Friday, January 30, 2009

Night on the town...

Hello my faithful readers:

First off I have to say TGIF! This week started off pretty quietly for me, hence my lack of blog activity. Now I'm just focused on getting myself out there again now that things are starting to warm up. I kicked things off with a TV Industry Networking party for which I was a part of the host committee. Prior to heading to the party MILF and I had a lovely dinner at Ditch Plains down in Tribeca. The food was good and we both thought it would be appropriate for future dates.

I expected the party to be a low key lounge type affair, but it turned out to be a pretty sexy party. I mean full of lots of beautiful people including, Adrien Grenier of Entourage fame. The line to get into the party was wrapped around the corner; for the first half of the night I was running around like a chicken with its head cut-off pulling all of my friends in from the long line when they texted me. Once everyone was in and had received their VIP passes I was able to take a breath and grab a drink at the bar.

As a part of the Host Committee I made it a point to work the room as much as possible. One thing about me is that when I'm in the mood I have no problems small talking with people no matter who they are, but the big BUT is I have to be in the mood. Despite the irritations I'd experienced at work that darkened my mood right before the party I was ready to have a good time. I met a few people over the course of the night and one guy really piqued my interest a guy we'll call "Youngun" because I found out later from a friend of mine that he's only like 25 or 26 years old. Can anyone say Cougar???

To be honest I really don't recall much of my conversation with "Youngun" because he was just so beautiful to me. I'd noticed him when I first walked into the party and thought he was security because he spent so much time standing all by himself near the entrance to the party. I never really saw him talking to anyone the entire time I was over that way, but when he finally made it into the back part of the room I stopped him to talk to him. I started out by asking him how he heard about the party. He explained one of his friends who works in PR for a jewelry firm had invited him, but then bailed last minute, but he decided to come. Now this entire time I'm trying to be cool and light, but in the end I was the aggressor in our little few minute chat. I mentioned to him that I thought he was very attractive (SO UNLIKE ME), then offered to introduce him to some of my friends so he wouldn't be so lonely.

One of my other friends DJD ended up walking over and apparently knows Youngun (or at least Youngun said he knew him). I left them together talking and continued to work the room, but before leaving him I handed him my business card and I told him coyly that I hoped he used it. I ended up chatting with my friend Brooke later that night and she said she finally figured out where she knew him from. Apparently they take a boxing class together, but she also broke the news to me that he was young too. Before he left for the night he made sure to say bye and give me a nice hug goodbye. Then this morning I woke up and couldn't remember his name, but I did remember how cute I thought he was... SIGH.

Throughout the course of the night I made a point to speak to as many men (and people) as possible and I exchanged business cards with quite a few. A couple have already dropped me nice e-mails or phone calls, most pertaining to some business opportunities, but all in I hope I can turn some of my new acquaintances into friends at least.

Tonight my friend JF and I are going to see Michael Ian Black at Caroline's and then I'm planning to hit up another party if I still have the energy afterwards. I also have a couple of other parties to go to this weekend - it is definitely birthday season now! I wish you all a safe and happy weekend. Please try stay warm if you're here in the NYC area. Next week I have a few plans lined up so there won't be as much lag in blog activity.

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach

PS - I haven't followed up with any of my speed daters nor have any called me yet either. I think I'll try it again soon with a more targeted group though.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Speed dating recap

Hello to all my readers:

Happy Monday morning to you all! First off I have to say that it's way too cold for me and my Georgia blood right now. I am suffering with the below freezing temperatures we have been experiencing lately. As I type this I know it sounds lame, but that's my reason for not doing a darned thing this weekend. The cold froze my will to get out of my apartment. Yes, I know, I know, I know, I know - this is the LAMEST of the lame excuses. What can I say except I'll try harder once the weather warms up? Those of you who know me well can at least admit to yourselves that I'm indeed more of a social butterfly in warmer weather.

