Why? Because I have conference calls at 9:30, 10 and 11. Basically, I spent about 2 1/2 hours on the phone. Bah. Not cool. I guess it was better that I was an active participant on these calls, instead of just sitting at my desk, spinning in my chair, but it’s still boring. By the time I got around to grabbing lunch it was after 1, and then I left at 4 to pick up a package at the apartment office (they’re only open 8-5, M-F. Not so convenient.).

Now, I’m home, with a pile of reading to do for school. I don’t wanna. I do, however, want Mr. Man to stop rustling around in the frickin’ Target bag I left on the floor so I suppose I should go pick up said bag. But, if he’s in the bag then he’s not bugging me. Hmmm. What to do, what to do.

Speaking of bugging me, y’all remember that guy in Houston? The one who was full of promises to fly out here? Yeah, whatev. That never happened, mainly because I told him not while he’s still married. Well, guess what? Divorce was final last week and he’s already out whoring it up. LOL It’s so funny, he’s doing exactly what I told him he would do. Anyway, he’s IMing me but it’s the lamest conversation. Like, he’s dropping all these hints … went out Friday, went out again Saturday, then out for brunch Sunday … like I’m going to erupt in a jealous rage. Umm ok? I’m glad he got some. It’s not like I was going to shell out $400 to fly there and he seemed in no hurry to actually put his money where he wanted his mouth to be. Sometimes it’s so much fun to click the little red “x” in the corner of a chat window.

One of the guys I mentioned the other day asked me out for this weekend but I’m not going to be home. I won’t be around next weekend either. I may meet up with another guy Sunday evening but those plans aren’t definite; he lives about an hour north of me so I guess we could meet in the middle except there really isn’t anything between the two cities. I mean, there might be a rockin’ truck stop or something. It seems like I have about 5 prospects right now but it’s going nowhere fast … which is probably a good thing but I’m in the mood to go out on dates, damn it!!!

So I gots this awesome side blog, Times Like These. Long ago, Miss Tori did a guest post over there. What about you? I know everyone has that one song that haunts them, that makes them feel … check out the TLT site and if you want to write something, either e-mail me or leave me a comment.

I went on a bit of an iTunes bender tonight … I downloaded three albums (yes, I still call them albums, whatev): “Faith” by George Michael (how I didn’t have this, I do not know), Richard Marx’s Greatest Hits (STFU) and then the new country album by Darius Rucker. Sodapop played his new song several times this weekend and I luff it. “Between the work and the hurt and the whiskey, don’t think I don’t think about it.” Yeah, we’ve all been there.

Ok, moving on! Actually I don’t have much more … it was a quick day. Weird day. I have some issues at work I need to deal with but I still haven’t identified the actual issues so I can’t. Is it me? Is it the other person? I don’t know. But it’s driving me batshit crazy.

How is it Sunday night? My entire weekend was gone in a poof. Friday was a disaster; work was HORRIBLE. Horrible, I say! I hot-footed it out of there, drove to the Ville, picked up Miss Laci then drove to Miss Sodapop’s for her birthday. She didn’t expect Laci to be coming over, since Laci’s dad and step-mom were in town. The three of us went to Sodapop’s GA meeting and then to BW-3s for dinner and trivia. It was a fun night! Only with Miss Lucy could have been there with us.

Saturday morning, Sodapop and I both woke up feeling eh … it was gloomy, overcast and we both had headaches due to the approaching weather system. So, after much hemming and hawing, I said, fuck it, and we skipped the MSU game. Wouldn’t you know it, they totally kicked IU’s ass too. Oh well.

We did LOTS of running around. I think we covered every square inch of Louisville. But, in the end, Sodapop ended up with a Halloween costume and I bought some accessories, and we both bought purty lotion at Bath and Body Works (midnight pomegranate, yum). We also went to Wal-Mart (twice), the post office, Applebees and the apartments she’s thinking about moving to. That night we had dinner at a place called The Pub. Food wasn’t fantastic but it was decent.

On my way home today, I stopped at the outlet mall to buy a pair of jeans … and maybe a top or three. :-p I hooked up my “new” Wii Fit (purchased from Laci) and got to work on that. I was surprised that I did so well at the hula hoop game! I downloaded a mii that looks just like Barack Obama … so he and my mom’s mii were throwing hula hoops at me LOL.

So, after the disaster with the douchebag last weekend, I know have three offers for dates. Haven’t formally accepted any of them because, frankly, I don’t know when I’d go out. I have something going on every single night this week and next weekend I’ll be back in the Ville … as Laci and I are taking Sodapop to see … the Chippendales! Wheeeeeeee! Then, the following week, I’m taking a four-day weekend and going to Michigan for the first time in many months. It’s time for some pre-birthday pampering from my parents. (Hint, hint: My b-day is the 14th. )

Speaking of dates, I thought a lot on my drive today and one of the topics inside my head was dating. My time is so limited (see the above paragraph for examples) yet I’m not willing to give up on finding a partner. God help me, I do enjoy male companionship … and I’m not just talking about s-e-x. I mean, that intimacy you have in a solid relationship.

