Dating in the Digital Age

Dating. Yes. I do it. Well, I try to anyway. I do it online mostly. I go through periods of not doing it. But then I go online again and re-activate those accounts just to see what will happen, Lately, I've been lucky. Or so I think.

I have a profile on OKCupid. It's free. You can interact without paying for it. But for some features, you do have to pay. I'm also on Match.com. I've been on Match off and on for years now. In fact, I originally created a profile back when it was called Love@AOL. That's right. Match used to be called Love@AOL. Way back when AOL was a thing.

A couple months ago I re-activated my dormant account. In the last few weeks, I've actually had a few interests. All within the SoCal area, which is a good thing. But two of them were a bit of a distance. Still, not so bad considering how many I've heard from in other parts of the country. One is in Long Beach, about 35 miles from me. I don't mind that. I've done shows in Long Beach. No biggie. Another in Palmdale, a lot further than 35 miles from me. When I asked him, he said it was only a 40 minute drive to Burbank airport so I thought that's great. I guess its not such a big deal to drive that distance.  I've suggested several times that we meet. The last time I suggested a meet , he said after it stops raining? This has been going on for three weeks. It has yet to happen. I'll still hear from him after a few days and hear how handsome I am, blah blah blah. But no movement on his part yet. I directly ask "when can we meet?" Nothing.

Long Beach man is also very nice and texts me every couple of days.  He falls asleep every night around 8. He works long hours. Weeknights are out as a result. By the time I got to him or vice versa, he'd be asleep. So I've tried on the weekends. He watches college basketball at the local pub with his friends. He goes into work. It's always something.

Both of these men are over 40. They're not kids. Why can't they commit? To a first date? What is it? They still seem interested. What is it? Its been three weeks for both of them. I guess I should be done.

Candidate Number 3 came along about 10 days ago. Sweet, handsome, 30. Yes, 30. He met me after one day of chatting. We met for coffee at 12 noon and sat there for over 4 hours. We held hands. We kissed...a little. Not much. It was sweet. He had to go to a family birthday dinner. He texted me an hour later.  He texted me the next day to see how I was. And again the following day after I told him I had a headache the day before. (In fact I was prepping for a colonoscopy the next morning but didn't want to share that info with him just yet).

We had dinner a couple nights later. Again, a nice night. He told me he had found out he had six days to move out of his brother's place. So he had to go home and start packing and look for a place. He suggested dinner  a bottle of wine and a movie at my place the next night. His idea.  I texted him the next day to see if we were still on. No response. I texted two hours later that I hope everything is okay. No response. Its been two days. Nothing. 30 year olds!

I don't know which is worse. The older ones or the younger ones. Or it just me? Am I that vulnerable, that gullible? I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I guess at this point, its time to cut my losses and move on.

There have been others who I have met in person. Ones that I've been smitten with. But its usually one of two things. They want the sex right away. Or they like me but don't want anything more than that. Twice I've gotten this line, "I'm trying to work on myself right now so I'm not ready to date just yet." Which, of course, gives me false hope. Thats right. I accept that they want to be friends. But when they say their not ready to date just now, I take that a face value and think to myself, "Soooo, there's hope!"

There's no hope. It's like Charlie Brown and that football.  He knows that Lucy won't let him kick it, and yet there he is every year, going for that ball.

That's me with the online dating. No matter how many times I fail, I'm back for more. So come and come and get me. I dare ya!

Motivation vs. Procrastination

This morning I had a colonoscopy. All good. Three small polyps removed. All clean. Come back in five years.

Now as most of you probably know, there is some prep work involved the day before a colonoscopy. So I decided to take advantage and do some housecleaning. I had fallen a bit behind so this was the perfect opportunity seeing as I had to spend the entire afternoon and evening at home "prepping" for my procedure.

I felt very productive. I vacuumed the rugs, swiffered and mopped the floors, cleaned the bathroom sink and tub, dusted and last and most importantly took care of a project I have procrastinated for a long time.  I rearranged the art work and mirrors on my bedroom walls.

