
She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My
hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It
looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a
few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because we cram so much into our
lives, we tend to even schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet
of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the
grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we
replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we
get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating
as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to
ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show
for our live s is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday,
when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the
moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She
keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious.
You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad
feet for a pair of roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice
cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well
apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the
digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a
triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would
have died happy.
Now.......go on and have a nice day.
Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If
you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make,
who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids
playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the
ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun
into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you
ask 'How are you?' do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie
in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever
told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his
sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say
'Hi?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away. ...

Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

'Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!

I've been tagged

2008-06-21T16:28:30Z

Tagged by KateyJ....

The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the "named" people's blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you've been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer. Your answer, of course, is the answer to the following questions. Here we go!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Living in a condo in Austell with two girlfriends, working as an Asst Office Manager. The company sold air filtration systems for shooting ranges, and I got to attend the NRA convention at the Congress Center that year and meet Steven Tyler and Lou Ferrigno (the original Hulk). I had just started learning to partner dance at Cowboys in Kennesaw, with a guy named Michael who always wore a ballcap backwards, and I was out there 3 nights a week.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
Target shooting at the range....already done. Really should clean and oil the guns before I put them away--we'll see about that. Invited to go shop with girlfriends at Lennox, but don't want to be tempted to spend....might skip this. Work on photography website and blog. Clean out dishwasher. Glower at evil wireless router still sitting here mocking me. (Lightbulb: call Sherrie about router!)

3. Snacks I enjoy:
On a healthy day: Wasa crackers with peanut butter, yellow apples, granola bars, baby carrots with hummus. On an impulse snacking day: crackers with cheese slices, anything sweet I can find in the house, multiple granola bars in one sitting. On a REALLY bad day: large quantities of chocolate, ice cream, wine

4. Places I've lived:
Charleston, South Carolina (1973-1974)
Birmingham, Alabama(1974-1975)
Lexington, South Carolina(1975-1980)
Chattanooga, TN (1980-1993)
Powder Springs, Georgia (1993-1996)
Austell, Georgia (1996-1997)
Lithia Springs, Georgia (1997-1998)
Dunwoody, Georgia (1998-1999)
Marietta, Georgia (1999- )

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Immediately pay off my car, credit card, and student debt. Invest like crazy. Set up college funds for my nephews. Set aside "just in case" funds for my sister and my parents. Donate to my church, Hope From Heaven, and Make a Wish Foundation.

Go somewhere in the Bahamas, rent a house and a boat and spend the rest of the summer in a bikini and a sarong. Plan my future trips to Italy and Australia. Buy a ton of awesome camera equipment.

The rules say I have to tag 5 people now. I think everybody has done this now, so I'm going to wuss out and not tag anyone else. :)

Fiber, and I don't mean yarn

2008-06-20T21:19:55Z

OK, it just really amused me to title this blog "Fiber." It is, actually, somewhat about fiber, I swear. But still...

So the fiber I'm talking about is the kind that goes into the mouth and through the gut. We all need it, we all know we need it, but it's not high on anyone's list to discuss. That's not quite as much the case these days due to the winds of change blowing through the dieting community. Now everyone is waking up to the fact that fiber is not only good for old people with digestive issues, but plays a part in GI health for all of us, especially those attempting to eat healthier and/or lose weight. There's probably not a woman alive who doesn't feel at least of twinge of alarm at the beginning of the summer swimsuit season. Thus the googling of weight loss and exercise options and the pantry purging of the junk food. For me, good intentions can only take me so far. I DETEST feeling hungry or deprived. (Those of you who have witnessed my visceral excitement over pizza, ANY pizza, can attest to this) I've tried, people....I have. The food journals, the South Beach, the cleanses, those ridiculous one-square-of cheese diets--nothing ever lasts long. Besides, like most sane people, I realize that healthy eating and maintaining one's weight really needs to be more of a lifestyle change than a white-knuckled multi-week endeavor each summer.

Being on a tight budget these days, I've been trying to find the most economical options. But finding options to put decent quantities of food and drink in my mouth, feel good about it, and on a budget....those are hard to come by. So I felt pretty jazzed by my haul at Big Lots the other day. Here are two options, specifically designed to up the fiber quota and help keep you feeling satisfied. Good for your gut function, too, of course. And CHEAP!

