May the best job win :-)

I had a job interview today. If I were to land this I would be looking at a nice promotion in title.. and hopefully salary. Tough competition though. My boyfriend says the only thing as exhilerating as interviewing for a job is getting on the court and playing basketball. Ha! I'm not sure I agree, but good for him! While I'm struggling moving up the ladder it turns out his bosses keep recruiting him for better positions!! Okay I'm super excited for him!! That's amazing! But, if I'm being honest there's a small bit of me that's jealous :-) We're long distance dating... and if we stay together in the long run, which I hope we do, the one to move is the one with the lesser career. uh oh. It's looking more and more like me!

And I've already broken rule #1

One of my best friends recently moved to South Africa. She's an attorney and decided to go there and volunteer full time at a legal aid clinic. She's representing schools needing more services, under-priveleged individuals... very noble. I've never traveled with a cause . I have to admit I've drawn a line -- vacations for me have been very self-indulgent. I'll take care of my noble causes when I get home. :-) Not sure that's a good thing, but it is what it is.
This same friend celebrated her 40th birthday last year. She rented a villa in Tuscany, Italy and invited her friends and family to join her. it had to be one of my favorite vacations ever. We drank, ate, drank more, ate more for two weeks straight. I'm still dieting to make up for those sins.

So... clearly I have a super cool friend. I'm really proud of her and I'm actually a bit envious too. The real reason I'm writing about her is that my 40th is coming up this summer. At first I planned a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, but when I asked my friends who wanted to join me I only got one taker. Turns out my friends aren't exactly the outdoorsy type. So then I thought I'd do something oversees too, but with the economy the way it is.... it's not worth it. Too pricey. Not sure I could afford it, let alone my friends. What I've settled on is a trip to las vegas. Should be fun. I'm excited. Any suggestions what to do while I'm out there? So far 12 people have rsvp'd... mostly those same girlfriends that declined the rafting trip :-) The plan is to relax in the sunshine by day; eat and drink by night. The guys will gamble I'm sure. We girls will probably shop or sit in the sun more-so. I had a hard time getting my boyfriend to rsvp. Is there something girly about evites? He didn't know what to say and certainly wasn't in a hurry to rsvp. Is that a girl thing? I wanted him to be the first to confirm. Somehow that would prove his commitment to me, right? Oh well. One month post-invite he confirmed with a "vegas :-) " Yeesh!!!!

I know I don't do well traveling with boyfriends. I'm already breaking my very first rule. But, I'm hoping that long weekends don't count. Wish me luck!

Lesson 1 - Save traveling for your honeymoon!

Something you should know about me is that I love to travel. It's one of my greatest passions. I've been all over the world, having visited close to 30 countries so far... and my hope is that I find a partner who shares that same sense of adventure and curiosity. Unfortunately, I have learned the hard way that in the world of dating travel=break-up! I'm not kidding! One of my break-ups occurred in Russia; another in Chile; yet a third a week before a trip to China!! Are you kidding me?!

Rumble in Russia
In graduate school I met 'the perfect man' - intelligent, athletic, driven, kind. He was a class mate of mine. We shared the same classes, the same friends, and even the same hobbies. In hindsight we 'shared' way too much!! In fact, I'd say we were a bit co-dependent. Two years into our relationship we learned that his best friend was getting married... and the wedding would be in Scandinavia. Norway. North of the Arctic circle. This was shaping up to be a super amazing trip! So, to make it even more amazing I thought I would add an extra stop to our trip. For my boyfriend's birthday I bought him an airline ticket from Sweden to St. Petersberg, Russia. After all, if we're already in the neighborhood why not pop over to Russia too!? His response: "Hmm that's nice." My response: "Uh oh."

Instead of bringing us closer together, the trip planning actually drove us further apart. He wasn't interested in helping me find hotel rooms, pick cities, plan our routes. Was this our only issue? No. Our communication had been going down the tubes for a while. More-so our trip was just a catalyst for the breakup. The day before we left was the first time he looked at the itinerary I built... and of course he was disappointed. Well of course! But the thing that made him go over the edge is that I had not typed out an official itinerary that we could email out to his parents. He couldn't believe the audacity of that oversight. Yeesh... Needless to say, the argument led to more arguments led to our breakup by the time we arrived in St. Petersberg. And yet neither of us were willing to cut the trip short!! Even when our bed in our god-forsaken flea bag hotel really was infested in fleas! So many fleas that we had 100's of bites after one nite. Have you ever tried to ask for bug spray in Russian? :-) A couple times we got lost on the subway. Completely lost! Our guide book used the English alphabet to describe the sites. Of course in the Russian subway they used the Russian alphabet! We actually had some great laughs while we were there, but our relationship was broken. I moved out of the house we shared within a week of our arrival home. Lesson 1 learned: don't attempt traveling before marriage!! As stressful as traveling can potentially be, the two of you have to be committed... I mean committed!

...and so it begins

Hello! My name is Lee, a regular gal who has experienced too many irregular dating situations. My blog will share my daily dating adventures, but I will also share with you some of my most memorable stories from my 20+ years of single-dom.