I had a few prints framed at Michael's ( a couple from my London trip and one from my New Zealand trip). I had been putting off re-doing my bedroom walls for well over  year. See when I first moved in, I had the bed positioned in the center of the room. Every hanging on the walls was placed based on the location of the furniture at that time. A few months after moving in, I realized that there was much better feng shui layout for the room. It gave me much more room to move around. But the art and mirrors hanging on the walls made no sense. And I kept telling myself that.  Repeatedly, every month or two I'd think again, "I need to re-hang my walls."  I've been saying that for two years.

Yesterday, I finally tackled it. I moved pictures around, moved the big mirror to another wall where it no longer blocked and I can now stand in front of it and see my full body.  I moved a piece from my front hall to my bedroom and put the new framed pieces in the hall. And my bedroom looks lighter. Really! Walk in now and it just feels lighter, brighter almost. All because I took the heavy dark framed mirror from the wall net to window and moved it to the wall behind the door.  And in its places is smaller silver-framed piece of art.

The front hall pieces. 

Also, I cleaned up some clutter. And I did some much needed reading. I read a script that I am directing next spring. Read through all the election day materials for the State of California so I know a little something about all the propositions and measures. Oh! And I did a load of laundry. That's right. I did all that in a day and a half.
Yes, I actually did the reading today after I got home from the procedure and in between naps. Everything else was yesterday.
So yes I was motivated by my prep for a colonoscopy and knowing I couldn't leave the house or be too far from a bathroom. Let's see what will motivate me next. For now, its more procrastination.

Vacation and Awards

This is my first post in a few weeks because I was travelling out of the country on a two-week vacation to Sydney, Australia and New Zealand. I flew to Sydney for four days and then on to New Zealand, where I spent two days in Queenstown and two in Franz Josef, then two days in Wellington followed by two days in Auckland before returning home to Los Angeles.

It was quite a trip. Sydney is a great city with much to do and some very interesting beaches and wildlife, zoos etc within a relatively short distance. The weather was off and on. Some sun, some rain. It's early spring there so you never know. We didn't travel outside much except to go to Manly Beach one day and a wildlife park another day. We ate well. That's one thing for certain, No matter the weather, you can find an abundance of good food.

From there it was off to Queenstown, New Zealand which is a cute little tourist town on the south shore of Lake Wakatipu.

There's a great deal of winter sports and plenty for the thrill seeker (not me) and then this quiet little town has quite the nightlife for all those spending the day sporting. I took a boat ride through Milford Sound.

Mirror Lake on the way to Milford Sound

From there, we drove up to Franz Josef with a quick stop in Lake Wanaka and the National Transport and Toy Museum (what a treat!).

The Transport and Toy Museum where bears drive the vintage cars.

We took a helicopter ride to the Fox Glacier and liked up towards the top. Amazing!

Then drove up to Picton for a three-hour ferry ride across the strait to the North Island and the New Zealand Capital of Wellington. Here, the weather starts to turn on us. Not much sunlight from this point on. Rainy days and gloomy days. But again, plenty of restaurants to choose from. And we tried to choose different cuisines each night of our trip. And there was the National Museum (Te Papa) and the Parliament building to tour.

Auckland was last and while it was nice, it wasn't great. If the weather had been nicer, we would have ventured out to the shore or taken a ferry to Waiheke Island. But the weather was gloomy or rainy every day.

One goes to the hotel gym when it rains.

We ate well. Notice a theme?

And we did one day trip to the Waitomo Caves and Rotorua and the thermal pools. Nice.

While I was away, the Scenie Awards presented by Steven Stanley of Stage Scene LA were announced. Both shows I was in this year won multiple awards. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Glendale Centre Theatre won multiple awards including for Outstanding Ensemble Cast Lead Performance in a Musical - Larger Theatre (which includes me!). And The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee also won for Outstanding Production, and one for Musical (Intimate Theatre) Outstanding Ensemble Cast Performance, Musical (Intimate Theatre) (including me again)
So my Facebook page was lighting up with posts from friends and colleagues congratulating one another and giving thanks to Steven for those awards while I was in Sydney.

So thank you Steven Stanley!

Lastly, I booked a commercial while I was in New Zealand How did I do that? The audition was the morning of my flight to Sydney. Fortunately, I wasn't leaving until 11:00pm. So I auditioned that day. No callbacks. I found out I booked it 4 days into my trip. And shot it the day after I returned!