As far as my Friday night speed dating experience - I had a good time all things considered. The whole experience was pretty intense so those of you who hate meeting lots of new people or can't stand screaming to be heard over the buzz of 43 other singles might want to avoid the experience. I arrived at People Lounge on Friday night a little late (note: the event organizers encourage you to get there at least 20-30 mins early to get settled in). There were a couple of people checking in at the door before me and then a couple of other folks came in right after me. I signed in, grabbed my name tag and then proceeded to find the coat check. Everyone was sort of standing around talking and I asked a couple of guys who were sort of just standing together awkwardly if they knew where the coat check was. One guy told me that the door behind him is the coat check and I should just hang my coat up. Of course this isn't what I was supposed to do and one of the People Lounge staffers cames over to give me a good talking to about not just going in and hanging my coat up willy nilly. I proceed to make a jokes about the incident and say, but this guy told me that I was supposed to hang it in there. The staffer wasn't amused, but it was funny to me and I was a little less nervous after that.

I made small talk with the group of guys who led me astray and surreptitiously surveyed the scene in the bar with my peripheral vision. I'm a tall young woman at 5'10" and most of the guys in the bar barely reached 5'8" so I was a little disappointed by the selection right off the bat. There was a rainbow coalition of every ethnicity in the bar, especially indian, arab, white and asian men. Later as I discovered in my dating sessions that there was one guy from Ghana (for all of you wondering if there were any black men there). I realized immediately that this isn't a group of guys I would normally want to date, but I decided to continue the night in an open minded fashion. After a few minutes of chatting with the guys in my group the event host herded all the women upstairs to the dating area. One of the guys in that initial group seemed to be an expert on speed dating and he kindly gave me a few more leads on other companies that do it in our date later that night.

I sat next to one of my new friends from downstairs Jessica. She was there alone because her friend bailed on her last minute. Jessica was relatively new to New York so she was trying speed dating to meet new people. As far as the other women in the dating crew I saw mostly white women with a couple of black and asian women thrown in for good measure. Overall the profile of all of the daters was relatively young (tonight's theme was young professionals 21-35) and mostly everyone looked to be in their mid-20's or younger.

We sat there and waited for the event host bring the men up. As everyone is finding their seat I'm sitting there wondering - which one of these lucky gentleman will be my first date? Well big surprise for me because everyone got a date, BUT ME in the first round. This was a huge blow to my ego. I was sitting there thinking "ok where's my date" and no one sat down with me. What a blow to the ego... so as the event host gets everyone going with a yell that we have 5 minutes, I sit there, then proceed to pull my blackberry out and hop onto my lifeline facebook. The event host comes over to sit with me and explains (jokingly) that he'll be my first date. He explained to me that there were 22 women and 21 men at the event and so for the first round I wouldn't have a date in the first 5 minute dating session. He then explained that the way it works is that you have a 5 minute date with everyone participating. We would have breaks in between ever few dates (roughly every 5 dates) and at that time we could make notes on the guys on the pen and paper they provided. At the end of the night we were to use the "match" cards provided to put our final selections or "matches" down on the card and submit it to him the event host. On the next day if we have "matches" then we will receive an e-mail with the full name and contact info (email and phone number) of our matches. I thanked him for explaining everything to me and then proceeded to wait for my first date.

Now just to explain the scene in the room a little better, there are 43 other men and women chattering away, frantically trying to get to know each other in 5 minutes. The noise level in that room is like a loud roar with everyone trying to get their little sales pitches for themselves in. Finally after what seems like less than 5 full minutes, the event host yells "Stop" and tells the men to get up and rotate to tthe seat to their right. Here's where Imy night finally started and I met my first date. First date and I connected over salsa dancing, the 2nd date was a tall young white man who said he can fight and then proceeded to tell all sorts of stories about getting into fights at clubs (of course he was 22) and the tallest thing in the party. The first few after that are all pretty much blurs in my mind now. I did love chatting everyone up as the queen of small talk, so all in I'm having a good time.

There were a couple of guys whom I connected with specifically over music - one guy invited me out afterwards to see his friend's band play, one date really seemed to dig my love of photography (we geeked out over equipment and style together) and one guy just seemed arrogant. He flat out said he likes ONLY cats, insisted that the ending to Slumdog Millionaire sucked and that Notorious wasn't worth the film it was shot on. Out of all 22 of my dates only one repulsed me with his personality. He was a young attorney who had recently started a new job and was studying to pass the bar exam. He had a "Debbie Downer" personality. and out of all the men I dated that night, he is the only one that I flat out wrote NO next to his name.

