Lorem ipsum and other useful dating tips

Getting dating tips from married/in-a-relationship friends is one of the things I hate most. Whether their aim is to encourage (“Don’t give up! Mr. Right could be just around the corner!”) or to push (“Better get yourself into the game before all the good ones are gone!”), it’s all as ridiculous and uncomfortable.

Yesterday, I met a few friends on an evening walk by the seaside. One of them (single) was in agony, since her summer job would end already in July, and she didn’t yet know what she would do for the rest of the summer – not to even mention about the finances. Fortunately, the other one (dating) immediately found the right words to comfort her:

“Oh well, you just need to find a man to keep yourself busy!”

I was so shocked I just hysterically laughed at her, but on the inside, I really wanted to ask whether she hit her head two months ago when she met her current boyfriend.

I assume she only meant it to be funny, but as they say, there’s a truth behind every joke. Nevertheless, I sincerely hoped this shitty-relationship-advice-Tourette’s was just a momentary rush of blood to the head, and not a permanent condition.

Advice like this is just empty words to me; it makes me wanna put my hands over my ears and shout LA LA LA as loud as I can.

Dear married/in-a-relationship friends, advice like this is not uplifting or inspiring, nor is it practical or sensible, but it’s. just. awkward.

We might not be single by choice, but moments like these I for sure wish my married friends would consider it to be that way. With all due respect, I wouldn't mind if you just kept these jewels of wisdom to yourselves.

Post by Jo

Why so serious?

I'm dating a guy that is everything but ordinary. He is cool as hell and also the most entertaining person I have ever met. Our thing is by far the most easy-going and funniest relationship-like thing that I have been in. We are having a ridiculously good time.

Our connection is something really unique, and so is our time together. We don't do normal stuff or act as couples do. We don't kiss as we meet but we give a high five. We don't eat romantic dinners in candle light, but we do acrobatic tricks and end up lounging on the floor bruised. We don't argue but we throw water on each other while we're pissed and just laugh the thing off. We don't discuss our emotions but we do freestyle rap verses about each other.

Having a thing like this is at the same time the most awesome thing in the world and the most tormenting. Because we're never serious. 

He doesn't tell me he likes me, but he tells me I'm "the boss" or calls me the Mother of Dragons from Game of Thrones because of my gentle heart and my ability to rule the world. He doesn't tell me he misses me but he sends me links to a Google search made by the term "You're the best" in the middle of the night. He doesn't tell me he wants to be with me but he tells me he will painfully murder every man that is trying to approach me. 

We discuss our future and past - our teenage rages, our obsessions, our wedding speeches, and our upcoming twin baby boys - but never about the present. 

And it has started to tear me apart. I need words. I need to be assured that behind the humorous behavior there's actually a man that cares about me. What if this is nothing but a big joke?

Post by Sally

Friends and lovers

How to manage when a friend is dating an idiot

Whether we like it or not, we all are making evaluations and ratings about all the people we meet based on their looks, manners and intelligence essence. We all can pretty easily measure, whether we think someone is attractive, smart, funny or delightful. It's rather easy to know whether we want to hang out with somebody or not. Also, we've all been in the situation where the date or a significant other of our friend doesn't really live up to our expectations. 

But do we have the ability or permission to tell a friend whether to toss or take?

A few days ago I met a guy that has been hanging with a really good friend of mine. And it was an instant no-go. I could tell after a minute of being in the same pre-party that this guy has nothing to offer to this BFF of mine. He was not interesting nor funny, not any inspirational mind or intellectual challenge for my smart and thoughtful friend. 

I told my friend about my initial reaction, and to my stunner, she had started to feel the same. This made me think about all the other times, when a new partner of a close friend of mine hasn't really convinced me of being the true match. Basically every time I have been suspicious about someone, the men or women have turned out to be weirdos, dullards, or simply not the right persons. 

So, probably our close friends see us clearer than we see ourselves. They see through us. They see the minor body messages of hesitation that construe in their subconscious mind a message that the guy is not the right for us. They are not as blurred by crush or the haze of emotions. 

