Not having much to say at times....

 

One shouldn't talk much when watching a movie at the local theater.  Maybe that's why sell so much popcorn - it keeps you from talking and it carries a hefty profit margin. However, things are very different when two people are on the phone....

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When I met my late wife, it was after two marathon late night phone conversations.  We ate our fair share of popcorn at the movies, and it showed on our waist lines.  Although she is long gone, I remember the nature of these conversations well, as she rented the strangest combination of movies for the first date. If she were here today, I'd bet that she'd recall all the movies she rented and in which order they were played. However, none of those are traditional "Date Movies", and I will not mention any of the titles in this post (largely because my memory is shot).

Lately, RQS and I have been having conversations that can easily go on for hours.  And if I didn't have to get up so early in the morning, we'd probably talk through the night and into the morning.  Yet, we wouldn't have any substantive to say to each other.  Instead, we simply like the other's company.  It's way too early to say anything. CWS is still in the picture for now..  And I think that she will be in the picture until RQS is sure of her feelings about me in my female presentation....

A slow leak that has yet to be fixed

 

This morning, I found that the air pressure in my tire was dangerously low.  It may not have been this bad, but I knew I had to inflate the tire before driving to work.  So, off to the local gas station I went....  Arriving at the gas station, someone else was using the air pump, and he handed me the hose with about 30 seconds to spare on the vend.  The tire needed more air, so I dropped another 4 quarters into the machine, and filled my tire with 3 minutes of air.  Yet, this still may not have been enough.  You can bet that this car will be paying a visit to Mavis in the near future....

Now that I was late, it was a leisurely drive to the office.  I arrived 20 minutes late, but no one made mention of it.  If anyone complained, I'd say that I planned to make the time up at day end - which I did.  And it was another 8 hours of mind numbing work.  As usual, the first half of the day went slowly, but things went faster in the afternoon.  If I could only have the second half of the day, I'd be comfortable staying at this job for another 2 years.  But, with the agonizing mornings, I want to be out of there soon.  AARGH!

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And that leads me to thoughts on dating....

The other day, I told RQS about Marian and it is still something she has yet to experience before she can make any forward moves.  But things look good right now.  CWS may fall by the wayside, as she hasn't been available as much as I would like, given the time I have known her. Yet, I'm not closing any doors until I know how RQS reacts to Marian when she meets her in person.  (In this case, it pays for me to use the 3rd person for clarity.)  For me, it's a race to find the first decent catch that accepts me as Marian and Mario.  The one thing I will say - I will not "roach" either of these women.

Right now, I made a decision to suspend my OK Cupid account, as it would be way too tempting to swipe right and keep making superficial contacts with new women..  The way things go, I can get a refreshed list of women at any time if I need to go back into the dating pool.  No matter what happens with RQS and CWS, I think I'm going to take a break from meeting new women for dating.

 

 

PS: The tire is leaking air at a faster rate than in the past, probably due to the recent cold spell.  So it'll be off to Mavis on Thursday to see what they can do for me.

PPS: Mavis screwed up the appointment.  I'll have to put up with the leak for another week, or take off a day from work.

Here's a cruise similar to what I took in December.

I just saw the pricing of the above cruise, and figured I should mention it.  Given that we're less than a month out from the cruise, NCL has priced it to look like another "Unicorn" is out there for hunting. The key differences between this cruise and the cruise I took in December are: (1) the replacement of the port of Charleston, SC with Nassau and (2) my cruise took place on the Gem, while this cruise takes place on the Getaway.

If I were to take this cruise, I'd go for the mini-suite again, and possibly sail as Mario.  Why Mario, you might ask?  Well, I might want to get off in the Bahamas, and don't want any hassles with Bahamian customs.  At $749, plus taxes, port fees, and gratuities for a mini suite, this is a bargain!  But I am not interested in this cruise, as I was bored when I was in Nassau with XGFJ, and that there is nothing worth doing in Port Canaveral.

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My brother looks at auctions to occupy his time.  I look at cruise deals.  In this age of the pandemic, good deals keep coming around.  Although ship capacity is often limited to 50% these days, it is possible that added capacity will only serve to raise prices.  Recently, one video blogger prognosticated that when cruise lines start creeping back to sailing at 100% capacity, that pandemic suppressed demand will cause cruise prices to go up instead of down.  A cruise group he organizes had cabin prices double since he organized that group.

 

Right now, I expect that there will be a lot of last minute price drops until people get wise to the fact that cruise ships are no longer floating Petri Dishes. It's too bad that I couldn't take advantage of last minute discounts for the Hawaii cruise I'll be taking later this year. I simply love the idea of a good bargain.

On the topic of my Hawaiian cruise, I wonder if I will have a traveling companion by then.  If so, will she be comfortable with me sailing as Marian?  Who knows?  But it will be a very interesting situation of this were to come to pass.  And if it comes to pass, will I be able to get her a cruise ticket without putting the deal I have at risk?

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Originally, I was planning on taking my Hawaii cruise in Marian mode.  I am hoping that I will be able to do so later this year.  Keep your fingers crossed for me....

