She wants a car that will get her there. She's changing her name from Kitty to Karen. She's trading her MG for a white Chrysler La Baron.

Happy Sunday everyone. In a little more than 24 hours, I have to go home, and I'm not pleased about that fact.

We went to the beach today. I think it's interesting how I forget how much I freaking love the beach until I'm there and I'm like WHOOO!!! BEACH!!!! And then I forget again. Until the next time I go.

I've spent entirely too much money since I've been here. Call it retail therapy. But I've gotten some fabulous, fabulous shoes.

I don't want to go home. I'm pretty sure you've deduced that, but really? It's almost painful how much I don't want to go home. I like it here. Maybe because it's not there, I don't know.

We went to Savannah yesterday, and it was ridiculously cool. I don't know that I've ever actually stopped in Georgia. I know I've been though it, on the way to Florida, but I don't think I've ever actually been anywhere there, except maybe a rest area. It was humid, but it was so. . .alive. I know I live in a tourist town, so there are people from Florida meandering around all the time, but most of the people in the area in which I live are old. Sure, there were old people in Savannah, but it was a younger crowd. The next place in which I live needs a higher percentage of a younger demographic. It's a little frustrating sometimes, because there really and truly aren't a lot of people my age where I live. I'd like people that can relate to me more. Maybe without kids. Because although I'm fond of my friends with children, I can't relate to my friends with children. Because I don't. . .have children.

Random little vent here that no one except my twin in PA will get. . .I take part in this message board, and I have for quite a while. I actually got banned from it a couple of years ago, but I managed to rejoin, and I've behaved myself more or less since then. Anyway, there's this girl on there that absolutely drives me crazy. I don't know exactly why she drives me so crazy, but I don't think the other board regulars are too fond of her either. Anyway, she made this post the other day (or maybe it was today?) talking about what a klutz she is. She ended it saying something like, "Someone ask me about the incident with the sliding door in Florida. Because I'll tell you."

My question here is, why doesn't she just tell the story? I'm really, really, really hoping no one asks her for the story. Because I'm mean, I guess.

If not for the fact that I've already decided that my Next Big Move will most assuredly take me farther north, I'd consider living in this area. Although, the thought of hurricanes freaks me out, too. Also, it's humid.

But it's really pretty and higher class than the area in which I live. My town is. . .well, you've got your elite that have nice houses on the side of big mountains, but in general, it's not a particularly prosperous area. And it shows.

So we'll be heading out tonight (I'm going to wear a pair of my new shoes!) and see what we can come across. Maybe I'll go down to Parris Island and try to pick up a Marine or two.

Actually, no. My brother's a Marine, and I don't think I'd date one.

I've got my things, I'm good to go. You met me at the terminal. Just one more plane ride and it's done.

So I made it to South Carolina. I didn't initially think that it was going to be able to come, because I'm having some ridiculous car problems with my ridiculous car. It's going to cost me no less than at least 200 bucks to fix. I hate how expensive cars are. Especially cars more than 10 years old.

I decided to go by the library on the way out and pick up some audio books. Now that I've experienced traveling with audio books, I don't think I'll ever go a long distance without them. It kept me awake and I feel like something was accomplished (i.e., I read a book).

One of the audiobooks I picked up was He's Just Not That Into You. Now, I had checked this out of the library a while back and had read the first page or so and hated it. I don't remember specifically why I hated it so much, but I think it had something to do with the relationship situation I was in at the time and how I hated how what it was saying to me was contrary to everything I was doing at the moment in my personal life.

So I listened to the entire book for the first part of my trip and. . .I was kind of captivated. Granted, some of it wasn't altogether. . .nice. But the guy didn't say anything that wasn't entirely true. It was stuff like, don't date married men because every woman deserves to have a guy's full attention, don't overlook the fact that he says he'll call you at a specific time and then doesn't, because that just shows that he's always going to be more concerned with his time than with yours, don't waste your time with guys who give excuses as to why they can't spend more time with you. The guy was saying something like, if he really likes you, he'll find ways to call you/be with you/be the only guy in your life, etc.

I hate, hate HATE to say that a lot of the things he said never to get involved with, I've been involved with. Recently. And he said something about not settling. Which I do. Because, really and truly? Guys don't like me. No, that's not true. Guys love me. They think I'm fun and funny and they like hanging out with me. . .but they'll cancel plans to hang out with me in order to see some girl they're actually interested in. In, you know, the friend girl. So when I find a guy who's interested, I tend to be like Yes! Finally!! And I'll overlook all the crap that no normal person would overlook ever.

But, and I'm not even exaggerating, this book has changed my perception of a lot of things. I'm hoping that the next time some guy's interested, all this doesn't go out the window, but it kind of put it all in perspective.

