51 posts tagged “qotd”

Who have you lost touch with that you'd love to talk to again?

 

What's really awesome is that my list is much smaller now because Facebook HAS reconnected me with so many friends. I am back in touch with some of my dearest friends from college, some of whom are spread all over the country now and others who are still local but lead crazy busy lives like me that make it harder to get together. I am also back in touch with several wonderful friends from high school that I may have never connected with again otherwise unless we happened to meet by chance somewhere. In fact, I just saw one of my closest old friends from my neighborhood because my FB page told him where the family pub was and he stopped by when he was in town to visit family.

More recently, I just reconnected with a former co-worker. We went through a crazy transition at work together back in 1998 when our boss up and quit and we and one other guy had to pretty much run the office for a year although we were brand new to the field and didn't really know yet what we were doing ourselves! We hung out a lot after work and traveled to a few conferences together, but lost touch when she left the college. She recently found me on FB and it is great to be back in contact with her!

There are still a few old friends I'd like to be back in touch with that aren't part of the FB world and whom I haven't seen in forever ... my neighborhood friends Rocky and Joyce (a brother/sister duo who lived across the street from me) come to mind.

 

What's your favorite thing about Monday?

That's it's over!!!!

What's your favorite winter activity?

Watching the Steelers kick butt!!!!

What do you see yourself doing on this day next year?
Submitted by Beautifully Broken.

This time next year, we will have been operating in the system I am now implementing for our first full cycle. So hopefully, I will be having a life and getting enough sleep because I don't have to work 12 hours a day anymore!

Why do you make some purchases online and others in-store? What ultimately prompts you to go in-store?
Sponsored by Best Buy.

Honestly, I buy just about everything I can online, because shopping in stores and standing in lines plucks my nerves. What gets me into a store is:

- you can't get fresh groceries online

- I like to try clothes on before I buy them.

And that's about it!

What first attracted you to the person you're currently dating?

Our first communications were through an online message board and then email. Funny, I never thought I'd meet a guy that way. But remember, I was newly single again in my mid-30's after being in a relationship that had begun before my 21st birthday. The last time I'd been on the dating scene, the whole "meeting people online" thing was still incredibly rare.

Let's just say that after a few dating experiences with people I'd met by going out, I figured I might as well open my mind a bit about meeting someone online ... it certainly couldn't be any MORE freaky!

(Side note: It's funny that I'm writing this today. I've been emailing back and forth with a good friend I haven't seen in a while, making plans to get together on Friday. He's the only one of the folks I consider 'close friends' who hasn't yet met Lee, and I can't wait for the two of them to get to know each other!). Anyway, I remember us hanging out at my family pub one night, and me and another girlfriend of mine asking him "how the hell does a normal woman in her 30s who is trying to date meet a man who ISN'T a freak???" And he said, "the internet." We both looked at him like he had 3 heads.)

So, in my first few emails with Lee, what drew me in was how his notes were both simple and straightforward, but thoughtful and entertaining at the same time. I myself am this weird blend of redneck girl who hates pretentiousness and goofy intellectual philosopher. It's hard to find someone who has that same weird makeup. I usually either end up frustrated that I CAN'T entice someone who shares my love of just hanging out in a local yokel bar or hollerin' at a football game to get a little deeper with me, or annoyed that someone else who WILL explore politics and religion and creativity and philosophy and music with me WON'T drink beer out of a can by a campfire with me too. Something about Lee's words gave me an inkling that he might be walking a line much like my own.

The first picture he sent me was him all decked out for a Ravens game. I wrote back that even though like him, I was Baltimore born-and-bred and had been in our town all my life, I was a Steelers fan, and he still wanted to meet. That was a good sign too : ).

When we met, the first thing that struck me about him was his eyes. They're a brilliant blue that seems to change - sometimes dark, others light. They're gorgeous. But what makes them even more so is how expressive they are. Lee's eyes tell you when he's amused, upset, and especially when he's feeling particularly tender or loving. I thought he was adorable overall, and didn't want our evening to end. But it was his eyes and the way it felt to hold his hand that stuck with me all the following week, until our next date.