Probably trusting a friend's gut might be more valid than trusting our own gut. After all, they are the safety net we'll be landing on whatever happens.

Post by Sally 

Truly, madly, deeply

A while ago, on a rainy summer night with blogs, Lykke Li and detox tea, I came across an interesting piece about our common perceptions of love and inspiration, in essence questioning the way we tend to regard love as something external to us, and inspiration as something that arises from within an artist.

Regardless of who we are or what we do, we tend to believe that love may suddenly come to us. It may swipe our feet from under us, it may throw us around and give us the ride of a lifetime – and, eventually, it may go away from us, abandon us, leave us alone. Inspiration, on the other hand, is seen to grow in the inside of an artist. If an artist manages to nurture and foster that inspiration, success will follow – and if he fails to find that inspiration, the artist himself has failed as a person.

What the article suggested was whether we should turn this whole scheme upside down – to start regarding love as an internally born emotion and inspiration as an external force. Basically, to give more mercy for the artist who’s still looking for the lost inspiration; he isn’t doomed for failure, but inspiration has just left him for a while, only to find him again later. And, what caught my attention the most, to bring more love to the world by stopping waiting for it to miraculously appear and instead, by starting to cultivate love yourself. Ultimately, people not only tend to care for the things they love, but also to learn to love the things they look after.

I really got stuck on this idea. Even after a few days of pondering, I still couldn’t take it in, or not even let go. I simply can't picture it, resigning myself for someone, growing love and affection bit by bit.

Some might say I’m ridiculously naïve, but I don't care – I sincerely want to have that zsa zsa zu. That passion, longing, and aching desire. That butterflies-in-your-stomach thing that happens when you not only love the person, but you gotta have them.

I don’t want a lukewarm love. I want it to burn my
lips and engulf my soul.

Woori (via That Kind of Woman)

Post by Jo

Is Less actually More?

Last weekend I met a friend of mine, and as all decent-behaving fine ladies do when they meet after a while, we analyzed the current situation of our sex lives, as well as other relationship related issues. Well, my friend told me the most ridiculous thing I had heard by far, or at least that’s what I was thinking when I heard the thing – she told me she only has sex with her boyfriend maximum once a week, since she wants to invest in quality instead of quantity.

I told her she could stop making poor excuses, and admit that three years in a relationship, a dog and a shared laundry bag have affected the intensiveness of her bedroom activity.

However, the more I thought about it, the more sense it started to make. One of the basic assumptions of human behavior in economics is the law of diminishing marginal utility – the more you have a certain good, the less extra utility a unit of the good gives you.  The first glass of wine gives you much more pleasure than the tenth one (though alcohol might be exception since the sufficient supply of it is free and unlimited).

This applies to human contact as well. The more you meet someone, the less special it gets. If you meet a guy rarely, the moments are loaded with expectations, belongingness and happiness. More often you meet, more everydayish it gets. Like if you start having lunch every day in a Michelin starred restaurant instead of your office cafeteria, you’ll get used to the quality of the food, and stop respecting its amazingness of every meal. In the end you start treating the Michelin star restaurant in your mind the same way as you treat the poor office cafeteria.

This applies especially in a situation when dating someone new is starting to get more frequent. After some while of dating the excitement slowly starts to disappear as the relationship starts to stabilize. It becomes everyday. And this is where we are heading with my guy right now. 

Though emotions are the only concept in the world that cannot be explained by science, the laws of social sciences might still have their points to apply in the market of love. I'm not ready to stabilize with my nascent relationship just yet. So taking some distance might actually improve our utility surpluses. I don’t want us to treat each other like office cafeterias. 

Post by Sally

Hate the player, not the game

It’s always very exciting to get interested in someone new. I love the game – the looks, the smiles, the flirty talks, the carefully crafted text messages, and all the other little things – to try to figure out whether that other person is interested in you, and whether you yourself are really interested in him.

To me, there has to be a little chase. It’s a thrill to try make an impression and to give out the best possible image of you, and to see how the other one responds. What’s crucial, however, is to find an equal match. I lose my interest in a second if everything is too easy, if I don’t have to make a bit extra effort.