Having recently tried the Special K powdered drink in Tea flavor (BLECK!!), I was only semi-hopeful about this. But it was YUMMY! (This is what I was guzzling in my water bottle at WWKIPD, by the way)

Then there are these crackers. Living alone, I have a hard time getting through a loaf of bread before it starts becoming questionable. A lot of snack crackers are just empty calories, and not that healthy, or economical. But these crackers are crispy and satisfying, and stay good a long time in an airtight container. With a generous dollop of peanut butter, they give me a little protein and fat to tide me over.

Happy snacking!!

Weekend report: WWKIPD

2008-06-19T15:21:48Z

With all the router drama going on the last few days, I almost forgot to say something about this past weekend.

Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day, and several of our LYS had events. I had another event in the morning I had to attend first, the second annual motorcycle ride in memory of my friend Loren Lilly. Loren was a Cobb County Sheriff's Deputy, newlywed, and all-around great guy who was killed in an accident on his way to work in December of 2006. The first ride to benefit one of his favorite charities (Hope From Heaven) was last April, only a few months after his passing. Another year has passed, and although the feelings are still there, the rawness of emotion was more manageable. (Translation: I wasn't fighting tears all morning)

His widow Jamie was in good spirits, and very excited to ride her new bike. The turnout was HUGE, even bigger than last year. The civilian riders lined up in the Chattahoochee Tech parking lot across the street, leaving the Earl Small's Harley lot for registration, socializing, and the Cobb County uniformed riders who arrived just before the ride. Once Loren's goddaughter Summer sang the national anthem and Loren's pastor prayed to bless our ride, they were off. Jamie and her stepdad Harlan led off, just behind the Honor Guard.

Some days...

2008-06-18T15:45:58Z

When compared to daily life in a third world country, or say, Iraq, my life is pretty good. I have a lot to be thankful for, I know. But then there are some days, days when just nothing is simple, everything seemingly is wrong, and even relatively simple tasks are hard. Some days, just suck.

Yesterday was one of those days. After purchasing a wireless router over the weekend to enable both my desktop computer and my new laptop to access the internet in my home, a friend who was moving gave me one she still had in the box. So the router I purchased can now be returned, saving me money. Yeah.

Supposedly, everything I needed was in the box, including a CD to guide me through the installation. Uh-huh. In the same way "You can't miss it" almost insures getting lost, a CD to guide the consumer through a simple installation almost guarantees complications. Like many people, I can hang with computer stuff and lingo, until the scenario gets complicated and things NOT addressed by the handy installation CD begins occurring. So I did what anyone would do: I called a friend who speaks computer. Her name is Sherrie, and she is a woman of extreme patience and understanding. We're talking, she had to first clarify terminology, so that when I was hysterically describing plugging the blue wire with the squarish plug into "the box thing", she knew what she was dealing with. It sounded something like, "So going forward, we're going to refer to the black box that is the Comcast Cable Modem as the.....modem, and the D-Link Router box as the.....router. Got it?"

Unfortunately, due to forces beyond anyone's immediate control, our efforts did not meet with success. Here's what the ugly scene looked like in the thick of things...

Ring my bell

2008-06-14T11:08:17Z

What you are about to see is not a cell phone training class, a technology demo, or a scene from your local T-Mobile store. No, this is what happens when a group of woman, normally united by love of fiber arts, engage in a feverish discussion about cell phones.

Calmness in our lives...

2008-05-27T21:59:04Z

By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil Show, you too can find inner peace.

Dr Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have
started and have never finished."

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and
hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished
off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's
Irish Cream, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old
Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of
chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.

Looking at things in a new light....or is that lens?!

2008-05-18T20:16:15Z

So it seems I've finally gotten over my fears of the unknown, failure, etc., and decided to take the photography thing seriously and see where it goes. A big push for that was a request by my friends Eric and Jessica to take their engagement photos a few weeks ago. In preparation, I spent a LOT of time online, trying to find tips and ideas and generally just preparing. I also realized that I didn't have either enough equipment, or the right equipment. With only a few days prep time, I traded in the film camera equipment that hadn't seen the light of day in 2 years to get a new digital camera body. And I put a lens on my credit card. Ouch....but I rationalized that it's an investment into my future, a tool I need.

