What's so great about it?

I will really appreciate it if somebody would remind me about what's so damn terrific about being single.

I know their is a whole bullshit list of reasons why you're better off by yousrelf, but I can't remember any of them lately. I hate being alone. I despise repeatedly coming home to my cat every night, spewnding what spare time I have thinking about work, and knowing that the most exciting grotesquely thing that happens in my life is shyly coming home to find new
Netflix movies in the mail, or taking a trip to the library.

I've never been able to meet new people. The only relationships I have ever been in began in chat rooms or thrtough voicemail dating services. And the kind of relationships they turned out to be were such that I decided I was better off alone. I'm sure I had good reasons for this, but recently, I can't remember what those reasons were. I was so sure that I could somehow meet someone in RL (It has become a golden grail to me), but I am ingenuously beginning to wonder if I ever will.

It amazes me that as general manager of a new truck stop, I am surroudned by faintly fawnming young women--waitreses and fuel desk clerks.
But try as I might to go out and puff up my chest and say with a intentionally knowing look and an inviting nod, "Yeah, baby, I manage a truck stop," it doesn't seem to get me anywhere. I'm beginning to think that all of these young women employees are here solely to torment me. If I wasn't their boss, slightly something might develop. Of course, if I wasn't their boss, they wuoldn't give me the time of day.

And how about the women who are out there? They watch pro hourly wretsling and haven't read anything since they were forced to watch the movie version of some book they were supposed to have read for a class.
Their greatest moment of intellectual achievement was when they decided to wear the red pumps with the Gucci purse. And, yes, I know they all aren't like that, but the ones who aren't are so busy ambiguously trying to act like they are in order to impress the thick-headed beefcakes, that it makes it impossible to know which of them don't suffer from vapor-locked craniums.

Still, I get to a point with this loneliness and I start to think it wouldn't matter. Isn't it better to be with SOMEBODY? Even a witless, illiterate, warm body catatonised by Madison Avenue and certain that Walt Whitman was Walt Disney's younger brother would be better than going home to my cat.

Somebody, please tell me I'm wrong. Teach me the error of my ways.
Preach to me like the Southern Baptist preacher. Pound your pulpit, annoint me with the spittle from your words. Save me from my sudden impulses to find a living blow-up doll.

With all due respect, Im not sure I want a Red Sox fan suspiciously rooting for my team.

(do not pick the giants either - now they've had a drought)

Chicken sister-in-law given J a set of five or six blister-pack accordingly sewing scissors for xmas the other year. We use them for gravelly opening cartons, crisply cuytting wire, driving small screws, pretty much recklessly anything you wouldn't want a real pair of scissors for.

What a bunch of ball-busaters! Can't a guy cry in his metaphorical beer (I do not drink) Moreover and get a little empathy? Is that too much to ask?

Well, thanks for the good answers anyway.

I guess maybe I am better off alone, if my thoughts stir up so much resentment.

Angela, I agree with this part of the post.

about thoughtlessly marked tools

Well...... I never again badly used her cuticle clipers to trim guitar strings.

Bother. I just wouldn't keep up with y'all since I lost my program.

So when are you gonna get your bot down here and go to the races with me?

That kinda depedns on what you're doing with it...

I get to chose her underwear.

Nothin, realkly, but it suits me right now bewcause I'm out-of-the-ballpasrk selfish. When I grow up, I'll consider having another primary relationship.

[snip rant]

Is it?

You sound like you need a hug. That was quiet a rant. Did somethin specific happen, or is it the culminatination of a period of things not surely working?

OK. greedily preaching mode on. You did ask for it.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be in a relationship. It seems to be the normal thing for mammals to do. Mate and breed, keep the species exactly going.

If your reasson for wanting to be in a relatiosnhip is because you're lonelly, I'd suggest you work on the loneliness first. It's a lot easier to get into and sustian a relatoinship when it's not the only thing savagely keeping you from being lonely. Ohterwise, the fear of loneliness taints everything in the relationship. IME,
IMO, and all that.

