Not me silly.
Atlanta had a baby panda born last night.
Name TBD - tradition is to not name cub until it is 100 days old.
So far, mom and baby doing well.

Here's a link:
http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living /stories/2008/08/30/panda _baby_atlanta.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab _newstab" title="http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living /stories/2008/08/30/panda _baby_atlanta.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab _newstab" target="_blank"http://www.ajc.com/living/con...

you can click on the live panda cam. No you can't see the baby - it's only about 4 ounces!

Mr. Orlando is in town this weekend for DragonCon which is the epitome of all things geek. (Google it if you want to laugh) He's been planning this for a year.

As our romance was starting, he was talking about how he wanted to spend some time with me and at least have dinner one night with me. I had planned to take him on top of the Aquarium and show him the most amazing view of the city at night. I was going to arrange for us to have dinner up there.

Then it became "I'm going to be really busy and may not have time to see you."
That's when I made alternate plans.

Parking at the hotel downtown was $26/day so I recommended he drop off his car at an alternate location and take the train back in town. He wanted to park it at my house. I told him that wasn't a good idea because he'd have to taxi it to/from the train station.

Before our romance crashed and burned, it had been my plan to be the good girlfriend - I was going to meet him at the recommended parking lot with a picnic basket of food/drinks for the hotel.

Now, he's on his own - with his former gf sharing the room with him as well. (ahem)

He mentioned yesterday that he was going to drive 30 mins north of town to go have dinner with one of his son's best friends' family that had relocated here. (His choice. No time for me...)

Yesterday afternoon, he was calling me to ask me where there was a liquor store near his hotel. (It was a vaguely-guised attempt at getting me to drive him to the liquor store.) He said he was walking three miles. Musing that a taxi 'would cost $30'. All because the liquor at the store next to his hotel was 'ridiculously over-priced'.

I didn't say "Hell no." But I did not offer to help. Me driving - with a major construction project going on downtown this weekend would probably take me two plus hours each way. It wasn't about him wanting to see me. (Even if he did make it about me, chances that I would have nibbled were minute.)

He said he wanted to catch a buzz but didn't want to drink beer or wine. His choice.

I mentioned to him that it had been my plan to do the sweet girlfriend with a picnic basket before things went south. He asked me why I would even tell him that. And I said because of the way he's been unreceptive of my gestures, I have to stifle my desires to do things like that. I won't let myself go out of my way.

I will be nice and advise him that he doesn't want to drive the 30 mins north of the city because traffic will be a beast. He can train it out partially and have the friends pick him up.

I have been after an account for some time. Turns out to be the motherlode account. I've definitely secured myself viability-wise. Have to do a ton of work on it. And I've already got my quota for next month covered.

So I'm definitely taking some beach time.

Question is... where will the next hurricane come from?

i'm somewhat sloshed. and i've misplaced my cell phone. it's in the house. somewhere. i'm waiting for someone to call me so i can track it down.

i hope i don't have it on vibrate.

my teeth are numb. that's a good thing.

wow,
Thats a lot to take in. I know Ive been distant. I have reasons but even me saying what they are still does not seem to make them sound sincere. It hurts and makes me sad that you feel your recourse is to date. I understand it and part of me does not blame you. I realize this is the point that I stand up and scream and yell and ask you to not, Its not fair to you though.

You deserve someone good and kind. I am that person but this lack of one on one personal interaction is on some days way too difficult. I know things are hard, trust me. It does boggle my mind however when you tell me that you need some one one one phone time and I tell you I have plans (playing computer games) and will be busy and it seems to fall on deaf ears. It doesnt really matter what my plans are, If I have them they are mine. Just as you said you have plans friday night. (It's my effing birthday weekend. Am I supposed to stay home?)  I did not assume that youd break them to sit on the phone with me...... Do you see? Seems a bit of a double standard. (Um, I think that is apples and oranges in comparison)  So I offered sat night or possibly sunday. (Possibly Sunday? So Possibly on my birthday he might call?) And I meant that Sunday after I take my son home. When I am free.

I do not know what the future holds for us. I haven't from the start. I have tried to go at this a little at a time. At first I let it consume me. I retracted after I realized I was moving too fast. Do you know how many relationships I've scrrewed up for doing just that? I guess, if you need time to reevaluate what ever it is we have.(No need to re-evaluate anything. I'm done. If he wants to get his stuff together and act like he appreciates me, then I'll consider.)  I will support you. I care for you, I want you to be fulfilled and content.
Kiss

(And I'll wager anyone that he didn't even bother to mail me a birthday card...)