 

 

 

I'm sad tonight...

 

This is going to be a quick post tonight.  I had a very good day today and would like to talk about it right now.  But I am sad.  Two people I knew from my days hosting the AOL Widows and Widowers chat room passed away recently.  

I had a wonderful day with RQS, and I was able to being up the issue of being both Mario and Marian with her.  She's not yet completely sure how she feels, but she wasn't in a hurry to give me the bum's rush. When I eventually left her this evening, I drove home very carefully, as they were spreading salt for tomorrow morning's expected snow.  In NYC limits, they spread enough salt in some places that I first thought some other substance (think of loose gravel) had been dumped on the roads.  In Westchester, they had only started to spread salt, and I was stuck behind a salter truck for a few minutes before I was able to get around him and get home while I was safe to drive.

When I finally made it home, I read a text from a long ago girlfriend telling me that two people had died.  One I met on a date (it was only curiosity), and we became friends for a couple of years before she retired and moved to Florida.  Her death was sudden and unexpected.  If I lived in Florida, I'd have driven to her services and the shiva afterwards. But in New York, I don't even have her daughter's address to send my condolences.  The other lady I only met at W/W gatherings, but she was a good person for whom I wished the best.  With her, cancer finally took her life, and she will be missed by many.

So, instead of feeling happy for the good day I had, I feel sad because of the message that ended my evening.

Someone's sense of timing is way off

 

Tonight, I thought I was supposed to see CWS.  But we got our signals crossed - I thought we were supposed to meet after work, and she thought it was supposed to be tomorrow night.  So I ended up eating Burger King instead of some nice Pad Thai.

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It was just as well that I had changed into Mario mode to see CWS, as I ended up going to Target to buy a replacement electric shaver.  My old one has a piece which is always falling off, and I lost one of the cutting heads when this happened today.  Given that the shaver is several years old, I figured that it was worth my while to buy a better shaver and use the old one for "rough cutting" when needed.  (There are times where I want to shave off 5 a little o'clock stubble, and I don't want to get the good shaver clogged with both makeup and "beard" shavings.)

I think it will take a while to break in the new shaver.  That's good, because it has most of the bells and whistles a person could want - and I want to get comfortable with all of them.  Eventually, I think I will end up spending the money to get all my facial hair zapped from my face.  Until then, I will deal with the daily task of shaving all over my body to have a more feminine appearance.

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If you're wondering why I chose the cartoon at the top of the entry, it's because I will soon take the subway - and I remember the days of being a commuter all too well.  I'm grateful that this is not a regular occurrence anymore.  Now, when I trek into the city, it's for pleasure.  And I'm grateful for that.

Game Night

 

Whenever I go to game night, I try to avoid looking like a slob. But these days, I also try not to overdress. So I dress for game night the same way I go to work - casual.  Casual for me does not mean wearing jeans. As a male, I'd wear chinos.  As a female, I usually wear tunics and leggings.  Having switched to tunics and leggings has made it much easier to make my way in the world as a female.

Some of us from game night are going to see Al Franken in Tarrytown.  (By the time you read this, seeing Al Franken will be past tense.)  None of us know what to expect.  Will he be serious, or will he put on an act?  I would prefer that he be serious, but he will be entertaining no matter what.  Assuming the weather is nice, I plan to go as Marian, as that is the only way that people from game night know me.

Assuming I have the day "to myself" beforehand, I might go to church in-person, something I haven't done since before the pandemic.  In the two years that have passed, the church I have gone to has merged with a nearby church, and February services are being held at the nearby church.  Since this will be the first time I'll be going there, I'll be a little bit nervous.  But if I was accepted at the original church, I'll have a couple of people who remember me from there who can make me feel comfortable.  Afterwards, I plan to get a mani-pedi, so I can look my best before meeting up in Tarrytown.

Will I look as snappy as the characters in the cartoon above?  No.  But I will feel good about how I look, and that's the key thing...

I shouldn't have bothered with the meetup tonight.

 

Lately, I've been feeling very tired, and I haven't had much energy to do much of anything when I get home.  But tonight was the first chance I've had in a while to go to one of my remaining meetup groups to "Celebrate" National Pizza Day.  So I said "to heck with it", and took the 1 hour drive to hang out with the group as Marian.  I wasn't prepared for a place so noisy that I could barely could make myself heard over the din.  Yet, I had a nice time.  But it wasn't worth the drive when I needed to catch up on my sleep. 

On the way home, I realized that I was feeling bloated, and have had way too many carbohydrates in my diet lately.  So I'll have to change this, so that I can fit into my dresses as spring approaches.  But if I were to get another job, it would likely be as Mario - and those dresses would still stay in the closet.  The big question is: Do I really want to keep working?  This job has triggered bad eating habits, and I have gained 10 lbs. over the past year.  Would I eat better if I were working at a job I enjoy more?  Would I eat better if I finally retired for good?  Who knows?  But I know one thing: I shouldn't have gone to the meetup tonight or pigged out on pizza....