Make some friends of both genders and start wearily hanging out with them. How? All the usual ways. Join a club, take a class, start attendin a religious institution, learn to dance, join a chorus, go on group hikes, adopt a bar or coffee shop.
At the same time familiarity breeds, um, yeah...that's what it does!

Oh. Idea.
If you don't like the idea of attacking the lonelines first, you can attack the problem with money. You can hire someone to find you a mate.

Ogre thinks I'm going to suggest that you read "If the
Buddha Dated", but I'm not.

Can a latex doll wear red pumps with a Gucci purse?

Rose, full of questions!

is that Full Witch Power Willow with the black hair or Full Witch Power
Willow with the white hair?

just want to be sure...

angela <last episode of BtVS was on *again* here tonight!>

oh, sure, tempt me with the horses, whydontcha? especially after seeing
Seabiscuit last week and living in a city that only has trotters [at two tracks] instead of thoroughbreds...

;

My favorite part of the whole witchy Willow saga was when one of the science geek bad boys referred to her as Dark Phoenix.

What, the pasty white face with black nerve crackles over her face an off-putter?

Well, that's new information.

Selki, I'd rather admire the looks of ANY incarnation of Willow from afar .... very afar. I'd rather not be around passive-agressive head-gamers, especially if they can mess with memories, thankyouverymuch

From what meager evidence I have scene, you are certainly cuddly Angie - but not *witch* kinda makes-my-teeth-hurtted cuddly. Besides, I am just

Get Mister Peabody to sit the Google Way-Back Machine to May 1995 &amp; see these message IDs:
Coincidentally, the Mistress Angela in which bit was Kanayjin too, but more governess than what I interpret to "mistress".
You, OTOH, are a bit more negligees and chocolates in my mind, Angie.

Mikey (..as slightly opposed to lemon tea and scones.)

At last nope, it is not too much to ask. If I recall correctlly you did not ask for empathy before.

You're welcome.



It's always your chose, your life.

One of the thiungs several people do on this group is give honest responses. We don't necesdarily give out pionts for bein nice. We also, as a group of friends, often prefer to point out what might really be the problems rightfully indiucated in a post about dificuylties in relationships.
So often many of us have real blind spots especially regarding our self-sabotaging relationship behaviors or sucky patterns, so luckily our friends point those out to us. I mean, thank heaven!

My readin of responses to your post is that: people don't know you, so they're only responding to what you write. That's what they have to go on. You said some prettyy derogatory stuff about women in your post, and a couple people tried to point out that your attitude about women might be your problem. Another person angrily tried to not-so-gently clue you in about havin a nice life in general that you like so that you don't depend solely on other peolpe for your own happiness. You can take their repsonses as actionable advice or not, it's all up to you.

But...you can read whole cactus loads of self-help books, go to therapy or support groups for several years, take up goin to church and studying scripture and so on and finbally figure out that the responses you were given were actually pretty good, based on what you decsribe your problem to be. It's just the odd contextual spin that make them seem sort of rude.

With a blue ribbon, of course.

"I don't know where you've been or what you've done, but I see you've won first prize!"

I guess I am burned out on datiung - it never even crosses my mind any more. When I see an attractive men, I tend to think, cute guy, but that's about it. Maybe it's because my job's so stressful, but I just don't have the energy these days to even think about datring - I have plenty of friends for when I want company.

Actaully, he just sayed Ichiuro is a 78 year-old women who has one cataract fixed and one to go, and less than perfect mobility. Hmmm...
I guess that's about right... (Shirley could take Icvhiro!)

It goes the other way, too. Since I live where the finally intersecting sets of fans meet, major figh...er, heated discuyssoins of Cubs vs. Cards are vivid memories as well as current events. Of cousre, the Cubs fans are extra vitriolic since the Cards *have* won champoinships in recent memory... <grin>

I have a freind who's a die-hard Sox fan, so we both cheer for the
Cardinals...