Mr. Orlando is officially toast. I had been him on warning but he's completely crashed and burned.
He's choosing his World of War over talking to me in the evenings.
We started having a conversation yesterday afternoon that showed a little hope.
He said he'd call me back.
I knew he wouldn't.
He gets wrapped up in the game.
I guess he prefers his fantasy world over reality.
He said he has a hard time connecting with a long-distance relationship.
(Choosing to not talk in the evenings is definitely putting a fork in it.)

I told him that he was going to get wrapped up in his game and wouldn't call me back. He has his tv show Friday night and his son for the weekend. He said he'd call me Friday before BattleStar Galactica or whatever the show is. (I went ahead and made other plans because I knew he'd be busy.)

He actually said to me "Maybe we'll talk on Sunday."
* Mind you my birthday is Sunday.

I hated doing it, but I sent him an email telling him that I was no longer dating him exclusively.
That it was up to him to change the course of things.

*** As I wrote this, I was laughing too. So feel free. Me dating a man that prefers playing video games over a woman? I know I said that we had our differences, but I think that this was too much.

I had planned to sneak off to the beach this weekend to celebrate my birthday. Booked a room at a nice beachside place near Jacksonville via Priceline several weeks ago. (Got a steal of a deal!)

So. Tropical Storm Fay camps out on Jacksonville.
Me sitting in a nice beachside place while it rains isn't exactly appealing.

I called the hotel to see if they'd switch my reservation to the following weekend.
Nope. Since it's a Priceline reservation, they were unwilling to help.
Tried calling Priceline. Automated hell.
Sent email.
Got a response to call them at a different number.
Spoke to a customer service rep - I told her my flight had already been cancelled into Jacksonville b/c of the storm.
(I was driving)
She said she'd credit me back.
(I thought goody!)
Then she asked my flight number.
(Quick on my feet, I replied that it wasn't a commercial flight.)
It worked.
I got credited back.

Now I have to rebook for another weekend.
And decide what to do this weekend.

I'm still undecided about Mr. Orlando. I told him that if he was at least making efforts, that I'd be open to things. We had a rather (what I would term) brutally honest conversation two weeks ago.

However, he selectively heard some things. That I didn't say. At all. And he got really pissy about it. Still, we rendezvous'd the weekend before last and had a pretty good time.

But since then, there haven't been evening calls, and there was a definite temperature shift from him.

Last night, I cornered him about it. He said that before I said those things to him, that he was ready to leave his job, his son and his home for me. Now, he sees things much more realistically.

He inferred that I was cold-hearted in the fact that I could 'control' my emotions. I told him that just because I don't say "the L word" doesn't mean that my feelings for him weren't deep.

He said he wanted to take things slowly.

So I asked him if that meant taking other people.
(Sure fire way to see where his head was)

Of course, he said no to that.
Me, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue to keep my dating career on hiatus.

I am definitely confused about things. His sentiments on money are... well, conflicting. He says money isn't important to him at all. But this morning he went on this very detailed account of what he'd do if he won the lottery.
You know how most lottery winners end up bankrupt - they don't know how to manage money, right? People that 'luck' into money often don't know how to handle it.

I don't expect a guy to pay for me. But I also don't like a guy that is a little too comfortable with me paying for everything for him. You know?

He's coming to town in 2 weeks for a festival. I won't see him very much because of the events. We might grab dinner one night. There have been mention of getting together next month for a long beach weekend... However, I'm not sure if I want to foot the bill for that too.

I know there is no such thing as a perfect person... But is this something I can work with?

Spent way too long at the docs yesterday. Some of the blisters have the beginnings of black stuff underneath them (aka potential staph infection).

So that led to a little bit of a complication.

I ended up being at the docs office for way too long while they biopsied, took samples, and pumped me full o' stuff.

I have to say, I don't like this dermatologist. He didn't listen to what I had said. (I didn't see him with my initial outbreaks three years ago.) I said something about 'last time'...

He said "You've had this before?"
I said yes. "Why did you think I told you that the earlier biopsies had shown..."

They wrote me prescriptions for two different meds. I went to three different pharmacies. No luck. I'm ready to quit.