Contest

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a book ho. There isn't much I wouldn't do for books. The list is pretty short. For example, I won't promote an author I don't like and I won't promote a book I don't like, even if I do like the author.

Which makes a particular contest really easy for me. You see, Eileen Cook is running a contest for a $75 gift card to the book store of your choice (details here). And, if you've been paying attention, I like Eileen's books - including What Would Emma Do?

I interviewed Eileen here. I believe I'd sent Eileen the questions before I'd actually read What Would Emma Do? But, I'd read Unpredictable and loved it, so I was excited about spotlighting Eileen on my blog. In fact, I even blogged about Unpredictable here. (It should be noted that promoting Unpredictable wasn't a part of the contest - just a bonus here because I really, really liked it!) By the time I posted the blog post, I'd read What Would Emma Do? and loved it!

Shortly thereafter What Would Emma Do? was listed in my top 9 favorite books of 2008 (Unpredictable also made the list but again, it's not part of the contest so consider this another bonus thing :o) ).

And then, not long ago, I saw that Eileen has another book coming out. . . The cover is absolutely awesome and I cannot wait for it to hit the shelves!!!

But back to What Would Emma Do? So in this contest we have to promote the book and well, I know of no other way than to tell you that I've personally read it and highly recommend it. And, if you go for that bonus kind of thing and you're ordering What Would Emma Do?, do yourself a favor and order Unpredictable too. I promise you won't be disappointed. :o)

Good Dog

I live in a relatively small town and every Friday I have a paper delivered to my house. I don't subscribe to the paper - and it's a daily paper, by the way - but on Friday's they deliver the paper to everyone. Why, I have no idea.

But, what that means is that every Friday morning, as I pull my car out of my driveway, I see the morning paper in the driveway. Then, every Friday evening, I pick it up as I retrieve my mail and dump it in the trash can in the garage so that I can haul it out on Monday morning.

Every Friday.

Well, this morning I was pulling out my car and sure enough, the paper was there like it always is. But, down the street I saw a suspicious looking dog. No, really, he was suspicious looking! It looked like he had something in his mouth but I couldn't tell what it was. He was watching me as my car approached the house he was in front of. His head was down but his eyes were following me, as if if he would do that, I wouldn't catch on to what he was doing.

Then I saw it, he had a neighbor's paper in his mouth! And as I pulled up along side him, he darted off into his backyard with the paper. The paper had come from his neighbor's driveway.

It struck me as funny and you know what makes it even funnier? There wasn't a single driveway (mine included) with a newspaper on it when I got home this evening.

I can only imagine how many newspapers are lined up in my neighbor's backyard. LOL

What happens when you ignore your email

Back when Hurricane Katrina did its damage, one of the facilities of my company was destroyed and for a long while there were pleas out to the employees of that facility to check in and let someone know they were okay. I remember there were several employees that went unheard from for a long time - to be honest, I don't know if they were ever heard from.

So, in an effort to avoid that type of situation again, my company implemented this emergency program wherein you have to call in to a specific number and "retrieve" messages and let someone know you were safe - or not. And every year they "test" that system to be sure it still works. They do this at the beginning of hurricane season - which is currently underway. (It was utilized last year when Ike hit this area as well.)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we all received an email asking us to confirm/update our emergency contacts (since Katrina it is required that we have at least one emergency contact in our profile, not our home number). It directed us to list our cell number first, since it would likely be on us if we "fled" town. Well, I refuse to give my cell number as a contact number and just confirmed that my step-father was still listed in the system. Check that task off my "to do" list.

Once the deadline for that had passed, we received another email telling us to test the feature ourselves by calling in to the designated number on June 18 - this past Thursday. Well, I'm getting ready to take two weeks off and I haven't participated in this exercise in the past so I decided to let it slide this year as well.

Then last night I received a phone call from my step-father. We typically communicate via email so I was a bit surprised to see that he was calling me. First words out of his mouth were "Are you alright????"

