Look Who's Back!

It's been about a month since I've documented some sort of moment, idea or impulse feeling in my life. This blog always manages to be about dating, relationships, or lack thereof but every now and again I'm going to sprinkle in my second and third string of interests and questionable points of view: movies and technology. Maybe if you're lucky, it'll be a mosh of all three.

Welcome to the wonderful world of High Heels & Pink Frosting. Are you ready for your figurative sugar high?

Dating 2.0 and Up

Why is it that the single folks feel the need to kick off a new year with dating the same way most people kick it off with a diet. Like most on the healthy kick, I tend to loose oomph on the dating circuit right around March. Which means I have about six weeks until I loose interest in being proactive and recoil back to being the constant single.

These are the only answers I can come up with on how to be as proactive as possible. I mean, come' on, the girls in my crew that feel like Beyonce's All the Single Ladies is their anthem are rocking these few choices as well: Couple friends introduce your single friends, set-up a profile on one of the million online sites, kick the casual hook-up habit, and smile at everyone.

I can successfully report that my great friend who vowed to go on 52 dates in one-year determined to find the right guy, found love with date #13 and will stick with that number from here on out. They were engaged on Christmas!

While many of my friends have actually started procreating, I'm still struggling with the fact that I haven't met a good guy yet. Go figure.

Here are my favorite coddle phrases that our once single friends, who are now in blissful relationships tend to throw our way:

"It'll happen when you least expect it"
"Stop looking and it will find you"
"Try something new, maybe you're looking for the wrong thing"
"What the F are you doing wrong" -- my grandmother

Let's make one thing clear. Us single girls are all ears, if you have some great insight on success in meeting new people or dating victory then bring it on. No matter how you slice it, whatever excuse we make or armor we wear, we're looking for the great ones. Not just the good guys, but the great guys. We look for the effort, the originality, the assurance that you're not a scum bag. We look for no ring finger tan lines, someone who can fake having their life together as well as we can and most importantly someone that we can just laugh through life with.

The challenges of a new year, of dating new people, of starting relationships off on a better foot, I look forward to all of it. I lift my metaphorical glass of champagne and toast my single girls and take a giant swig back, hope not to choke , and pray for a great buzz with no headache int he morning. :)

Just...

Growing up we're always told that we should enjoy being young and carefree, that we should be lucky we don't have to deal with so much responsibility. And yes, bills and obligation can be numbing, but being able to do things as an adult and make choices is really a fabulous thing.

I find myself doing "stuff" sometimes for no other reason than the pure fact that I can. These "things" range anywhere from hopping on the train to walk around New York for an afternoon to spending an entire Sunday watching movies without a second thought of getting dressed for the day. What have you done lately that just didnt make sense or fall in line with being responsible and you just did it, just beucase you could?

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in living life carelessly, but I do believe in enjoying the place you're in or the part of life you're at and even making choices and doing what you want to do...just because you can.

Every now and again we need a little reminder to just do...

Ball Change

What is it about music and dancing that grabs our attention? I can't get enough. My friends laugh at me for watching dance-themed movies repeatedly. I'm not alone. Just look at the success of Dancing with the Stars!

I still can't get enough. I took ballroom dance lessons and fell madly in love. No, not with my dance teacher. He was shorter, older and happily married. And not why I was there. Sure, there is something to be said for the love of dance movies for the love story that's usually involved, but that's a whole other post.

I fell for the challenge, for the femininity, for the way I felt after each class. But, I had to take a hiatus for a little while, it just got too expensive.

Dancing has been a huge part of my family for as long as I can remember. My mother, her brother and sisters ballroom danced from their tween years to when they were young adults. Their uncle Bill ran a dance studio that allowed all of them to dance and compete as a hobby. They were good. When I was younger, my Mom and Uncle would bust out classic swing and spin tricks at family picnics every now and again. My favorite Aunt who teaches pilates and zumba decided that she missed it too and began dancing and competing again just about a year ago. My Dad was even dragged to classes to learn The Hustle when he and my Mom before they started a family. To his suprise, he could actually keep up, and even now, at weddings my Mom is never disappointed, he will always dance.

It's been such a constant in our lives that the idea of not dancing seems like a huge mistake. Thnking back to years of tap, jazz, ballet and point, I just remember loving all of it. Sure there were classes better then others, but Miss Trish's dance school from when I was 5 years old until I was just about 16 years old, was one of the best parts of growing up. My competitive nature always wanted to be the best in class and the showstopper in me sat through tight french braids that made my eyes water and bright pink n' blue make-up every year with patience, becuase I knew what shortly followed. Lights, stage, bouquets, and routines that were as natural as blinking.

Fast forward to now and I still love it. Without the stage and audience filled auditorium of proud video-camera clad parents. Without the need to be the best in class. Without the ballet fingers and rond de jambes'.

What is it about dancing that grabs so many people? It is a scam? A feel good tactic? I wonder what it is about moving your feet with a partner that just puts you in a better place.

I can talk myself in and out of alot of things. Unfortunatly, this seems to be one of those things I just can't get enough of. Whether it's in the movies or the real thing, this just seems to be my habit. A nice combination of nurture and nature. I'm sure a fraction of it is the part where ballroom dancing is done in heels and with glitter...just an added layer of fabulous :)

So, here we go. Step, ball change.

What kind of dancing moves you? This applies to everyone so think about it! If you're brave enough, I dare you to try it...

Who Are We Kidding, He's Just Not Into You!