Until now, I’ve never lost my interest because the game would’ve been too complicated. Yeah, until now.

Lately, I’ve been playing around with this one guy, who pretty much corresponds the typical example of whom mums warn their daughters. He’s ridiculously good looking, well behaved, and overall comes across as a really nice guy. We work at the same place (oops), so we see each other quite often. The way he seeks his way to me, the way he talks to me, he really makes me feel like I’d be the only girl in the world – there’s a fire in his eyes, and be damned that smile that’s so hard to resist.

The problem is that he seems to be fascinated by roughly anything as long as it’s wearing a skirt and a little lipstick.

After a few weekends of drunk dialing scored somewhere between interested and very interested on Sally's scale, last Friday we finally happened to meet in a club. I had been guessing that he might be the player type, but boy hadn’t I realized he was such a high roller.

I saw him at the entrance with one girl under his arm. Half an hour later he seemed to be buying a drink to the second, and a while later he didn’t seem to mind the third one trying to French kiss him. It seemed as if he’d done that all on purpose right in front of me, glancing at my way to see how I’d react. Oh, and did I mention he’s still officially in a relationship? (Although be it on the final stretch.)

Honestly, I don’t think I’m up for that. Apparently, I have a limit on how much I’m willing to gamble, and this one just doesn’t seem worth the risk.

Post by Jo

Equality Sucks

One thing that makes dating really fun is being a woman. It means not having to pay for anything.

I know there are two separate schools of thought about this among woman in the western countries. There are women that regard it disgracefully old-fashioned to have a date to pay their dinners and vodka tonics. And then, there are selfish and hedonistic women that don't bother making all the feminists of the world pleased with their actions, since they rather just enjoy the role of a princess that's being honored and served well.

As you might have guessed, I'm definitely the latter type. I do manage my own financials pretty well, but still, especially after having lived in the Southern Europe, where it's seen as loosing face for a guy if a lady pays something herself, I respect a man that pays on a date. 

A few days ago I went on a date. (Yep, I'm still seeing The Guy I was panicing about the last time.) But what made this special, was that I really wanted to pay for my own stuff. I would have felt uncomfortable letting him pay. 

I have tried to analyze why. I'm pretty sure I really like him, but it has never been a problem letting a guy that I really like to pay my stuff. How could I ever get a wedding ring with five digit price tag, if I was uncomfortable letting a man spend his money on me? Ridiculous.

But this time I was. Probably since I feel so equal with him. That there is no power or status differences between us two. We play on the same league. We have a similar Aura. 

We are as cool, as funny, as good looking, as emotional, very alike. 

It's doomed to fail, isn't it?

Post by Sally

#notimpressed

Last Saturday, I experienced one of the weakest pick-up attempts in a while. My friends and I were at a club opening, standing at the bar, chatting and sipping some sparkly. Suddenly, behind my shoulder I heard a nervous cough.

“Hey… Sorry… We study at the same university, don’t we?”

Struggling to recognize the guy, I was mumbling something resembling a yes, while he already blurted out The Big Question.

“So… Wanna dance?”

Wait… What? That's all? We study at the same university; therefore I should be up for some dryhumping with you, on an empty dance floor size the half of a football field? I don’t think so.

And seriously dude, don’t you have any manners at all – you didn’t even introduce yourself?

Amused, I politely declined the honor, telling him I should already be on my way home. Unfortunately, the poor guy started pleading, and next 10 minutes or so went on like an awkward broken record – “Please”, “No”, “Pretty please”, “No”, “Pleeeeease”, “No way” – and so on, until the guy finally gave up and left.

Making the first impression matters.

When approaching a stranger, aim to make an impression – any impression. Frankly, to me even a bad impression is better than no impression at all. And whatever you decide to do, just don’t apologize yourself. You won’t make an impression by being sorry for who you are.

You don’t have to do anything huge – just be cool and stay smart. Act according to the setting. If, for instance, you can count the people on the dance floor with your fingers, it’s probably better to offer the lady a mojito, not to beg for a booty shake.

Be confident, and be genuine. And please do introduce yourself.

Post by Jo