I�m actually not going anywhere, but the weather has dropped a bit. It�s not dropped enough to wear my new winter coat though, so a suit coat it is.

If nothing else, maybe it�ll scare the people here into thinking I�m leaving, and they�ll insist on giving me a raise.

My mutual funds are doing well today, I�ve followed up on a handful of leads from yesterday�s posting advertising free money, and I�ve scheduled two events that�ll raise money for an organization looking for easy donations and for an individual who wants some cashflow. Maybe I�ll work a little OT to round that out, heh?

If I checked my horoscope today, it would likely say that I was a business aficionado of some sort and that I needed to stick with it. Sticking, I am.

Last night I craved the Internet like you wouldn�t believe, so I dug out my hoopty laptop (description to follow below) and wireless card to give it a go. I managed to pick up 6% of a signal for three seconds at a time, twice. Foo.

[The hoopty laptop is my old Pentium Toshiba. It�s seen a heckuva lot of abuse in its day, including a splash!-oops! incident involving orange juice (plus calcium) that fried the keyboard�s plug-in thingy. The ghetto laptop has its keyboard removed, and a keyboard and mouse are now attached to it. Ghe-tto, I�m telling ya. So why was I using this instead of my shiny new(ish) Dell? Because it has the software installed. The end.]

After monkeying with that for a good while without results, I went through my old files and emails to see what treasures I could find.

Treasures were scarce (e.g., 86 pictures of my cat Hambone were taken during March 2003 -- after I moved to Chicago but before I had actual friends), and I mostly found stuff that made me mad at people.

I have this habit of when someone does me wrong, I save evidence so I remember why I was ever mad at them. It�s kinda like the first item in my guide to a successful break-up. As long as you have a reminder of what happened, you can still hold that grudge.

I, being the ultimate grudge-holder, know how not to forget.

So I came across stuff that just ticked me off, setting me up to be mad at people all over again. And rightly so.

I won�t detail anything here because some of these people occasionally read my site, but MAN am I still mad at them.

The self-centered actions, the constant excuses, and the lies-lies-lies. It�s amazing what people do to each other. Luckily I picked up on all of this and keep it noted. I know what to and what not to do around these people, and that�s that.

This is getting a bit weird, so I�ll end this topic and just say this: Holding grudges is okay if it keeps you safer. If it makes you crazy or overly angry, take a chill pill and let it go.

I came across an IM message with a friend where he was lamenting on being newly thirty and how if he wants a family, etc. in the near future and how his newest long distance relationship was possibly holding him back from that.

I gave him a quick, �You�re crazy for thinking your time is nearly up,� a �Don�t hold a pity party, because I�m not attending,� and a �Friggin� do something about your LDR if it�s not giving you what you want.�

His response, �You�re only 23. The world is your oyster...�

My response, �When I�m 30, I fully intend on the world still being my oyster.�

Sometimes I�ve got it so right.

At the end of the month I�ve reserved airfare to go to DFW to stay with the lovely Autumn-kitty. Long-time friend Xeran is driving up from Houston. Crystalite (sorry, locked) will likely make an appearance somewhere along the way. And the wild Fortworthguy will end up across the metroplex for an evening of fun.

It should be an interesting couple of evenings...

Two years ago we had a get-together where we danced in various Austin clubs, ate lots of good food, and drank on some Army guy�s bill. And this DJ�s bill. And these other guys� bills.

I now pay my own liquor, beer, and wine bill thankyouverymuch, and there�s still plenty of fun to be had now that we�re hitting and surpassing the mid-twenties mark. Bring on the fun!

Have you noticed that the online dating sites ads on hotmail are filled with unattractive people? Seriously now... If you want a single person to join a site, wouldn�t you hire a pretty person, take pictures of her (seriously, it�s going to be a her), and use those photos in the ad campaign?

Pretty people = web traffic. Web traffic = people filling out free profiles. Free profiles = showing hot chicks as potential matches. Hot chicks = $35 a month to join the site.

Seriously, y�all. I just play a marketing genius on TV.

Oh yes. The connection between single people and websites reminded me of something.

I have a now-defunct profile on Friendster where my friends used to post funny pictures of themselves and I�d wonder what stupid things they�d add to their self-descriptions.

When I first got on there, I was a single gal, dating a handful of not-so-suitable mates one time before either letting their repeated calls go to voicemail or saying something like, �I�m not looking for anything serious,� �I don�t feel a connection,� or �Let�s just me friends.� I had exactly one date off of Friendster prior to meeting Benito, so it wasn�t like this was my hookup joint or anything.

However, I did have in my profile that I was cool with meeting people to be friends, activity partners, or date-ables. This being my status, naturally my profile stated that I was Single.

Not in a relationship. Not married. Not in an open marriage. Just Single.

So even after meeting Benito, not wanting another guy, and hanging around him for several months, my status still remains Single on the site.

I had a friend ask, �Aren�t you more-than-dating that hot Italian?�

�Um, yeah. Benito. *kiss*kiss*kiss*�

�Then why are you marked Single on Friendster?�

Well, first off, by time I was officially with-with Benito and not just showing up to the designated meet-up place at the predetermined time, Friendster was starting to lame out and men were no longer regularly hitting on me through the little buddy notes section. I just marked that I wasn�t interested in dating to make it official, and that was that.

Since I no longer had to log in each day to delete those trying to introduce me to extreme Frisbee (although I�m still intrigued at what this might be, fully recognizing it as a ploy to get me to meet up with someone I find unattractive so he can win me over with his personality), those showing pictures from fraternity toga parties or of oneself playing the guitar, or those with an extreme fanaticism of any sports team, animal, religion, school, cartoon character, or anything else that would involve me giving up a day or two of the week for his obsession in an attempt at being �sensitive to his thoughts/beliefs/feelings,� there was no rush to edit the Single title.

The �In a Relationship� title was too vague, and I had already decided to leave that checkbox as something for the gay and lesbian couples to use as their �Living with partner�-type option.

Also, isn�t it true that I have a relationship with every person I encounter?

Who�s that? That�s Larry, the homeless guy who�s helpful.

Who�s that? That�s my crazy neighbor who listens to angry white man music.

Who�s that? That�s the guy who always upgrades my smoothie for no extra cost. (Oh how I miss you Jamba Joe at the State and Randolph Jamba Juice!)

See! Relationships abound!

Again with it being just too vague.

I�ve got Benito, and I�m keeping it that way -- whether or not I�ve got a little box checked on a website.

So, in sum, not married = Single.

The end.

And again, the world is my oyster!
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