Dating is ridiculous. I've come to that conclusion. I'm not saying that I date often enough to really lay my claim to the Gods of fate and destiny, but all in all, it's just the word dating when used as a verb feels simply ridiculous. I'm disenchanted by what dating has become versus what it use to be. The classic form of it - boy meets girl, boy asks girl out, takes said girl out - out doesn't mean come over and hang out, or let's grab some food at a diner or even meet me out with my friends for last call. Everyone is so ready for the shortcut to happiness that they forget about the courtship. The flirtation. The chase.

I'm currently watching "He's Just Not That Into You" and so much of this movie is so true. When women are too available, men don't want them. When men are too tentative, women don't see the spark. [Lights get brighter and the sound of a children s choir begins]

The funny thing is, we've all coddled our friends when "he" doesn't call, or ends up being a disappointment. We've even been on the receiving end of hearing from our best girlfriends after a situation with a guy doesn't work out that "he just doesn't know what he's got and he'll look back and be sorry" or "you can do better"...yada yada.

While all of it makes you feel better, gets you though the emotional roundhouse to the face, at the end of the day that's all it is. Comfort.

When he stops calling, when he treats you not a great as he use to, when he communicates only through texts, all of it really just leads to the inevitable. He's not interested. Maybe he's interested in touching your cash and prizes. But after that, he has no need to return to the bank. Let's face it, if you want to be more than just an ATM, you'll stop kidding yourself and embrace the rejection. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with taking out a $20 every now and then, if you know what I mean.

What I didn't like about the movie that I actually really liked about the book was that there were kitschy love stories woven throughout, that even though they are highly illogical, they work out. The book basically just told women to stop being ridiculous. Which was why it was such a success.

With that said, I do beleive that romantics and realists can share a heart. Case and point. I am a hopeful romantic, but I also have stopped believing all the B.S.

Is there one person for everyone? I'm not sure. A younger more naive version of me once thought so, but I don't know that I believe that anymore. I do believe there are people that help you get through certain parts of your life and that some people are lucky enough to find ones that stick around long enough to go through the bulk of life with each other. But what if that's just not in the cards for everyone?

What do you believe? I'm curious what the consensus really is out there.

Better Than The Haynes Sisters

If you understood the reference in the title of this post then give yourself a hand!

The Haynes sisters, better known as the girls that stole the hearts of Bing Crosby and Danny Kay in White Christmas, sang, danced and dazzled crowds. The music and love stories of White Christmas are what captures most people. And yes, you can't beat Bing's breath-taking blue eyes, but for me, the reason I love it most is the Hayne's sisters. When I watch this movie, they always remind me of mine.

I'm lucky enough be one of three sisters. Each of us are very different. And though we resemble each other with similar features,we don't look alike. We don't always agree, we yell and hang up on each other, we call back and apologize, and we can laugh together at the ridiculous life situations we end up in (they are usually the one's laughing at whatever recent disaster I find myself in) . I was trying to come up with the best way to talk about the three of us without just saying we love each other, and being a fan of lists, I came up with these.

Here are the 5 things that the three of us will always agree on, will forever keep us close, and straight up make us the better, true-to-life version of any sister duo or trio in movies.

1. Our love of love stories. From a heart manipulating movie to a really well told story from our friends and family, love stories move us. We will always ask "How did you two meet?" for the pure fact that we're hoping to hear a doosey one of these days.
   
2. Dessert. We blame it on our Dad. He instilled the ever famous Eggo waffle sundae after dinner. No matter the meal, dessert is never forgotten. Our sweet teeth are fine tuned and always on the prowl.
3. Never settling for anything less than the kind of love you want to last for as long as possible. Having parents who are still married and that not only tolerate, but really love each other are the driving force behind it.
   
4. There will never be any strawberry in the world as delicious as the strawberries we grew in my grandparents garden. The patch was ours. Granted our grandfather did most of the work, but he still said it was ours :) To this day they were the best fruit I've ever had.
   
5. Make-up, hair and accessories. Because we beleive the finer things and looks in life are always found in the details. We are a trifecta of style. One of us rocks the make-up muscle, the other can do amazing things with hair, while the third can dress up pajamas with the right scarf, belt or bracelet and it can be mistaken for couture.
   

So while we might not don blue feathered dresses (although, that doesn't sounds like a bad idea at all) or have the ability to carry a tune, I can absolutely say that the Haynes gals got nothin' on us. Here's the fun little song that inspired this post - Sisters.

Winks and smiles B's :)

Dare, Double Dare, Physical Challenge.

I loved Double Dare on Nickelodeon. Mark Sommers managed to ask questions that I was always ready to answer and something about jumping into piles of slime or slide down an oversized foam mouth to capture a flag was for sure the kind of challenge I was more than ready for. I can't even remember what the prizes were. It could have been a lifetime supply of Capri Sun and I still would have wanted nothing more than to be on the show.

As Double Dare and other shows like Legends of the Hidden Temple moved their way to the game show tomb known as The Game Show Network, my eagerness to achieve something completely fun and difficult hasnt changed.

Enter my mucha-motivated best friend. She shall remain nameless, but this girl has the type of motivation for physical exertion that you only see on HBO Sports. Well, with out further adieu her sucess and badgery finally sank in and I've commited myself to participating in a duathlon in July. Similar to the well-known triathlon, a duathlon takes out the swimming and rotates a 2 mile run, 27 mile bike ride and finishes with a 3.1 mile run.

This will not be the last time you hear about my 2010 adult version of Double Dare. So here we are, something big to commit to in the new year that not only can be a really cool achievement, but a way for myself and my three best friends to kick some ass as a team.