That led me to two thoughts: 1) I need to finish a document Sodapop gave me many many many months ago, a sort of mini-relationship inventory. 2) I need to refine my list of qualities that I’m looking for in a partner. Some things are non-negotiable, like … I’m not getting rid of my cats. No way. I can’t deal with a smoker or someone who is not open-minded. I probably just eliminated half of the midwest.

I am so excited: Friday is Miss Sodapop’s birthday and I’m going to see her!!! SQUEEEEEEE! It’s been way too long! Tomorrow night I’m going to her meeting with her (she’s chairing) and then hopefully I can drag her ass out for a late dinner or something. Then, early Saturday, we’ll be driving up to Bloomington, IN, to see MY team, the Michigan State Spartans, play the IU Hoosiers. Srsly. That’s their name. The HOOSIERS. We have one of the greatest mascots EVER, Sparty, and they have … fuck me, I don’t even know what their mascot is. I haven’t been to a college football game since I was in college, so it ought to be fun. I have my MSU hat already packed; I picked up a green t-shirt the other day at Target so I will stand out in the sea of red!

So, that dress I bought for Halloween arrived today. It’s SHORT. Like mid-thigh. Ummmmmmm. With some black opaque tights, I might still wear it. My ass is covered at least, thank God. And, I will probably lose some more weight in the next month, so the dress will get a little longer (hopefully). If not, well, hell, I’ll be in the Ville for Halloween, so Laci and Sodapop will be the only people who I actually know who will see me like that LOL. I’ll def wear a blonde wig to draw attention upwards!

I was at the gym today and Kara had me doing walking lunges. On the second one, I went down. Like, straight down. My knee just buckled. It was the weirdest thing. Then, my other knee started acting up. So, we gave up on that task. I don’t know if losing 40 lbs in 7 weeks has caused joint issues or what. Thank God my knees didn’t “pop.” I did agree to do strength training 2x/week though; she just casually dropped that into conversation lol. I know it’s good for me, and I felt really good tonight while working out (knee weirdness excluded), but I still don’t like it. Bah. Big baby Monique, I know.

I had a headache yesterday that just wouldn’t go away. To compound matters, I had a full day of meetings. Ok, the meetings were interesting and informative but still, I was at work and swallowing Tylenol as often as the tiny tummy would allow it. Then, there were a fun-filled dinner after work. BAH. I ended up in bed at 8:45 p.m. and slept straight through ’til morning. It was fabulous!

This is a repost from Facebook, because I’m too lazy to write something new:

I had 3 dates with this guy; the first 2 were fun but on the third, he just got on my nerves. I’m 33 years old, not a teenager — a guy who wants me to make out in his car in front of a Starbucks is not going to get the green light from me.

Apparently irritated that I ignored a text while out with my brother Saturday night, the aforementioned date texted me tonight that he felt like a “cash machine” and was annoyed I kept the leftovers from dinner Friday (never mind that he ate half my entree AND that I offered to pay for the entire meal). The overall implication was that he bought me dinner so I should put out.

Oh hell no. Miss Monique is many things but a hooker she is not. And, srsly. Dinner was at PF Chang’s. Maybe $30, tops. If I were to be a hooker, I’d charge a hell of a lot more than $30/hr. Just saying.

It’s 2008. Who the hell (aside from this jackass) thinks it’s acceptable to want sex in exchange for dinner?! Sister can pay her own way, tyvm.

I should thank this guy for giving me reason #137 why I am glad I am single!

Last night I went to the Irish Festival with my brother and his friend; they drove down from Michigan for the night. We started out at a rugby game and watched that for a while until it started pouring. Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time we drove from the game to the Irish Fest. We were there probably 4 hours … the boys drank beer and I drank my free bottles of water that I got from signing up as a designated driver. They had Irish stew for dinner. I had about 1/5th of a burger lol. Fortunately, it worked out, as ground beef hasn’t in the past. I cut it into the teensiest pieces; I was mocked for it, but once I asked if they wanted me puking on them, the mockery stopped. Afterwards, we came back home and watch some documentary about cocaine that actually turned out to be very interesting. They left about 11 and I’ve been chilling out ever since.

I’ve decided I need to get off my ass, get dressed decently and go to church tonight. I haven’t been in MONTHS. In fact, the most recent times I’ve gone have been with Miss Sodapop at her church. I’ve watched enough HGTV today … I can throw on some clothes and make up and be on my way. I’m not too sure about Communion, though. It’s done by intinction at this service. It makes me sad to pass it up, though, so I’ll give it a try. Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t get sick from the carbs!

