It's Official

Lily is a running dog. I've been taking her with me pretty regularly now and she's finally getting the hang of it. After her birthday in June, I started to take her on anything less than seven miles. She still gets overly excited when we leave the house and practically drags me for the first mile. After she realizes that we're going to keep running for a while, she tends to settle in, but occasionally still drags me at a pace a bit faster than I'd like to be going. Her longest run to date is 9.5 miles. The first time on that trip was on a super hot day and she seemed to give up at mile 4.5. But, after I dumped an entire bottle of water on her head, she decided she could keep going and I let her swim in a creek at mile 6 to finish the recovery process. Since that initial outing, she's run that loop more than once and hasn't had any problems.

It is very exciting that she is officially a runner, but it also has its downfall--now I have to go running. If I skip more than two days, Lily starts to go stir crazy. Maybe it's not a downfall after all; an added layer of pressure to get out the door is probably a good thing. And I'm sure I'll be grateful for the added motivation when the weather gets ugly in a few weeks.

Secrets

I have decided that it might not be a good thing that most of my friends know about this blog. Although my life is generally fairly boring and doesn't create a lot of blog fodder, I actually do have a few interesting things going on right now. However, I feel uncomfortable sharing them here because at least one person who reads this blog shouldn't know one thing or another. So, I don't update. I apologize. When something interesting happens, that can also be shared with everyone who I know reads this blog, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I'm considering starting a secret blog that is truly anonymous to share the true ridiculousness that is my life.

Elevator Girl

In the midst of all of this dating nonsense, I have had a couple of real life encounters with a girl who works in my building. FDJ is convinced that she's my "soul mate" and that I need to blog about her.

I first saw her sometime last spring. I'm sure I'd probably seen her before, but I wasn't really paying attention. We seemed to be on a pretty similar schedule in the spring and I would see her fairly often on the elevator in the mornings. The elevator was almost always packed and while we exchanged smiles, we never spoke. And then in May, I was riding the elevator down after work on a Friday and she and a friend got on the elevator with me. We finally struck up a conversation and continued to chat as we got off the elevator and started to walk out of the building (so much so that her friend left without her). I said at least one asinine thing during this conversation, but overall, it went fairly well. However, it is in these moments that it is difficult to be gay. I was fairly certain she is also a lesbian, but I obviously don't want to make a fool out of myself or make her feel uncomfortable so I didn't ask for her number.

A few weeks later we ended up alone in the elevator in the morning. We chatted again. She forgot to push the button for her floor and ended up riding up to mine. And then she was super embarrassed and I still didn't have enough nerve to ask her out. I didn't see her again until last Friday. And it was in this conversation on Friday morning that we both managed to confirm (in a somewhat entertaining, but non-confrontational matter) that we are both gay. However, that conversation consumed the entire elevator ride and I still didn't get a phone number or a date. I am confident that I can come through the next time I see her, but it could be a few months from now. I'll keep you posted.

Dating Continued

Unfortunately, this dating nonsense is currently the most interesting aspect of my life. Work is work. I had a few crazy weeks and I am now in another relatively slow patch before things start to get crazy again. Otherwise, things are pretty much the same: hanging out with friends, running and playing tennis.

So, last Thursday I went on a date with another woman from the dating website. She was very nice and sweet and we had a lovely time. But, there were no sparks. I was very disappointed, but also glad to know that I'm not just going to fall into a relationship with the next woman who walks my way. She asked me out again for this evening and I had to play the "I'd love to hang out as friends card." It made me feel awful. She now feels the way I felt when the woman I met through mutual friends ditched me. Dating is not fun. As my friend AMW put it today, "it's reject or be rejected." Rough world. Hopefully, she won't mind and we'll be friends. I actually think she would hit it off well with another one of my friends.

In the meantime, I did not renew my subscription to the dating website. It just seemed like a lot of hoops to jump through for very little return and a whole lot of stress. I figure if life produces someone for me to date, then great, but I do not have the time or the energy to deal with multiple levels of electronic communication with multiple people before I even know if a real connection is present. I may still hear from "let's go for a walk" girl, but I'm not holding my breath.

Dinner and a Movie?

What happened to this typical date activity? Or just dinner? Or even drinks? Does anyone do these things anymore? Or, is the "unique date" the new thing?

Recently, I have been dating a little more. Well, I've at least been trying to date. I did sign up for an online dating site. I also went on a couple of dates with a girl I met through mutual friends. Our first date consisted of drinks that turned into dinner. My suggestion. For our second date, she suggested that we play board games in the park, which turned into board games inside, which turned into just dinner again and a suggestion for board games in the park a few days later before she decided she was just not that into me.

