Grouchfest: Edition 1

I admit.  Somedays I am like a grinch.  Usually around Christmas as I am not a big fan.  But sometimes, between one holiday and the next, I act like a grinch.  

Today did not start out as one of those day.  Still glowing from an Oz-made meal (tacos on Monday night, after I had mentioned tacos on Saturday), MNF with Oz (Go Titans!!) and a good-bye kiss at the train station from Oz, I settle into my first day of work sans my boss, mentor and friend.  While at times I felt it hard to be motivated, I settled into a steady pace and got a lot accomplished.  At the end of the day, I felt pretty productive and happy.  Then came....

....Grouchfest!!  What, you ask, could possibly derail my thoughts of Oz being sweet and appreciative and laid back and easy going, to something that made me so miserable and grouchy?  Marta.  Yes, Marta.  

I missed my bus by 8 whole minutes and had to wait for another 42 minutes for the next one.  While waiting, I tried to turn my attention back to those sweet kisses that Oz gently placed on my neck and his huge, strong arms wrapped around me tightly, I just could not, because of the screaming child next to me!  I. do. not. understand. why. children. insist. on. screaming!  And why their parents let them!

I moved down the row to an empty bench.  And then.  The lady with the rolling suitcase.  Seriously?!  You disrupt my perfect silence (now that the screaming has subsided) with your damnable rolly friggin suitcase?!  I popped in the earbuds and cranked up Cee Lo Green's F**k You!  Only he can turn that phrase into something so upbeat sounding.  It is oddly therapeutic.

Then I play Love That Girl by Raphael Saadiq, followed by his song Never Give You Up.  I don't know, it's just a thing.  I was trying to bring back those feelings from last night, while wrapped up in Oz's arms while he was so sweet and tender.  Yes, yes...I am a girl and I sometimes act and think like one.

Finally the bus comes and even though I am cursing that the drive leaves and comes back, only to have delayed us by a precious 4 minutes, what really, really gets me is the second screaming child!  These short, shrill bursts, one immediately after another as though she were some kind of siren (and believe me, not of the Greek persuasion).  

I recover and get a phone call from a close friend and by the time I get home, pop some popcorn and settle on the couch with a glass of wine and at least one compliant, non-meowy cat, I see that I have a Facebook invite for something called "Wedded Perfection Tea."  I just wanted to vomit.

Which of my friends was having a tea, a tea I ask, in order to announce her wedded bliss?  This is when grouchfest set in for good.  So, is it not enough that you asked 2,000 of your closest friends and family to adore, worship and genuflect before you whilst you choose a dress, flowers, cake, send invites, tie something onto an obnoxious wedding "favour", but now you want to rub it in to all of us (single) people that you are blissfully happy too?  I have just been waiting for the divorce papers, really, so I can feel better about being single.

Fortunately, I was able to recollect may sanity after I realized it was some museum exhibit with 200 years of wedding dresses.  Phew...I was close on losing it for a second.

Then I wrote this post, had a second glass of wine and now I think the grinch is subsiding.  Maybe.  I could find something else to be grinchy about, I am quite sure.  Just one of those days.

Milestone: First HotPants Date

So.  HotPants.  My first Atlanta dating adventure occurred on Tuesday evening.  Eight and a half hours later, I declared it an Epic First Date.  As you can imagine, EFD is a rare designation in the land of dating.  Especially for me. 

Have I mentioned I do not have a car? MARTA is my mane mode of transportation, and I admit I was a little embarrassed to tell my date this.  We agreed to meet at the Lindbergh MARTA station, then after the date he would drive me to the ghetto-tel (ghetto-hotel, get it?! ha ha).  I packed my work bag with well, work, because I thought we would probably just have dinner and a drink, check each other out, ask each other awkward questions, self-conciously share stories about our crazy families and then go home.  Wrong.

This is the short version: Dinner at Taco Mac, we played pool next door while quiz night was underway, Fado and a drive around the Midtown/Buckhead area, some other place and then he dropped me off at the hotel.

The cute version: Dinner at Taco Mac, he taught me how to play pool and he totally loved my smack talk (even though I have no idea how to play pool), then he drove me around to sight-see and show me where he lived, we had a drink at Fado where he told me he thought I was pretty great, then we went to some little place and sat outside, he ordered food too because I think he knew I could be a little bit of a light-weight, we talked and talked and then he told me he thought I was pretty and finally he took me home around 2:30am and gave me a big hug after telling me we had to hang out again when he got back into town on Sunday.  I told him to call me if he got bored over the next few days at home.  At 3am, I got a phone call and he said, "Um, I guess I got bored..." So cute.  Then we talked for almost another hour.  

So, obviously, the date was awesome.  I had a chance to check out some of the places around town.  My handsome date, whom we will call...Oz...told me that this whole section of Buckhead used to be just clubs and more clubs.  Then, the powers that were in Buckhead decided that they wanted to change the scene there, so they tore it all down and now they are sort of trying to build the Streets of Buckhead.  Sadly, all it is right now is about 5 cranes and some half built stuff.  Apparently it has been in this condition for about the last 3 years or so. And now it's just a dead, no man's land.  It totally sounded like something that would happen in Cincinnati.  And that is not a compliment. 

Buckhead, you need to get your act together on this one.