Next: weddings and babies.

OK. Babies can be cute. Not when they're first born, but by the time they get to the three, four, five month old stage, they're cute to look at, I guess, and maybe play with. But once they start screaming/needing diaper changes/taking over every aspect of your LIFE, they're not so cute anymore.

Weddings. Occasionally, parts of them are fun. Getting all done up and eating cake are two things that I happen to enjoy.

My question, though, is why is it that every single person I spend any amount of time with is fixated on either or both?

I know that my job, as a girlfriend, is to coo over babies and to be excited about weddings but honestly? I'm just not that into them. Especially the idea of a permanent child in my life. And that's my prerogative, you know? I'm allowed to not like kids that much right now and to not want to jump into a wedding dress next week. It seems to me that a lot of people today are totally against the thought that maybe there's someone out there that doesn't

Maybe one of these days I'll change my mind. Maybe today, my friend and I will go visit Savannah and I'll meet the Georgie Peach of my dreams, and we'll have a whirlwind courtship and be married by the fall.

Maybe after GP and I get married in October, I'll be knocked up by spring and popping out babies by my first anniversary.

But I seriously doubt it.

I'm sure that this is going to get me ex-communicated from Girldom, but I just wish, sometimes, people would take into consideration that they're talking to someone who is single, will probably be single for a while, and who is surrounded by not-single people making all these plans that, honestly? I think most of us are too young for. And much as I'm fine with being on my own (hell, I'm finding out more and more recently that it lets me do. . .pretty much whatever I want without having to take anyone else's perspective into consideration. I could move to Montana if I wanted to.) I also don't like being reminded of it on a continual basis.

It's like. . .I'm diabetic, right? I'm OK with that. I've accepted that. But I don't want to sit around and talk about it. It's an aspect of my life that's there, it's not going to change any time soon, but I don't really want to discuss it.

I guess my point is, I love my friends, but I wish that there were other things they were all so interested in talking about right now. Because I can't connect. When it comes to weddings and wanting children, I don't understand the conversation, because I'm not planning a wedding and I'm not looking to spend nine months carrying something around that, after those nine months, I have to take care of fully for a few years and then deal with for the rest of my life.

Am I horrible? I feel like maybe I am, but then again, it's how I feel about the situation.

I feel like this has been a negative entry. Let's throw in some positive.

Oh my God, I ate at Applebees last night and we passed a Target. I got more excited than I should have. My town really, really needs to step it up a couple notches. It was amazing.

And we really are going to Savannah today, and I'm pretty excited about that. I didn't realize how close to Georgia this place is. I'm 8 miles outside of Georgia.

Next is on MTV right now, and if you've never seen it, you need to. It's an awful show, but you'll start watching it during a marathon and, three hours later, finally peel yourself away.

So what? I'm still a rock star. I got my rock moves. And I don't need you.

I went out last night with CousinCasey and Amanda. I hadn't been out with anyone except McHotpants in quite a while, so it was nice to have Girl Time. I don't, as a general rule, like girls all that much, but sometimes, boys are kind of lame.

So after a couple glasses of wine, we began toasting. Amanda's toast was "Here's to me no longer being married to a complete shit." (She'd had mediation that day.) I don't remember CousinCasey's toast. But mine was, "Here's to realizing who is worth your time and who is not."

The more I thought about that (and I thought about it through a lot of today), the more I realized that I have a problem. My problem is, throughout the years, I've had friends and various others in my life that aren't good for me. I don't mean necessarily that it was the occasional thing that just got on my nerves because, let's face it - we all get on someone's nerves at some given time during any relationship. I know that I get on my friends' nerves occasionally just like they get on my nerves occasionally. It happens. You can't like someone all the time.

But my thing is, I get involved, in whatever capacity, with people who can be just kind of. . .bad for me. It's kind of hard to explain.

The problem lies in the fact that I'm willing, a lot of the time, to overlook it because I'm fond of the person, or the person that they used to be. I KNOW I need to disassociate myself, but I'm not willing to do it.

Am I even making sense?

I'll use, as an example, my long-term high school boyfriend. I dated him, collectively, for a year and a half. We were one of those on-again, off-again couples. It was obvious to everyone that we weren't a good match, for various reasons. I knew it. There were several things about him and about our relationship that I knew were bad and that I knew pointed to the fact that he wasn't someone I needed in my life. Despite the fact that I was aware of this, I kept him around.

My question is, why do I do this? I cling to these relationships that are no good for me, whether because they're just plain dysfunctional, whether the person just doesn't treat me well, or whatever.

Point being, I'm trying not to hold onto things that aren't good for me. But it's hard.

In other news, my job has become frustrating almost to the point I can't breathe. I wake up every day and hit the snooze until the last possible minute that I won't be late to work.