So....the photo session was definitely a success. One of the shots they really liked......

Since the new lens is supposed to be great for portraiture, be it people or things, I just HAD to try it out on some yarn. Hoooooyeah.....yummy looking yarn.

Here, there, and everywhere...

2008-05-02T20:51:21Z

The past few weeks have entailed several fun social functions that I have not commented on. What's interesting is how wildly they were different from one another, while still being very enjoyable. So here we go...

Sunday the 13th was a roller skating party put on by some people I go to church with. The theme was 80's, with a promised speed round when "Living on a Prayer" came on. Oh, dear. A few people went all out and even resurrected some of their 80's fashion for the occasion. Yours truly stuck with jeans and a top, thank you very much. There's only so much nostalgia I can take--the music was sufficient!

Here's my friend John, very leery of the polished wood floor, who proved to be reminiscent of Bambi on ice once he got out there. I snapped this as I went around for maybe the 10th time....all the while him yelling at me to stop. He would never admit it, but he gripped my arm for dear life and still almost wiped out both of us a time or two.

OK, so moving right along...

The following Saturday, the 19th, was an event called do.justice. This was an event created around community service within the city of Atlanta. It was an opportunity for three church campuses (all basically the same church meeting at different places) to use the resource of a huge singles community in order to make a difference in the community. The event kicked off at Buckhead Church will breakfast at 9 am. From there we divided up into service teams to go out to 9 organizations around the city of Atlanta and participate in tasks such as meal prep and delivery, cleaning, construction, childcare, sorting, landscaping, and construction. About 700 people paid $10 to participate in this event. When we were done we met up back at the church to eat barbeque and celebrate all that had been accomplished. Here's what it looked like...

Key Quote:

"everybody can be great...because anybody can serve."

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My assignment was food delivery, and I was partnered with 3 other women. One person drove, another navigated, and the other two got in and out of the car walking the meals to the door. We delivered meals to elderly living below the poverty level in downtown Atlanta through Senior Citizens Services. This particular service is not new to me--I delivered Meals on Wheels in the past and was really touched. This experience was the same, if not moreso. It was so obvious by the reactions we got that these people had very few visitors. As much as I wanted to stay and visit and try my best to brighten their day, we had a lengthy route and a tight schedule, so we had to drop off the food.

Here we are getting our food boxes ready to go... There were different meals tailored to the recipients: low sodium, diabetic, etc. It was very important to have everything we needed before we loaded up the cars and left.

There aren't any photos of us "in action" for several reasons. For one, we just got really busy--it took a decent amount of effort and concentration to find the houses, not get lost, make sure we had the right box, and walk it up to the door. But besides that, it really wasn't about us--it WAS about the work being accomplished. And I didn't want to embarrass any of the recipients or invade their privacy by waving around a camera. As it was, I really enjoyed setting everything else aside, all my own trivial personal crap, and simply harnassing my time and my energy for a purpose bigger than myself. It was also a huge perspective clarifier to be in an already crime-ridden and income-challenged neighborhood that had recently suffered some serious damage from the tornado. One lady was practically home-bound because a tree had crashed into the back of her house, blocking the rear door, leaving only the front entrace with a long flight of stairs. She has arthritis in her knees and can barely make it up and down. Heck, we could barely make it up and down--it was a huge and steep flight of stairs.

Another lady had such severe osteoporosis that her back was basically shaped like a C--her face was only 12 inches or so from her knees. She grasped my hand and thanked me over and over again, telling me how we'd be "blessed" for what we were doing. I dropped down on one knee so she could see me and we could chat for a minute, and walked back to the car in tears. Most of us are so fortunate, so blessed, and we often don't realize it.

The following Saturday was a rare event for me: a black-tie gala fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis. My buddy Jim works for Choate Construction, one of the sponsors, so he broke out the tux and asked me to go with him. We were in a rush to get there, especially since it was across town and we had to drive in a torrential downpour, so I didn't get any pictures. Once I got home, though, I tried to capture my ensemble. Bear with me: math may be hard, but so is self-portraiture, people!

The never-fail Black Dress... it was my bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding, and has come in handy many times since. I feel every woman should have a plain black crepe sheath in their closet!