So by the end of all that how many matches did I get? Well I put down five or six names (right now I can't remember) and my pen was barely working on the paper. Out of the three matches I received I only remember or have notes on two of them. One was the photography guy who physically reminds me of a cuter version of "Turtle" from Entourage. One of my other "matches" I wrote was nice and suave. The final match escapes my memory - I don't remember him at all and didn't write any notes about him I'm sorry to say.

If you're interested in speed dating here are my recommendations for you:

1) Carefully review the specific theme nights - for me I would try a more focused theme. The young professionals was really a mixed bag and most of the daters really seemed a little young for me.
2) Be open-minded
3) Get ready to pay for your own drinks - they aren't necessarily included in the price of admission
4) Have fun and pace yourself. Speed dating is an intense experience and it can get tiring if you have 22 dates to get through in one night.

Here's a link to a couple of speed dating companies in the NYC area:

http://www.nyminutedating.com/ - this is the one I tried
http://www.nyeasydates.com/ - one recommended by one of the other speed daters

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach

Friday, January 23, 2009

Try try again...

Hello my faithful readers:

First of all I have to say TGIF! This week feels like it has been one of the longest in my lifetime. I took a break from writing the blog yesterday because quite frankly I had a bit of writers block and not much to report. I think I needed a little bit of an attitude adjustment and I plan to do that by keeping myself plenty busy over the next few weeks.

Just to update you on my plight last night I went out to a party for Surface Magazine at Operation Boutique down in Soho. It was super crowded and full of beautiful and surprisingly tall people. My friend C and I crammed our bodies into the space, waded through the clothing and bodies to head to the most important part of the party - the bar. After grabbing drinks we pushed our way over to the coat check where we realized we probably wouldn't stay long because the place was seriously packed in so much that we felt like they were definitely violating fire safety codes. We small talked with a few people at the party, but all in the experience was "physically crushing" because of all the bodies. Before we left, I exchanged cards with a nice gentleman who works in real estate. He gave us a few suggestions of other parties to hit before the end of the night, but we both needed to eat by that point so we went to Bar 89.

While dining at Bar 89 C told the story of how she and her boyfriend met. She has unwittingly convinced me that I probably should move back to Georgia to meet the man of my dreams. She's known her guy since she was in elementary school and they met and reconnected several times before getting together because they have mutual friends. I know that many of my friends have met their significant others through mutual friends. Something to think about eh? On a random note I was excited to see that the actor who was "Uncle Phil" in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was also eating there too.

My weekend looks like it will be action packed! Tonight I'm going SPEED DATING! I'm quite excited about tonight because speed dating appeals to my dislike for wasting time. What's better than spending 3 minutes in person with a guy to determine if you'd like to pursue another longer date? There might be other better options, but at this point the idea sounds pretty good to me. So as I brush up on my 60 second pitch (or maybe I should make it 30 seconds?) wish me luck tonight!

Here's what I have on tap for the rest of the weekend. Saturday night I will be hitting up my friend Bianca's potluck birthday celebration. Sunday I'm heading to a cigar bar to celebrate my friend Paul's birthday. Just a note about the whole cigar bar thing- I'm definitely NOT a smoker and I'm not even sure how long I'll be able to stand the smoke in the bar, but one of my friends said that she went to one recently and met lots of handsome men there. As I have mentioned before I'll give all legal dating methods, destinations, etc. a shot (at least once).

So have a great weekend! For all of you NYC'ers stay warm the temp is supposed to drop again tomorrow. The cold always makes me lazy and that's when I blow off plans the most so I'm really going to do my best to make it out to everything I've written today. Thanks again for all of the support and advice. Stay warm and have a great weekend!


Mwuah,

Georgia Peach

PS - Still haven't heard from the bodybuilder guy, but surprisingly many of you thought I should at least give him another call, so I might swallow my pride and call one last time.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Foolish pride?

Good morning to all of you today:

What a great morning (after)? Yesterday was historic.; we finally made it official -- Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America. Yesterday I was so excited all day long that in all of that excitement it never dawned on me that I didn't hear from the bodybuilder to confirm our date today. I'm sort of bummed, but also realize that we talked about confirming doing either Wednesday or Thursday, although from our phone conversation I definitely got the feeling that he wanted to shoot for something today. So no word, no date.

