Internet Gems! and a Random Text

The internet has been providing some great insights into dating and romance lately. Behold:

-How ladies should act in the company of gentlemen. Tips from 1938.
-A Bad Case of the Dates. Absolutely love these dating horror stories!
-The worst, post-date stalker-y email ever. Clearly the guy has issues; this is truly a lesson in what not to do.

Also, a little bit of insight into my recent dating life. I went on two dates with a guy. He was weird at the end of the second date and I pretty much put him out of my mind after that (which was about 10 days ago). Today I get this text message:

Just to let you know, I'm in a horrible emotional state right now fur [sic] several reasons and I'm not really feeling like dating. I'm sorry.

After a few minutes, I started to feel bad for the guy because I really have no idea what's going on with him and it sounds bad. But my first reaction - Yeah, dude, not a problem.

Overheard at the Office

An excerpt from conversation I had with coworker/friend today:

Me: I need a raise.
Her: Why?
Me: So I can buy myself more pretty rings like this one.
(Waving my hand with new, big, shiny semi-precious ring on it.)
Me: I watch it sparkle while I type on my computer.
Her: You're ridiculous.
Me: I can never get engaged... I wouldn't get any work done.

Don't worry, folks! It ain't happening any time soon. But more dates are....stay tuned!

Question

What do you do when someone kisses you while you're still deciding whether or not you want to kiss them? I ask because that just happened to me. I was so perplexed by the situation that I actually drove past my own house on the way home and had to park down the street when I realized where I was. I politely kissed back, but I pulled away as soon as possible and made some lighthearted remarks and literally trotted to my parked car. What would you do in that situation??

Romance and Relationships - Bits from Around the Web

I've read a few entertaining or interesting articles on dating and relationships recently and thought I'd share them with you. I owe you guys so many date stories (I've been racking them up!), so stay tuned for all the juicy details. In the meantime, check these out:

- Guns, Ammo, Romance? Romance's New Format from the New York Times
- Does it help if the man loves the woman more in a relationship? (This makes me think of the Reachers and the Settlers theory of HIMYM.) Chime in with the HowAboutWe poll.
- Online Dating 101: You Don't Have to Respond to Everyone from HowAboutWe. Amen to that!

Awkward is as Awkward Does

Okay, let's all go back in our time machine to this summer when this blog experiment first started. Before "Nice Guy" and I started dating, I had one more date with another guy. It was on the same day as my first date with Nice Guy, actually (scandalous!), and it wasn't much but I feel like I should report it nonetheless.

About him: This guy - I'll just go ahead and call him Awkward - was not particularly attractive on his online profile, but he did seem decently nice and smart. He's in law school and just seemed like a normal, average guy. I have a policy of accepting 95% of first date offers, so I went along with it. (My policy is just based on giving people the benefit of the doubt - you never know when first impressions are off, or when you're going to have more in common with someone than you think.)

The Story

Do you remember this story? The one about the great first date? Well, things snowballed from there to a great second date (wine! sunset! pretty view! dinner! lots of talking! intimacy!). "Nice Guy" and I really hit it off; we had instant chemistry and a good rapport.

On our third date, he got a phone call - he got his dream job in his dream city. Things ramped up from there - he asked me to go apartment hunting with him, I helped him pack, we were legitimately dating. Soon after we started being exclusive, though, we started fighting. Our high moments were super high - very open emotionally, but the low moments were mind-boggling. He was moody and not very nice about it (so much for the Nice Guy nickname).

I'm back!

Ohhhh, my lovelies..... Do I have a story for you...