A prime example of WHY I adore black crepe is what happened within minutes of our arrival. But first of all, I have to tell about the chariot in which I rode. Jim had the Lincoln in to be serviced in preparation for the evening, and of course, it wasn't ready in time. So he picked me up in a white Choate truck. Having a decent sliver of country girl in my makeup, I found it highly amusing to arrive at a black tie function in a construction truck!!

After being handed out by the valet, we got our table assignment, and were ushered into the champagne reception so we could peruse the silent auction items. As the waittress approached us with her tray, another guest picked up a flute, leaving only two glasses at one side of the tray. It happened so quickly that neither the waittress or anyone else could react before the tray tipped over and sent two flutes of champagne down the front of my dress. While the mortified waittress ran to get some black napkins, I went into the bathroom, rinsed out the front of my dress, and came back to the party. You couldn't even tell!

There's a reason women everywhere love the LBD!!

More Baby Dean

2008-04-27T19:24:45Z

So Friday I got to hang out with Baby Dean, and he was a very good baby. His mom got to get her teeth cleaned and run some errands, just getting out of the house. That gave me some time to stage another photoshoot with the little man.

First things first: Dean modeling the things I crocheted for him. (I'd love to tell you that he's smiling because he loves his hat so much, but actually he was filling up his diaper.)

Baby Dean

2008-04-23T04:07:06Z

Sometimes there is just nothing that can improve your outlook as much as spending time with a new life. I got to do that this afternoon, and it definitely brightened my day.

My friends Lynn and Greg have just welcomed their first child. Baby Dean made his debut on Friday, 4/4, at 9:41am. He was 37 weeks, 4 days, weighed 8lbs, 4oz, and was 21 inches long. He spent two days under special care with very mild respiratory issues, but all is well now and they are home. Lynn is recovering both from the C-section and the intense stress of those first few days, and Dean is thriving and putting on weight as fast as he can chug his bottles.

Today I popped over for a visit, camera bag in tow, and we had the first of what will probably be quite a few photo sessions. Is it just me, or are baby feet about the cutest things ever? Kinda makes the fingers itch to knit a baby sock or pair of booties, doesn't it?

Relationships are Wack...(or is that crack?)

2008-04-23T01:13:12Z

In the spirit of general snarkiness going around these days, especially on the topic of relationships, I humbly offer the following for your reading amusement. It's a journal entry from 2006 in which I laid out the play-by-play commentary of the almost instantaneous implosion of a fledgling dating situation. Enjoy!

Friday March 31 at 7:37 pm

[First date with Bradley...dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. We meet there.

He seems nice. Good first date.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday April 7 at 6:30 pm

[Second date with Bradley...dinner followed by a production at Theatre on the Square. He insists on picking me up. Once on the Square, he seems threatened by one of my MDJ customers, a deli owner, who greets us as we walk by. Mumbles something like, "That guy didn't seem to like that I was with you" as we are being seated. (hhmm) As opposed to the first date, he seems nervous and awkward.

Dropping me off at my door, he says he has something to tell me. As I stand waiting for whatever it is, he loses his nerve, changes his mind, mumbles that it's probably not the right time, and says to never mind. Since I'm supposed to be meeting friends out dancing, I let it go and say goodnight. He asks to do something the next Saturday--besides a class in the afternoon, I may have something that night, so I say I'll check my schedule.]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday April 9 at 9:30 pm

[Bradley calls, and we discuss doing something.....he really wants Saturday instead of Friday night so he 'won't be so tired.' Saturday the 15^th is busy, but I have time in the morning. He doesn't want morning--he seems fixated on afternoon or evening, and a several-hour window after my class and before the evening isn't enough time. We agree to meet for coffee and a walk at the River Park.]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Tuesday 4/11 11:42 am - Bradley calls, but leaves no voice mail

(I noticed he called, but was in the middle of a busy day and couldn't call back....besides, he didn't leave a message so I had no idea why he was calling)

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EMAIL Wednesday April 12 1:37 pm Bradley wrote:

Hello there! I hope that you had a good time last Friday night. When I asked you to go out this Saturday, and you said you needed to check your schedule, and then you said that you already had plans, that we'd have to meet in a 2-hr window, I thought to myself....is she putting me on the backburner or does she plan on going on a date that night or is she meeting friends? I am just thinking this because I'm wanting to know where are relationship is going, etc. Hope you are having a great day-

Bradley

P.S. do you like to talk better over the phone, or do you like email?

