The Writer Bee

So the above is one of the pictures I was sent from the Friday night affair - can you find me? As you can plainly see, I did manage to find a dress. After hours of painful searching (and I mean PAINFUL), as a last-ditch effort I stopped into JC Penney’s and, lo and behold, found the PERFECT dress. It was floor-length, black, and I didn’t look like I had been stuffed into it! To top it all off, it was only $80 on sale! Wahoo! Thankfully, I already had a handbag and shoes so once the dress was found, I was set.

I know you’re all wondering how the event went, so without further ado…

I left work around 1:45, had my hair done up and was back at the house by 4 leaving me just enough time to change and get out the door by 4:30. I was to meet Alex and a bunch of other people in the Old Cafe at the Union League (Broad & Sansom - it’s that old funky building with the two rounded staircases in front).

I got there early, but that was fine. I settled in with a glass of wine and waited for everyone else to arrive. A friend of Alex’s named Lindsey (male) showed up first. Then Alex and his friend Sharon (who he was setting up with another friend of his) showed up followed by a friend of Sharon’s and another friend of Alex’s and the six of us headed up to the party.

Cocktails and hors’dourves lasted until 8 when then ushered us into the main banquet room for Scottish highland dancers, dinner (which sadly included haggis), and ballroom-style dancing.

As for Alex, well, let’s just say that I’ve managed to filter out one more guy from my future husband search. Don’t get me wrong - I liked him a lot…he’s a nice guy and fun, but there’s just zero attraction there - not to mention he dropped me on the dance floor…literally.

Here is a picture of us:

So I spent a portion of my drive home in tears over the fact that, even though I try to not get hopes up when meeting a new guy (eHarmony-originating or not) I still do. I guess I’m just an optimist at heart and want to believe that each new guy might be THE guy, and yet instead every new guy is another one who isn’t. I just keep thinking that this losing streak has got to break sometime - then again, it took the Red Sox over 80 years to win another World Series. On the positive side, they did win another one - on the negative side, I don’t have 86 years to spare waiting for my World Series…I’m already 33 afterall. Even Bridget Jones was with Mark Darcy by 33…but let me just say that if I knew that I would eventually end up with Colin Firth, I don’t think I’d mind waiting so much.

Anyway, it was a fun evening overall, and I may have at least made a friend or two. Actually the friend of Alex that he brought (Sharon Bain) goes to Tenth. She’s been there for awhile, so you may have come in contact with her when you guys were here. She and I exchanged numbers and may get together.

For now I’ll go and leave you with one last pic - it’s Alex & myself along with another couple from our table:

To begin with, I’d like to thank Mike Myers of multiple venue fame for providing the world with one of the few quotes out there that refer to Scotland so that I could use it as my title. My reason for needing one such quote will reveal itself shortly.

I got an email from the guy I mentioned to you all from eHarmony. Not sure if I said before, but his name is Alex. In some ways he reminds me a lot of this guy Janelle and I knew in Alaska named Forest - yes, as in “Gump” - he hated it when people would say that to him! Of course he probably preferred that to being called “Hunter” which was how Jel once referred to him accidentally (good times!)

Anyway, one of the things about being friends with Forest was that Jel and I got to go to all these black tie swarays and cocktail parties. This may have had more to do with the fact that he had a thing for Jel (her aura was irresistible to men in those days), but sometimes I got to join in the reaping of benefits, so party on. Because of Forest, I went to more black tie events in Alaska than I have anywhere else…in fact, I don’t know that I’ve been to ANY since leaving AK!

So you probably know where this is going…

Alex asked if I’d like to go with him to a black tie gala this Friday for the Scottish Heritage Society in Philly. Sounds like fun, right? He has a table with about 30 of his friends and has invited me as a friend (so as not to get under the whole dating-pressure-thing which we discussed in detail and both agreed was not a fun way to spend an evening). I can’t say at this point that I actually think I’m interested in him as anything more than a friend either, so it works out well for all involved.

In any case, of course now I’m stuck trying to find something to wear… I hardly have anything that would qualify for such a night in my closet, and then when you weed out the things I couldn’t squeeze into without slathering on olive oil first, my options are even slimmer (no pun intended). What’s ironic is that my dress from Jo’s wedding 3 years ago still fits (albeit barely) while my dress from Kris’s wedding last June doesn’t. I think it has something to do with the fact that when I gain weight, a lot of it goes into my…shall we say, upper-half. While this may not necessarily be a bad thing (depending on who you talk to), it really doesn’t help when trying on dresses. Naturally the dress from K’s wedding would better match the event. Sigh.

So now what?

Well, for one thing, I’m going on a diet. For the next 4 days I’ll eat enough to keep me alive, but that’s about it. My hope is to lose at least a pound or two which would help, if only a little.

I’m also going to try and shoot over to the mall on Thursday and see if I can’t find something there. I figure if I wait until Thursday, if I’m able to lose any weight, I’ll have done it by then and so that would be the best time to try things on.

Just to feed you a little more detail, the event begins at 6:30 with cocktails (open bar) and dinner starting at 8:00. I figure I’ll be home by midnight-ish. Other than that, Alex sent me some pictures of other people he knows who will be there with a little background snippet on each so I’ll be ahead of the game going in.

All-in-all it sounds like a good time and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be sure to blog later after the fact…in the meantime, you can all pray that my excess poundage that I’ve managed to pack on will somehow melt away by Friday… Hey, it’s not so far-fetched - God created the universe, parted the Red Sea, raised the dead, and made a barren woman pregnant after all…this request would be a cake-walk for Him!

So off I go to raid my pantry and toss out anything containing calories and fat…or perhaps I should run down to the store and get some Scottish food in preparation for Friday. Wonder how many Weight Watchers points a serving of haggis would be?

So last week I discovered this really cool site, MeetUp.comI stumbled across it when Googling for dog parks in the Newtown, PA area. Turns out this is a site that caters to anyone from any area with pretty much any interest you can imagine - emphasis on ANY. For example, I was able to find a group for people with active dogs in Newtown. I also joined an adventure travel group for Philadelphia as well as a travel photography group.

There were some good Christian groups for the Philadelphia area, but since Philly is a bit of a hike from me in terms of being able to get involved, I thought I’d start my own group. For $72 I get a group for 6 months that I can manage which I have dubbed Bucks County Christian Singles Social Meetup and I’m hoping to possibly attract some other Christian singles in the area as potential friends, or just a group to do stuff with. Since starting the group last week, I have 3 new members. I’m hoping to have a meeting scheduled after I have at least 5.

However, since the groups are designed by the individual members themselves, they can be about…well, pretty much anything. I had told my sister, Jo, about the site thinking that since she & my brother-in-law have just moved to Minot, North Dakota (prounounced my-not), it might be a way for her to meet some people in the area. I got an email from her informing me that there are apparently only 3 groups currently in Minot - a wine club, a knitting group, and a nude group. Yes, that’s right - a NUDE group! I laughed outloud when I read her message, especially after reading on that apparently the main page of the group features a picture of a pool of full moons. I don’t think she’s interested in joining that one.

In any case, I think the closer you are to a city, the more Meet-ups there potentially are… The site started out of NYC and I think it’s still sort of making a name for itself. I don’t get the impression that it’s been around terribly long, but here’s hopin’ that more people find out about it and it continues to grow…although I could do without the start of more nude groups - but that’s just me.