This is my Hallowen costume; it looks short but it’s 36″ … on me, that’s about knee length lol. Now I just need a sassy witch’s hat and wig and I’ll be all set!

What are your most favorite post(s) that you’ve written? I have a category devoted to the topic … Monique’s favorites.

I’m in a bit of a mood. Date was confusing and didn’t end well. So now I’m focusing on other people’s issues to distract me from mine.

Remember that song? It’s been in my head, I can’t remember hearing it on the radio but nonetheless, I am singing it. The irony is, I don’t know what I’d do with a cowboy. Talk about having nothing in common!

I am feeling a wee bit grumpalicious. I stayed up too late last night, overslept this morning … plus I am stressed about getting my apartment picked up as D. will most likely come in tomorrow night and my brother and one of his friends will be here on Saturday. I really miss my garage from my old apartment — it held so much stuff! Here, I don’t have a lot of closet space. Bah.

D. and I had dinner on Monday; another nice time. We went to the Spaghetti Factory. I had part of a chicken breast and a bit of pasta. Tomorrow night it’s PF Chang’s (I’ll probably have hot and sour soup and some asparagus) and then to see Transsiberian at the artsy theater. So far, so good. There are some challenges that I haven’t gone into here yet but nothing of a negative nature, just some things I haven’t encountered before.

I’ve added some people from work to my Facebook page so I was going through old notes — i.e. imported blog posts from here — so I could delete them (they don’t need to know about Monique) and man, I used to have fun post titles. Now I can’t come up with anything that doesn’t involve the words “tired” or “grumpy.” Maybe I am working my way through the names of the seven dwarves!

I am finalizing things with the photographer I am going to use to document my weight loss. She seems super cool and is cutting me a fabulous deal. But I’ll devote a post to pimping her out. I was telling her that this could really be a niche for her to market to. So many people don’t like their bodies or their appearance … while I wasn’t thrilled with how I looked or felt before, it’s my body, I have to love it or no one will. I happen to think I was pretty hawt then and I’ll be pretty hawt in the future, ya know?!

So I met a new guy, D., for lunch today. We had talked on the phone and chatted quite a bit, and I had a good feeling about this. We seemed to “click” really well but of course things can be different when you meet in person … as I’ve experienced before. Ugh. Anyway. The restaurant we planned to meet at was closed for renovation, so we went down half a block to a yummy pizza place. I managed to eat a few bites of salad (ssh, not supposed to have that until next week haha) and about half a piece of quattro formaggio pizza (small pizza).

The restaurant isn’t really conducive to conversation so after lunch, when neither of us was ready to call it a day, we decided to head over to Starbucks. It was pouring rain so I drove to the Starbucks that I usually go to, because it has a lot of seating room so we wouldn’t feel like we were on display, like “ooh, look at the people on a first date!”

We were there for 5 hours. Five. Hours.

He was so easy to talk to, we had the most random conversation, going off in all these tangents. Religion, politics, Halloween costumes, I can’t even tell you what all we talked about. Eventually I felt hungry again so we ended up at the Claddagh downtown. There was some sort of motorcycle race today so it was really crowded and LOUD. I got a headache sitting there and conversation was nearly impossible.

All in all, we were together about 8 hours. Eight hours! And there might have been a little smooching at the end of the date. Maybe. And it might have been very nice.

So today I was supposed to go to the Ville to see Miss Kathy and Miss Laci, but I woke up with a raging headache. I took some tylenol (the only OTC pain meds I can have) and headed back to bed. Now, the headache is gone but at lunchtime, I had a bad encounter with some red meat from which I am still recovering. Mind you, this is the same damn meat I ate for dinner the other night JUST FINE. Today? Not so much. The meat was moister today, too. Who the fuck knows. It’s pretty much a crapshoot some days for me.

I was supposed to have a first date last night but he ended up canceling on me. He called me about 3 and said he took his truck in to be repaired and it wasn’t going to be done, and since it was, at the time, pouring rain, he couldn’t really take his motorcycle. So, yeah, whatever. Tomorrow, I’m supposed to have another first date. This one sounds more promising, although Miss Kathy called me a cougar because I’m 33 and this guy is 28. Whatev, he’s older than my brother (see, I do have some standards!). We’re meeting for lunch so you’ll have a date report to look forward to tomorrow!

I ended up ordering pizza for dinner. What a change. I ordered thin crust … which always comes chopped into very small pieces … and breadsticks. Now, back in the day (ummm 2 months ago), I could eat damn near a full order of breadsticks. Tonight I ate one. Because I really really really wanted it. And I ate one VERY SMALL piece of pizza. Srsly. It was like 3″ x 2″. Dang. It’s going to last all week.