So what if he called me in the next hour to set something up would I would not accept? No I couldn't accept a last minute date because my pride is way too big to accept it. Yep I said it... I have a little thing called pride and I refuse to let anybody get the best of me. Now I like to think of my pride as my little protector. But here's the real deal - it is my opinion that a man, woman, tranny, whatever should always set up and confirm dates well in advance (unless we're in a serious relationship). My pride and I do not being treated like the "after thought" or the "chic on the side." Respecct is something I expect out of my mates and I hope that you all agree with me about this matter.

Now I've talked a bit about pride and respect today, but in the spirit of change (in me and in my country) I'm willing to overlook the fact that he didn't reach out to me yesterday given all of the Inauguration Fever. How many of you would reach out to the bodybuilder if you didn't hear from him? When is it appropriate to reach out (I'm thinking NEVER, but realistically maybe by end of tomorrow?) Pride tells me that I should not be the one to call; let's be real here "I NEVER CALL ANYBODY" because that is just how me and my pride roll. Which might be why I'm still single at 30 years old too. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this matter? Should I give him a call, email or text in a day or two if I still haven't heard from him? Feel free to drop me a line in my comment box.

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Stop being an IDIOT

Good morning my faithful readers:

I have to start off by making comment about how historic today is- Can you believe that the day is finally here when Barack Hussein Obama officially becomes the 44th President of the United States of America. Wow! This is so exciting to me and I hope to find a love like the President and his first lady share. I was touched and awed as I saw them getting ready to go to the church service and what struck me most of all was the fact that although today is probably one of the most important days of his life - he still went to open the door for Michelle before going to the other side to open his own door. I was blown away by this small gesture and I have to say that for me. I look up to the First Couple as a pattern for how I'd like to conduct myself in my next serious relationship.

Now back to the topic at hand...On Friday when I last left you all I'd had one of the most disappointing first phone calls ever. On the bright side (as I choose to see it!) dude let his crazy out early on in the game so that I wasted no time on him, which for me is a HUGE plus in my eyes. Needless to say I sent him an e-mail over the weekend politely letting him know that I didn't think we had enough in common for us to meet in person.

Later that day I got a nice surprise in my inbox and what might this surprise be you're asking yourself? An e-mail from one of the guys that I'd responded to earlier that week (grudgingly) I might add. I say grudgingly because although the guy seems great in e-mail (he meets my height requirements, very attractive, seems to have mastered the English language) I was already making up reasons to not respond to him.

Here's a little sample of my inner monologue that I am now actively fighting back on a daily basis:

He's a personal trainer and says that he believes the body is a temple

I think that he will judge me and all of the brownies, cupcakes, cookies, candies and mac n cheese that I love to stuff myself with so why even bother trying. He will just judge me and all my crap foods and my doughy body.

His email was nice and well written, but it wasn't the wittiest e-mail I received

He must be boring if his e-mail to me is boring... plus he's a personal trainer, what would we have in common since I HATE the gym?

He was born in Jamaica

Uh oh - He's Jamaican! I don't know about this... my track record with the Caribbean men so far hasn't been so great. They are all possessive and clingy and I just don't have time for that!

His name is...

Corny! Who has a name like that! Did he change it to that? Plus he's a bodybuilder...I just don't know if I can date anyone that purposefully made their name into something so corny to benefit their career. (Unless his parents did this to him.)

I'll let you all in on a little secret -- I'm GREAT at talking myself out of a good thing. As my friend MILF threatens me nearly everyday at work I will end up becoming a crazy cat lady if I don't stop it (plain and simple). I believe that so far the recipe for my single life of late has been 1/3 self preservation, 1/3 laziness and the final 1/3 me being an IDIOT. So my pledge to you today my dear readers is that I will stop being a lazy, idiot! Yes I said it - I pledge here and now that I will stop being a LAZY IDIOT! So if you happen to see me talking stepping into the lazy idiot zone please feel free to gently nudge me out of it. Especially now that my country and the world at large is changing to a place that needs me to be an energized, more open minded, loving, human being.