In the meantime, I continued to go through the multiple step process on the dating site with a few different women. After almost three months of this nonsense, I finally reached a point where I was going to meet someone in real life and her date suggestion was to take a walk. Not a walk to anywhere in particular, just a walk. Can we discuss the fact that it's already freakin' cold in Chicago? I do not want to walk around outside unless I am going somewhere. And how long are we supposed to walk? When is the date over? It's all very confusing to me. (Incidentally, she bailed before said walk, but we're supposed to reschedule. We'll see.)

I understand that I am new to this whole dating thing. It occurred to me that I've never really date before at all. I always knew my previous girlfriends before I started relationships with them. So, I never really went on dates. At least not these types of dates where the goal is to get to know the person and see if you actually want to keep seeing each other. Perhaps my absence from the dating world has limited my perception of dating to the traditional dinner and a movie. Is the "unique date" the preferred method now? It seems like a lot of unnecessary pressure to me...

Oops, It's My Schedule

I have decided not to move. It's just so expensive and it seems ridiculous to spend that much money to move a few blocks away when my place is fine. So, instead of moving, I decided to throw a party. My friend AMW is coming to visit and it seemed like the perfect excuse. It's a month away, but I am already excited!

In the meantime, I saw Brandi Carlile (again) at the House of Blues. Amazing! I just can't get enough of her. Her new album came out yesterday. It's number one on iTunes right now, and I highly recommend it.

I also went a Milwaukee to catch a Brewers v. Phillies game and take a trip to the ridiculous Potowatomi Casino. Let me just say that I should be the designated driver more often. My friends are highly entertaining after a few drinks. Well, they're entertaining before a few drinks, but it was definitely a trip to remember.

Last weekend I had a pretty low key weekend. I played an insane amount of tennis over the course of three days and ran the Bucktown 5k on Sunday. PJ and I did pretty well. In fact, she finished fourth in her division, which was pretty fun.

Otherwise, I don't have a lot of exciting stuff going on. Work was super crazy for a while. I even had to go in on a Saturday, which is rare for me. But, it's back to being fairly calm now.

It is starting to get cold in Chicago now. I turned the heat on for one day last week, but it has warmed up enough that I turned it back off for the moment. The cooler weather has made the animals quite cuddly and Lily is consistently lobbying for a place in the bed. She won the battle one night, but I have remained strong every other night. We'll see how long the battle continues.

Moving Again?

The idea of moving again makes me want to vomit. It's expensive and annoying. But, I may be doing it anyway. Although I love the size of my apartment, I was on a fairly short time frame last year when I was looking for it and I settled on some issues that were important to me:

First, I was looking for an apartment with laundry in the unit. When it became clear that finding such a unit was going to be difficult, I decided to settle for an apartment with laundry in the building. Unfortunately, the laundry situation in my building has proved rather frustrating. The washing machine was broken for some time, which forced me to send my laundry out. That, of course, was far more expensive than I ever anticipated laundry would be when I moved. Even after the washing machine was fixed, the only way for me to get to it is down the back stairs, which are outside (remember that it's snowing six months out of the year here) and it's four flights down.

Second, the bathtub in this unit is a clawfoot. It looks cool, but is not very practical and is very difficult to clean.

Third, the kitchen is in kind of bad shape. Some of the cabinet doors don't close and many of them are crooked. The refrigerator leaks water, which then freezes on the bottom shelf and makes it difficult for me to keep food in certain areas of the fridge.

The carpet in the bedrooms is not in great condition and the kitchen floor is a white tile that is nearly impossible to keep clean. The insulation is so bad that it cost $200+ per month to heat the place last winter.

And finally, the tenants on the first floor are a little frightening. At least six people seem to be living in the unit. On more than one occasion I have encountered one of the tenants smoking marijuana on the front porch. I have overheard numerous heated arguments and the police have been to my building in response to at least one. Furthermore, it is obvious that I live here alone and a couple of the guys living there have said some inappropriate things to me as I've left the building and seem unnecessarily intrigued by the fact that I'm a lesbian. I never feel truly threatened, but it is certainly enough to make me uncomfortable.

All of that being said, I really like my place. It's spacious. It gets great natural light. I've finally arranged the furniture the way I like it. I like the location.

So, I've decided to look at a few more places in the neighborhood to see if I like anything. The nice thing about looking now is that if nothing works out, I will be fine staying here for another year. But, I am hoping to find a new place that eliminates at least some of these issues. Fingers crossed!