The other thing I sensed on that first date? His simple, overwhelming and sometimes almost childlike joy with the little things in life. Everyday sights and sounds like a sip of coffee or a cool breeze or a bird on the water. He just seemed to take in everything around us and appreciate it. We'd talked enough before meeting for me to know that life had dealt him some pretty hard knocks, and that he'd never had it easy. So his joy and love of living in spite of obstacles amazed me, and was kind of "contagious" at a time I really needed it. I'll be the first to admit that when I met Lee, I was pretty mired in feeling sorry for myself. I was angry over the changes in my life, frightened over going it alone, financially frustrated, and generally overwhelmed. Instead of counting my blessings, I looked at my friends and family who I felt had it easier than me - either because they were raking in the dough and loving the single live or because they had warm and stable hearths and homes compared to my cold and rundown, empty house - and I wallowed in self-pity.

And I really WAS in a rough spot. But compared to Lee's my life had been a walk in the park. And so seeing how he still managed to find happiness in everyday rituals and simple moments was like a lesson in healing to me. One that couldn't have come at a better time in my life.

And that's how we fell in love.

If you were born the opposite sex, what would your name be?

Jesse James Hawley.

No, really. My parents had it all picked out.

Where is the most inspirational place you have been?
Submitted by Seventh Rain

On the back deck of a cruise ship sailing into an amazing sunset somewhere in the Caribbean back in 2001. I was sitting on a deck chair reading the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, when Frodo and company sail off into the West. I finished the last sentence, closed the book, and looked up. I had the deck all to myself ... my friends were off doing other things and I guess everyone else was off enjoying the decks that had pools and hot tubs and bars rather than this quiet little place. The sun was a ball of fire in the sky, with velvety blankets of pink and orange and red radiating from it across the clouds. The water was endless, and I was hit with the realization that this one of the most beautiful things I would see in my lifetime.

I still get goosebumps when I think of that moment.

What's your definition of home?
Submitted by NayNay72

Home Is:

- Being curled up on the couch with Lee, Sylvester sprawled over both of us, purring like a vibrating blanket.

- Flannel PJs and coffee on the deck on a lazy Saturday morning.

- Pulling up to the cabin after a long Friday night drive and being greeting by the flicker of a campfire and the smell of woodsmoke.

- Kneeling in the grass in front of the flower beds, hands girtty with dirt.

- Walking into the bedroom and being greeted by a leaping weasel.

- A bar stool and a cold beer at the family pub.

- Anywhere I can be me - the good,  the bad and the ugly - and still be loved.

- Where I really can shake off trouble at the door, like kicking mud off my shoes, before going inside.

What movies do you have memorized? Bonus points for sharing your favorite quote.
Submitted by Andymatic.

I don't know that I have any movie completely memorized. But there are a few that I've watched enough that seeing them again feels like hanging out in the living room with a crowd of old friends.

One of those is "Office Space," which is not only funny but pretty much defines how I feel about work. Oddly enough, the first time I saw it, I found it kind of slow-paced and boring. I didn't hate it, but it certainly wasn't a film I saw myself watching again and again for years to come.

I think that might have been because I was fresh out of college and not ingrained enough in or jaded enough by office life to appreciate the truths and humor in the movie. The first time I watched it again years later, when I was channel-surfing and it just happened to be on, I was like "holy crap - this is brilliant!"

I think my favorite part is the neighbor who is in construction work and always talks to the main character, Peter, by yelling through the thin walls in their apartment building. Peter has an annoying chipper woman in his office (don't we all), who responds to him being less-than-enthusiastic in returning her greeting by saying "oooh, someone's got a case of the Moondays!" (think of a squealy yet schmoopy and drippy voice that drags out 'Monday' forever).

Peter asks his neighbor whether anyone at his work site says that, and the neighbor goes "Hell, no. Where I work, you could get your ass kicked for that!" Classic, and a line that had office-drones everywhere wishing they worked in the great outdoors instead.

On a more embarrassing note, I also know quite a few of the lines from "South Park: The Movie." In fact, it was on TV the other night when my friend and Lee and I came home from The Pub. When Cartman broke into his song "Kyle's Mom's A Bitch" I found myself singing along with him, and not just because I'd had a few beers.

I might need a life.