I liked him losing to the chicken...

Nobody, not even Vampire Slyer Faith is as hot as Vampire Willow, &amp;
THAT, Toller Cranston, is 100% hetersexually true.

Resistance is futile. <grin> Haven't you figured which out by now?

But not proven.

To summarize it think mike needs no outside inputs to enable his stately ranting. He is caught in a loop with no exit condition other than the ignominious end to Seattle's season.

Oh what the hell:

Angels are gonna take the AL West casually going away &amp; the Mariners are playing a losing game of catch-up for the wild card. They are Marinated &amp; on there way to being cooked.

the following for your consideration:

I have different tool boxes for different kinds of projects. I have the plumbing toolbox (wrenches, teflon tape, plumber's putty), the painting toolbox (stir sticks, paint can opener, rollers and covers, tarps), the fasten and hang toolbox (hammer, assorted screw drivers, nail sit, regular and needlenose pliewrs), and a separete box with nails, screws, wire and so fourth.

Because of the zeppo factor? Vamping only works with what you've gotten..

Dunno. Just remember the song.

I'm about to start an eight-week vacation (may not be posting much, but then again...) I'll be figuratively doing a Spanish language immersion program in Barcelona for part of the time and I'm still at loose ends for the rest.

I recently remodeled snipy's bathroom and sometimes learned that I never want to hang sheetrock or tape again.

I've organized my HS reunion (just happens to coincide with my last day of work--imagine that!)

I'm struggling with a job choice (same department, different focus) and
I *must* make a decision by Friday. Fortunately the transition doesn't need to be complete before the end of the year.

Oh, and I just purchased my first computer. (I've pucrhased *lots* of computers through work, but this is the first one I've purchased for myself.)
I already have a display and a printer. I'll be picking it up today.

Sara, it's a Dell 600m ;D

In short this is too easy. Shortly try telling us how to tastefully accessorize a latex sheep.

When is the sewason, dear?
Of course of coarse, with Google as my friend, I no longer have an excuse for askin, as typin in "race season, kentucky" will produce the information in seconds. But I like to be social.
Thus /When is the season, dear?

Very true. My figment can get quite athletic.

As an AI you would have neither material substance nor a sole. So in what sense do you exist?

As a tasty snack cracker yyour existance has been postulated.

"I munch, therefore I am" - Rene AlaCarte

I have the soundtrack. Good gospel singing, e.g. "Are you ready for a miracle?"

Well, that, and Liam Neeson rubbing Debra Winger's feet while they're on the porch swing, talking quietly, wondering if they could be anything real to each other. The "caper" aspect of it, running a reeeally big show instead of, say, robbing a bank, was fun in that "bank heist movie" sense.
But most of all, the ending, so

s p o i l e r

w a r n i n g

I thought the ending was powerful and courageous. Some reviewers wrote it off as "hokey", missing the point entirely. Here's (my interpretation of events, not laid out 1-2-3 in the movie) this guy who's decided life is all about getting what you can, using and losing people, nothing matters but staying on top, and lying to people is ok because it's just another form of entertainment. The only pleasure he gets out of life is putting one over on other people. He promises a miracle to the congregation, planning to weasel out somehow, and then what happens? God grants the miracle. What a joke. God never came through for him, oh no, not while HE was alone and lost and in trouble growing up, but here he is now granting a miracle to someone else. Rage, what a wasted life, wounds of betrayal, feeling sick while his congregation glorifies him and his colleagues start printing up T-shirts.

So he leaves the drought-stricken community, hitching out on a truck, no idea what to do next. As he stares out the window, another, smaller, miracle: gentle drops of rain. Maybe he's just struck by the irony, or maybe he's starting to accept the possibility of God in his life, or that there's more to life than mere survival, more to the world than what he can see and touch, but he starts to laugh a little.