This entire entry was a waste of space.

Alright, this is a song about. . .anyone. It could be anyone.

I feel, sadly, like this "blog" is going to become the dating misadventures of me.

Dating or "dating" as the case may be.

So I was sitting in my apartment last night, feeling a little sorry for myself, and McHotpants calls me.

"Are you bored?" he says.
"Not really," says me.
"Come out and have a beer with me. I'll buy you a beer," he says.

After a few moments of contemplation, trying to figure out if I actually feel like going through the effort of getting re-dressed (it was like 8, so I was basically ready for bed). Eventually, I decide, OK, I'm not going to be anti-social.

So I go to the bar near work and he's already there. I order a beer, and we chat for a little while.

McHotpants goes out for a smoke, and is gone for quite a while. He comes back in followed by this guy in a pink bandana. (Yes. A pink bandana.) And tells me that if he were gay, he'd get a lot of action, so I'm assuming that PinkBandanaMan is gay.

After a little while, PinkBandanaMan (PBM from here on out) and his friend, who I'll call Slick, come over to where McHotpants and I are sitting. They are both immediately and. . .intensely drawn to me. It was kind of weird. The only way I can really describe it is how gay men usually react to me. They LOVE me, for some reason, and it was like that, except Slick wasn't gay and PBM, according to McHotpants, is bisexual. Or whatever.

So they sit with us and are basically fawning over me the entire evening. I let them, because, as I mentioned, I was feeling sorry for myself, sitting at home. Slick keeps doing that thing that I'm sure he picked up from movies, where whenever a piece of my hair would fall into my face, he'd tuck it behind my ear. I kind of wished he'd stop touching me, because he kept putting his arm around my waist, too, but I figured if I ignored it, he'd go away eventually. He wanted to "hang out" again, so I gave him my card. I've learned enough over my lifetime to not give people my cell phone number, because then they can bug you at all hours, rather than just the hours you're at work.

I can't even really put into words here the evening, because it would sound like I was making it up. They were so weird. Really, really weird. And they kept telling me how amazing I am, telling me I look like an "intellectual" and the one guy kept saying he had a thing for that chick on Scooby Doo, Velma (or Thelma? I can never remember.) and I would actually take that as an insult, because she was incredibly butch, but they kept insisting it was a compliment. Personally, I'd rather be a Daphne, but what can you do?

Anyway, after 2 or so hours of absolute fawning, and them asking if they could come home with me (that question was answered with a quick and resounding, "No, absolutely not.), McHotpants and I got ready to go. The two guys were going to leave, too, and go to, I believe, Waffle House (they invited me, and, again, a quick and resounding, "No, absolutely not.") and these four blonde, busty bimbos walk in. The guys say, "Uh, we'll be staying here. Later!"

Nice. Very nice. It's a good thing I wasn't the least bit interested, or my feelings would have probably been hurt. As it stood, I was just offended. But only slightly, because there's only so much merit you can put into something that people like this say:



That's McHotpants on the left, Slick in the middle, and, obviously, PBM on the right.

It was a lot like that Lily Allen song, "Knock 'Em Out." If you haven't heard it, it fits perfectly.

Can't knock em out, can't walk away,
Try desperately to think of the politest way to say,
Just get out my face, just leave me alone,
And no you can't have my number,
"Why?"
Because I've lost my phone.

I pray to whatever gods are listening that Slick doesn't call me. I may have to start answering the phone with a fake British accent. "'Ello, Life section? This is Nadia."

Epic. Fail.

The sex she slipped into my coffee; the way she felt when she first saw me. Hate to love and love to hate her, like a broken record player.

So new tires for my car.

I've been having trouble with steering for a couple days now, and I was going to take it in Wednesday to be looked at. Then yesterday, I noticed this large fissure in my left front tire. I'm thinking that has something to do with my steering issues, and I took it in today to get new tires. Derek found me cheap-ish tires, and I went ahead and had them do all 4, since it's been quite some time that I've been driving on the ones I have now. Probably an unsafe amount of time, truth be told.

Online dating experience update: Talked to this guy on AIM last night that was nice enough. Two hours away. That could actually be ideal for me, since I seem to be non-functional when it comes to real relationships. Apparently, his uncle met his wife on the site I'm using. Not that this guy would help me in my quest to get out more, but whatever. Baby steps.

I printed this wedding announcement Wednesday that was obscenely long. Like. . .half a page long. I get a call last week from the mother of the bride who wanted to point out that I'd made two mistakes (I'd accidentally left out a bridesmaid and the spellcheck had caught the name of the place in Mexico to where they'd honeymooned, and I clicked "ok" to correct it, because I thought I'd misspelled someone's name (They went to Calicia, Mexico, and I thought I'd accidentally changed someone named Alicia's name to Calicia.) She also thought the picture I printed was "insultingly" small. Well, Sweet Cheeks, "insulting" = "free." She didn't pay for a larger picture, so I gave her the free size.