*Wednesday 4/12 5:44pm - Bradley calls, but leaves no voice mail

*Wednesday 4/12 8:56pm - Bradley calls again, but leaves no voice mail

(when he called I was on the phone with my sister discussing how to respond to his email)

EMAIL Wednesday April 12 11:37 pm Nina wrote:

(I sent him an email, which apparently failed in delivery...he didn't receive it)

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EMAIL Thursday April 13 9:00 am Bradley wrote:
...still you don't email me back.

Anyway, Libby the dog's birthday is today! She is turning 4 today (28 in human years). You're more than welcome to come and visit her - unless you already have plans. This is my last email to you, either you don't reply to people's emails, you're too busy to check your email, or you are busy seeing someone else.

Hope to hear back from you-

Bradley

EMAIL Thursday April 13 at 10:40 am Nina Parker wrote:

Brad,
I sent you an email last night, but judging from your email this morning it
did not arrive. I'm sorry you feel slighted--that definitely was not my
intention. This week is magazine deadline, and I've been both very busy
during the day and staying late at the office. I don't have personal email
access during the day at work, and if I'm with customers I can't always talk
on the phone. It's usually best to leave a message so I'll know you called
and why you are calling.

Your email yesterday (and this morning) was very candid, so hopefully you'll
understand that my reply will be, as well. We have been out twice, and are
just starting to get to know each other. I do not understand why, at this
point, you feel entitled to question my schedule and imply that I should not
be spending time with friends or other dates. I doubt most people would
think such a brief acquaintance merits the kind of accountability you seem
to be expecting. As to your statement this morning that the email would be
your last to me, that is probably best. It's too bad that you are prepared
to discontinue getting to know someone because they their response time
doesn't meet your expectations, but that is up to you. I think we have very
different ideas about dating, boundaries, and communication. So while I
wish you the best, I don't think we should go out anymore.
Take care and good luck,
Nina

EMAIL Thursday, April 13, 2006 2:13 PM Brad wrote

I see I have struck a nerve, and I apologize. The only reason that I used such strong words as - "this is my last email" was to get your attention. It sounds like you are dating around, which is what I really meant to ask you, but me, being a guy, obviously asked you the wrong way. I too am dating around, so that is not a problem with me right now. I hope you can forgive me for asking you the wrong way. I'd like to go out with you again, but I'm more for looking for someone that is willing to spend more time in a relationship and according to your schedule, you are obviously too busy with work and friends to invest in a dating relationship. Oh well, if you really want to not see each other anymore, then so be it.

I aplogize again for my strong words in my earlier email, I just have a hard time communicating (like most guys do) God bless you in your endeavors-

Bradley

EMAIL Thursday, April 13 2:57 pm Brad wrote:
I'm sorry.......Please forgive me.

EMAIL Thursday April 13 at 2:58 Brad wrote:

I truly apologize for the harsh words....I had no idea you sent an email last night.

*Thursday 4/13 5:44 pm - Bradley calls, but leaves no voice mail

*Thursday 4/13 8:56 pm - Bradley calls, leaves a voice mail: he didn't mean to hit a nerve, he's sorry that I'm mad, etc. he wants to talk and make sure we are still on for Saturday

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*Friday 4/14 8:12 am - Bradley calls, leaves a voice mail wanting to "talk about things"

EMAIL Friday April 14 at 9:00 am Nina Parker wrote:

I appreciate your apology. At this point I really don't think another date is a good idea.
Take care,
Nina

EMAIL Friday 4/14 10:30 am Bradley wrote:

Okay. I understand (I think). I hope we can still be friends.

Have a great Easter weekend

-Bradley

*Friday 4/14 11:50 - Bradley calls again, but leaves no voice mail

EMAIL Friday 4/14 at 12:30 Nina Parker wrote:

I got your voice mails, and I understand that you want to talk, but further conversation is unnecessary. If I haven't made myself clear enough already, let me do so now: I'm not interested. Please stop calling.

EMAIL Friday 4/14 at 2:00 Bradley wrote:

Wow, you really are brutal. OK, I understand that you don't want to be friends with me either. I hope you forgive me, and hope you have a great weekend with your family. Goodbye.