Inblognito: Blogging Undercover

Now this should be interesting… I’ve had a glass of wine and there is a certain phrase I’m going to try and avoid because I’m getting a ton of spam comments already without inviting it. Are you all with me on the title? If not… then lets just say I’m looking for a little help on one particular aspect of my life. Via teh interwebs. A cure for the lonely if you will. Now get your mind out of the gutter and I think we’ll all be clear, more or less -I am inviting long term prospects, the longest term if I could have exactly what I want.

So I wrote a few words about myself (with a little help from my work buddy actually, who harassed me for months to do this) and put them out there. There has been a ton of crap in response. More crap than said spam here in fact. But there have been a few nice ones too. There are now two who are particularly nice. We’ve got a little connection thing going on, a bit of email back and forth. But now I’m stuck. What next? One in particular, who I’ve emailed nearly every day, just keeps emailing… and emailing… and emailing. But what next? And who suggests what? I’m freaked out at the thought of meeting someone, especially when they don’t know what I look like. I don’t have a photo there, although it would probably weed out a lot of that crap before it gets to my inbox. But there’s also a good chance it will create a drought. Let’s talk about these two separately, that might be easier.

Number 1 is the one I’ve been emailing for weeks now. I know what he looks like (not bad!) and he may know what I look like (I put another ‘thing’ up elsewhere as an experiment – nowhere near as good response rate, but it is a lesser known place. I have also seen him there). I think we’re both in the same position, shy, not so hot on the social skills thing when placed in an awkward, first meeting situation. Hopefully better once we get to know people.

So, the question is, what do I do? Do I send him my picture and say ‘oh, by the way, this is who you’ve been chatting to all this time?’ What if that scares him off?! Or worse, what if he wants to meet? I’d like to lose a thousand more pounds first. Well, maybe 20 (7.5 down since the New Year!). But that could be a few months away yet… I think I need the other person to initiate anything in this area. But if he is the same as me, is he waiting for me to go first? I just don’t know!

Number 2 is very very young. Ok, maybe only 3 years younger than me, but remember the lawyer? 11 years older, so it would be the complete opposite in maturity years (though really, how mature was the lawyer?!). So, he’s young… just started studying part time, which I’m not so keen on signing up for. Been there, done that myself for the past 10 years.  But he is nice.

Nice looking? I don’t know. Neither of us has seen pictures yet. But I do have a cell number, which I haven’t used because I hate text messaging and also because what if it leads to a request to meet?! He is a tad more forward at least. I guess I don’t want to take anything too much further without seeing a face. Just as I might scare him off, he may scare me off! Which I mean in the nicest possible way of course. It’s not about looks, but I’m fairly intuitive and will be able to tell both if I am attracted to him and if he is the type to be attracted to me.

I’m thinking the best option (of all the bad options) may be to quietly upload a photo and just see if they notice. And see if the emails die off or if we carry on and get through that hurdle. What do you think?

Having seen this in a few places, most recently on Shai’s and Kari’s websites, I decided to give it a go. I knew it would be a challenge, because although I like the colour red (it looks particularly good on me too), I’m usually drawn to other colours first, particularly when decorating my home. I tend to choose natural, darker or softer shades. Just as well it wasn’t 8 red things, or I may have had to give up! But I did find 7, so here they are:

From L-R, top-bottom I have:

1. A personalised wine glass from a friends wedding.

2. My red pot plant with lavender in it. I’m really not sure how to care for lavender, and it seems to be on verge of failing all the time. May have had something to do with the fact it took more than 6 months to find a pots in the first place! Mean time, my lavender was stuck in a tiny plastic container, oops.

3. Lucas Papaw Ointment – I would not be without this, it is a miracle treatment for lips!! And anything that itches or burns really, but it makes an especially good lip balm.

4. A selection of books from my shelf.

5. My beloved matryoshka dolls that I picked up in Melbourne.

6. A top I bought for a cousin’s wedding. I don’t like the feel of the singlet so tight against my skin, even though I know the over top is loose fitting, so I haven’t worn it a lot since and then forgot about it. Now I’ve dug it out again I might try wearing it to work, will go great with my grey pants.

7. My fruit bowl, stone fruit is in season and the first of the apples are just coming through too, I will easily get through all this in a week!

Feel free to join in and find your own seven red things.

Sooo…. I got together a little band, and we put together an album. Here it is:

Image by Metro Centric. Edited through FotoFlexer.

Ok, no, not really.

But it was a fun little project, poached from Nenette. Here’s what you do:

1: Go to the “Random Article” link on Wikipedia. Write down the title of the article. This is the name of your band.
2: Go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3: Go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days”. The third picture will be your album cover. (For this step, you can do what Nenette and I did and use the Creative Commons link instead.)

Fun! I love my band name, Grammatical Revolution. Incidentally it was actually the album name of another band. Also, turns out Charles F. Kettering was wrong, you can stumble on something sitting down!

Feel free to rinse and repeat on your blog