Shortcuts

Sometimes the shortcut is not worth it. That's what I learned last night.

I decided to go for a walk last night instead of a run, since my knee has been hurting. There is a trail behind my house that I wanted to explore. I had to walk 3/4 of a mile to get to it and was hoping that as I walked along the trail I would discover a way that it connected to somewhere closer to my house.

After walking longer than planned and ignoring the feeling that I should just turn around and go back, I finally turned around. I didn't want to walk all the way back around since I could see my house from the trail and the river was pretty low in some spots and the riverbed looked pretty dry.

I took myself and my brand new, out of the box that very day, shoes and scrambled down into the riverbed. I slipped on a wet spot and got my shoes a bit dirty, but I kept going. That should have been my clue to turn around and just walk the long way.

As I stepped onto a spot that looked solid enough, I sunk to my shins. There goes my beautiful new shoes. I turned to go back and my other foot sunk. Now I'm really pulling to get my feet out and off come my shoes. I yank them out of the muck and walk down a bit to see if there is a better spot to cross. I thought about just going back up on the trail and walking home, but that's a long way to walk when you're covered in mud and don't have any shoes. So I pushed onward. Onward through 2 feet of nasty, smelly, silty, grey muck that felt like it was pulling me down. I had my shoes in one hand and just kept praying that I would make it through this mid thigh high gunk to the other side.

I made it and walked home in my nasty socks. I started washing my shoes out under the faucet outside the house and washed my legs off. Then went around back and stripped off my pants so I could walk through the house without tracking mud everywhere. I grabbed a scrub brush, soap and a pair of shorts and went back outside to try and salvage my shoes. The soap and scrub brush seemed to do the job. I threw my socks, shoes, pants, and jacket into the wash and then headed to the shower. I smelled SO bad. Apparently river muck is very smelly.

Overall things turned out okay. I didn't get anything else done that I wanted to, but I discovered that in life, sometimes shortcuts just aren't worth it.

Dating Apps

Nothing reminds you how crappy dating is like dating apps. You see all the terrible options you have or you see the other guys that look like potentially good options who don't match with you. It's basically a no win situation. And the alternative of not being on the apps, gives you relatively the same results without the visual reminder that there are some real doozies out there and those are your options. I'm not sure where to go from here.

Do you know anyone? Single, male, relatively normal, not completely unfortunate looking, doesn't live with his parents, actually a good member of the church (this last one is key, lots of guys out there say they are members, but haven't stepped inside a chapel in years). I know I'm being a bit picky (*sarcasm* I really don't think that's being picky), but honestly!

Brenda got married

Brenda got married today! The festivities started last night with a dinner. Brenda gave me the option to give a little speech or not. I chose or not. First of all my mind drew a complete blank and then even when I thought of something I knew I would just be too emotional and never actually get through it. I wrote it down for them instead. This morning the weather was not looking too awesome. Lots of wind and rain, but when I got to the temple it was starting to clear out a little bit.

When we came out of the temple the skies were blue. It was pretty windy, but no rain!

I told Brenda as she was getting ready to through the bouquet to not hit the chandelier. I don't think she heard me....

It was so great to be a part of Brenda's big day and I'm so happy for her and Ryan and their new adventure together.

Types

People are often categorized into types. Type A, Type B. The gym type, the bookworm type, the silent type, the outgoing type, etc. And people claim they have a type when it comes to dating. But as I've gotten older, I've found that my "type" isn't what I think it is. And as I'm now 32, that "type" hasn't been working for me, so maybe I need to look at different types.
I think we limit ourselves when we think we can only be with one type of person. People have so much to offer! Maybe there are a few types out there that just aren't going to work and those are usually pretty obvious. If you're the bar hopping type, smoking type, cursing like a sailor type, I am very confident we just aren't going to work. But if you are the gym type and I'm not, we could still work. If you like to read self help books and I don't, we could still work.
I have tried in the last few years to branch out from my "type" and give people I wouldn't usually consider a chance. Some of them have been great, others not as great. But it has taught me that I shouldn't limit myself by what I think is going to be perfect for me. I also shouldn't short change myself or put myself down by saying he's too good for me. He's too handsome, he's too smart, he's too successful. I am pretty and smart and successful too. Maybe not in the same way, but who wants to be with someone who is just like them? BORING.
I am willing to give them a chance and hopefully they are willing too, and if we were all a little more willing, maybe we would find more success.