Me: Um, yeah. Why? What's going on?

To make a long story short, when I hadn't called in to the designated number as instructed, my step-father, as my emergency contact, was contacted! He said he was told it was a "test" but he was told that they were trying reach me to be sure I was okay!

Oy vey!

He said he figured I was okay but since my company had called him saying those things, he just wanted to be sure.

Oops!

Next year I'll do what I'm told. lol

This is how I want to do it

About online dating...it's not working for me. And I know why it's not working - for one thing, my heart's not in it. Readers of my blog and a few (very few) select friends know I've tried online dating. I know it's like the new way to meet people but I'm really not comfortable with the concept and deep down I've felt like if I did meet someone that way, I'd never want to admit that to the people who didn't know how we met - which is the mass majority of people. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with online dating if you want to do that - the problem is with me and I know that too.

Another reason it's not working for me is because I don't post pictures. I know men are very visual beings and with that whole "don't want people to know" thing working against me, I haven't been able to bring myself to post pictures. For a lot of men, that's a deal breaker - which is fine. But, here's the deal, I've been a paid member on two services and created a profile on a third (they still send you matches but you can't communicate with them). All three of the services have matched me with men I know. Yes, I know that that means they're signed up too but it still makes me uncomfortable and if they found out I had subscribed (I'm no longer a subscriber to any online service) to these services, I'd want it to be because I chose to tell them - not because they recognized my picture. Stupid? Yes, absolutely, but it's still how I feel.

But anyway, back when I was married, I tried to talk my then husband into taking ballroom dance classes with me but he refused. Shortly after we separated I started taking country western dance classes by myself. Then in 2000, I took swing and country western dancing with my nephew. And with Dancing with the Stars, it's really brought back the desire to take dancing classes. So anyway, a couple of weeks ago I pulled up Jessica Trapp's website and was looking around and was reminded that she belly dances (she's such a neat lady and so interesting!!!). Next thing I know, I'm googling "belly dancing classes Houston". I came across Dance Passion, a place that teaches not only Belly Dancing but also salsa, swing, country western, ballroom, hip hop and more. For me, I want group classes because private lessons are obscenely expensive and this school has group classes.

To make a long story short, a new session of classes started this week. I was interested in ballroom, salsa and belly dancing. The ballroom classes started on Monday but I was exhausted after work and couldn't bring myself to make the trek across town (no place near me offers classes - this place is 35 miles one way) for the class. I did, however, have the energy to go on Thursday for the belly dancing. It was immediately followed by the salsa class but I hadn't decided if I was going to do both. That is until I saw the big crowd waiting to get in to the salsa class. I figured if it was that popular, it had to be fun, so I signed up for it as well.

And here's where I get to the point of this post (yeah, I know, long way around)...they told us to find a partner. At the time I thought that would be the awkward part - the part where I felt like a loser because I didn't come with a partner. I didn't go look for anyone, instead, a tall, good-looking man approached me and asked me to be his partner. And for the next 30-45 minutes (before they made us start changing partners), he was my dance partner. He was nice. He was encouraging. And we had a good time.

But, the point is, we didn't have to fill out a 700 question compatibility thing or be compared on 29 points (or whatever it is) to find out we have something in common. We'd both signed up for the class of our own free will and without doing anything else, we know we have something in common. I like that - a lot. Is he going to be the next man in my life? Probably not. That's not the point. The point is, I don't have to do things that make me uncomfortable to meet people. If I just go out and do the things I like doing, I'm going to meet people with common interests without trying. All while having a good time to boot.

Bottom line, I think I'm done with the online dating thing. I know it works for a lot of people - and that's great - but it's not for me. I'd rather meet someone in a situation where we know off the bat that we have a common interest and see where that takes us. If it goes somewhere, great. If not, that's okay too. But in the meantime, I'm still having fun. And that's really what it's all about now, isn't it? :)