So I called the guy (whom I will now refer to as bodybuilder) last night, he seemed to be pretty normal and we tentatively made plans for a coffee date on tomorrow (Wednesday). I'll let you know how that turns out later this week, but for now I'm clamping down on the negative crap that cycles through my brain.

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach

P.S. Thanks for all of you who are leaving comments and signed up to follow my blog! I really appreciate all of the love and advice you guys are sharing with me. If you're reading this and like what you're reading feel free to become a follower!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Pay attention to those red flags...

Hello to my faithful readers:

First off I have to say TGIF! This has been one hell of a week. I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the miracle US Airways "Splash" landing in the Hudson River yesterday. Since I'm constantly flying around for work this one definitely hit pretty close to home and I thank God that everyone was able to survive that crash. This has also been a landmark week for me because I launched this blog. YEAH. I want to thank everyone who has commented, e-mailed me or IM'd me with your comments, they are appreciated. I'd also be a piss poor marketer if I didn't encourage you all to post your comments here on the blog and better yet, become one of my followers (especially if you like what you're reading).

Enough of my shameless self promotion. Last night I called the promising prospect from Craigslist. To say I was disappointed might be the understatement of the YEAR! This isn't me just being my normal picky self... he's definitely a character, just not someone I wish to include in the sitcom I call my life. My alarm bells were clanging all through out our conversation, but especially because right off the bat because he asks me how much I weigh. When I refused to give him any info he then asked my dress size. WTF? Again I repeat this was the first warning sign to me. Especially since this is the guy that although he had some really clever, well written e-mails to me, barely provided me any info about himself; nor did he send a picture. Well he tells me that his main questions for me are how many degrees I have? What's my IQ? And what are my sexual habits? Right out of the gate! I'll tell you that the only question I answered was how many degrees I have. Who remembers what their IQ is unless they are a card carrying member of MENSA?

My night gets even better because he proceeds to get into this long involved story about how he's a divorcee (short marriage which ended almost 9 years ago). At this point I'm not judging him, but the fact that this isn't something you normally expect to get into in the first phone conversation took me aback. I asked a few basic questions that he tried to wriggle out of like a slippery fish. When asked what his business was (in his e-mails to me he said he was self employed) his response was he didn't wish to tell me what he does "because he felt it might cause me to make unfair judgements about him." When I asked how old he was he evasively said he was "In his 40's." By his voice I would guesstimate that he's probably closer to 50 than the lower end of 40.

When we get into conversation about interests and types of music and he said the thing that caused me to decide I absolutely could never be interested in this man (GASP) "he doesn't consider hip hop to be real music." Now I never considered myself to be the biggest defender of hip hop or its merits as an art form, but I felt my heart clench when he said those words. I think I was speechless for about 3 minutes, I just let him ramble on and kept saying "Ok, ok, okkkkkkkk." As for his living arrangements he lives uptown in Manhattan (155th and Amsterdam) and he has a young, college aged female roommate. Apparently she is from Sweden and he keeps roommates (in an apt he has lived in for 20 years mind you!) to keep costs down. He also seemed to be a little judgemental of me saying that although I live in Brooklyn I tend to hang out more in the city. I won't type his retort to that other than to say that I was made very aware of how narrow minded he seems to be.

The kicker for the entire conversation for me is that this guy asks if I have any pets, says he has a parrot, then proceeds to tell me about how he used to take the parrot outside and on the train and bus all the time until the city started giving tickets for having the bird in public. He ranted about the fact that the city gives tickets to people who have birds on the buses and trains, imagine that? To me that was the biggest red flag that this guy might be a little unstable.

So perhaps I am being a little too judgemental or picky (MILF I can hear you saying to me that it takes nothing to go on a date), but I honestly believe that I have very little in common with this man. I'd initially called him to set up an in person coffee date, but at the end of our call I realized that if I went on the date it would be for the sole purpose of creating a sensational date story for this blog. Although it would probably make for a great story, I think I'll save myself the wasted time. I can admit that I'm disappointed, I fell in love with the e-mails this guy wrote. Now I know that sometimes it isn't just about the written word, but what a person is like in the flesh (or in my case on the phone).