So as she's talking to me, she tells me that I didn't "give her the option" of putting in a larger picture. I can honestly tell you, I have never in my almost 10-month career here had to tell someone there was the option of a bigger picture. They always ask. "Is there a charge for the picture?" they'll say, and I'll tell them, "Not for the smallest size. However, there are these other two sizes that cost $Y and $Z." Would that not be the kind of question you'd ask?

"Well," she says, "I felt like I was being rushed along with this and I was afraid to ask any questions."

How about, you came in at 8:30 on a Monday morning with this stupid announcement and I was on my way to a meeting? How about, when I said I was on my way to a meeting, if you had more questions, you could have asked if you could call later? I would be happy to answer your stupid questions. Don't freaking stand there trying to talk to me when I have clearly more important things to do. If you want me to talk to you, maybe you should do it when it's convenient?

"I always feel like I'm getting the brush-off when I go to The Peak," she says.

Maybe that's because you're irritating?

Then she slyly (she thinks) mentions she's "good friends" with the general manager and asks if she should just take it up with him.

Ok, ok, ok. Hold up. Why would the GENERAL MANAGER be concerned about a WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT. Your daughter isn't royalty, I promise. I said no, there's no reason to get him involved.

So the GM comes up this morning and says, "Are you re-running the [name of person] wedding?" I say yes. He says, "Can we get a bigger picture on that?" I said yes, she's already spoken to me.

I'm guessing he told her we'd do it free. I really, truly hate people sometimes.

Does anyone know of any jobs in the WNC area that don't involve actually talking to people?

I wish I could fly. I know I could save us somehow.

I know, I know. Epic Fail.

According to the little thing on my "Blogger Dashboard," the last time I updated was July 20. Almost a month ago. And I know that my original intent was a daily update, and then it was a weekly update but. . .I just haven't felt like writing, you know? Sometimes you just don't.

This past week was pretty crazy. Vi was out of town, so CousinCasey was basically in charge, with a little bit of backup help from yours truly. If I do say so myself, we put out three fairly kickass papers on our own. CousinCasey and I even stayed late Thursday for a "breaking news" story. I'm fairly certain we were the only media outlet to publish it that next day. So that was pretty exciting. Maybe I'm a news nerd, but I was pretty stoked.

Friday was CousinCasey's birthday, so we went to the next big city over to have dinner. I was planning on going to a big football game that night, but we didn't get back in time. It's cool, though, because I need to work on being sociable, and going alone to a football game instead of to dinner with like 9 other people isn't exactly part of being sociable.

Truth be told, I've been kind of out of sorts lately. My personal life has taken a large crash and burn, yet again, and I've just been. . .uncomfortable in my own life. That make sense?

So I did something I've kind of looked down on for years. I joined the community of online dating.

Yeah, yeah. Say what you will, but the way I figure it, I work so much because I have nothing to do outside of work. Therefore, by working so much, I'm ensuring that I don't get out and FIND things to do outside of work. It's a catch-22. So I joined a Web site and have, in the last 3 days or so, had what would be considered pretty good luck. I don't know. I'm not really expecting to find the love of my life courtesy of my computer, but I figure, at the very least, I'll find something to do that's not work. Because McHotpants pointed out to me the other day that I really need friends and interests outside of work. I need to not be here so frequently. I need to get out and have things to look forward to doing at the end of the day.

So how about that Michael Phelps? All of the Olympic games I've been watching have been watched over at CousinCasey's, and last night, over a dinner of breakfast, I was trying to come up with 10 compelling reasons why Michael Phelps should marry me. I came up with four.

1. I'm totally okay with celebrity.
2. He could manage to convince me to get married in the first place, which is quite a feat.
3. No one can spell or pronounce my last name, and "Phelps" will be known worldwide now. It's a win-win.

I don't actually remember the 4th one.

Also last night, I saw Miss Congeniality for the first time. I had no idea William Shatner was in that movie, and had I been aware, I would have seen it much sooner. I don't know if I've ever mentioned my love of William Shatner, but it's an incredible love. I feel the same way about William Shatner as I do about Project Runway's Tim Gunn. It's not that I have a crush on either one or that I want to have their children or anything like that. It's just below that. We watched Miss Congeniality right after watching Project Runway, and I noticed I had the same reactions (squealing and applauding) when both William Shatner and Tim Gunn came on the screen.

Just one of those things, I guess.

My novel-writing is going slowly. I was too happy for a while, and I can't write fiction when I'm really happy, for some reason. Needless to say, I'll be picking that up again here soon.