As promised yesterday here is my list of qualities that I definitely DON'T WANT in my mate:

1) Someone who is narrow minded
2) Liars
3) Problems with addictions (of any kinds)
4) Time wasters
5) Unstable (financially, mentally, whatever!)
6) Stupidity
7) Someone who doesn't know how to manage their money
8) Womanizers
9) Short in height (hey I'm 5'10)
10) Inarticulate

Do you have a DON'T list? If so feel free to post yours in my comments section.

Have a great weekend! I'm going out tonight with some of my girls to do one of my favorite things in the world KARAOKE! I'll also be hanging out with friends over the course of the long weekend. Hope you get out too!

mwuah,

Georgia Peach

Thursday, January 15, 2009

What is it that I want in a man?

Hello all,

First off I hope all of you NYC folks are surviving this cold snap we're experiencing. I took a break yesterday from blogging to sift through all of the responses to my Craigslist ad and boy did I get a wide range of responses. A special thank you to my friends Sassy S, MBA Global J and MILF for helping me to choose some of the top contenders that I hope to eventually write about here. There is one in particular that is a top contender and I'm setting up plans with him in the next week. As for me I prefer meeting people when I'm out and about so tonight despite the snow and frigid weather I'm seriously considering going out tonight for casual drinks with a friend of mine and her co-workers.

Steve Harvey (on his radio show this morning) suggested coming up with a list of what you want in a mate and also coming up with a list of what you DON'T want in your significant other. He said that once you have these lists and your date/mate/whatever starts to hit a couple of the things on your DON'T list you should consider whether or not the things on your list are non-negotiable and whether or not you're willing to stand for more than just that couple of things on the DON'T list.

My friends have also asked me over the past few weeks what I want in a man. It's funny because over the years that wish list has changed and I realized that perhaps it isn't about what I want in a man, but maybe what I need in a man. WTF??!? Now this statement might be controversial to some of you out there - I can't believe I even typed it myself. I'm one of the biggest proponents of female independence and not NEEDING a man. In fact it is at the very root of why I've remained single for so long (something I'm sure I will get into at some point over the course of writing this blog), but I realized that perhaps there are some things I need in MY man.

Here's a list of 7 non-negotiable qualities that I've come to realize I need in my man:

1) My friend, first and foremost
2) Mentally stimulating to me
3) Compassionate
4) Someone who loves unconditionally
5) Sexually compatible with me
6) A compliment to me and my BIG personality
7) Integrity

I'll work on the DON'T list and share it with you tomorrow. That one is a doozy! So my dear readers I welcome your comments on this one.

mwuah,

Georgia Peach

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Welcome to my blog!

So a good friend of mine has challenged me to do a few things this year (as listed below):

1) Get my ass off my couch and start dating
2) Be a lot more open minded about whom I date in general
3) Stop picking the guy apart before he even gets a 2nd date

Why would Georgia Peach do this you might ask yourself? Well... I'm hoping that this little experiment will get me out of my rut, land me a fabulous boyfriend and make me a much better person at the end of this adventure. I'm defintely a little anal rentitive and picky (to a fault) so I think trying out all types of dating and making myself more social will be a fun experiment. I welcome all of your advice, hook-ups with your cute male friends and support over the next year! Hopefully this blog will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

Just a little about my plan for dating. Yesterday was the first day in my adventure and I signed up for a Young Professional's speed dating. Today with the help of my good friend Global Jay I wrote the most wonderful Craigslist Posting I've ever seen. Ok maybe it wasn't the most wonderful, but I loved it in the end. Global Jay and my other friend Sassy S helped me to sort through some of the responders to find a couple of suitable men with which to correspond and set up subsequent coffee dates. My promise to you my dear readers it to leave NO stone unturned, to try most legal methods of dating (match.com, yahoo personals, nerve.com) accept all invitations for parties, soirees and AGAIN I encourage you to give me your best advice, cute male friends and tips on how I can become a better dater.

So to all of my co-workers who are praying for me to find a man - I have accepted your challenge and will let you know how things are going periodically through my blog. Thanks in advance for all the love and support. My friends really are the best! Oh and if you haven't noticed already I plan to change all names to protect the innocent (and most importantly of all myself!)

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach