Obligatory Year-end Blog post

Well, 2013 is over, and it's been another fabulous year.  There are still a few blog posts coming for adventures in 2013 (Elton John concert, Christmas tree farm in the snow), but even aside from my adventures, I've had a great year full of fun things that were not always blogged about (or happened before this blog began).

Being a 29 year old single gal can be hard at times, but it also has some amazing benefits.  Sure, it's nice not to have to answer to anyone else.  But, to me it's really about the more adventurous and open attitude I have during my single periods.  I don't usually date someone who restricts my activity, but I WANT to participate more in life with my family and friends when I don't have the safety net of a good man to catch me.

So, a huge, giant, wonderful, appreciative thank you to all the wonderful people who I spent time with, spend time talking to, or who have made a big impact on my single life.  I love you all, and I'd be truly miserable without my friends and family.

And here's why the single life is fabulous:

1) You're free to buy as many baby clothes as you want for a future, unborn child, and no one thinks it's creepy.  (At least, no one has a right to say it.)

2)  You get to deal with this on your own.  WAIT, nevermind, that is NOT a perk of being single.

3)  You can make wonderful memories such as this one:

But no really, how sweet is this?  I cherish being able to vacation with my family and make these memories.

4)  Beautiful weather, loud music, windows down cruises

5) And oh the concerts... This year, I've seen the Lumineers, the Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, 98 Degrees, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church...

6)  THIS:

7)  And of course, all the wonderful times with friends: (of course, this isn't everyone... love you all!)

So, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, my friends!  Love and blessings to you, from me and Moosie:

And happy trails to you, in 2014 :)

Misadventures in dating.

So... I'm a cheater.  I know that I've explained that the whole point of this journey and blog is to take my mind off of dating all the time, but I'm human.

In what may be the most self-confidence destroying move of 2013, I signed up for Eharmony (long before this journey began).  As they suckered me into a great deal for a year's worth of membership and I can't leave until I've gotten my money's worth, I've occasionally chatted with people there, but haven't gone out on a single date since my 29th birthday.  A friend convinced me to try out a new site "Coffee Meets Bagel" and I agreed to try that with him also.  Since my dating life is typically a comedy of errors, I haven't REALLY cheated on my tiny adventures mission until a few weeks ago when I planned a date.

So, this Coffee Meets Bagel site is brilliant in theory since it supposedly matches you up with someone you have mutual friends with on Facebook.  In the true spirit of dating as a late 20 year old, me and my friends give everyone an appropriate nickname to keep men straight... so I met "Cartman" on the site and we began text messaging on their text messaging line service, which is kind of brilliant since it allows you to text with someone without sharing your real number.  We traded messages almost daily for about two weeks, and he suggested we meet up.  We made plans for a specific day, and we texted once more about them when I had to change the plans to a casual lunch date since a friend was having "Friendsgiving" and friends and food obviously outrank potentially bad dates in my book.

The day came and went, and I didn't hear from Cartman a few days beforehand, or for about a week afterwards.  About a week later, I had pretty much forgotten about him (score one for my year of adventure if I can forget about someone that quickly!) when I got a strange voicemail that was mumbled and mostly unintelligible.  I texted the following day, and he immediately asked me to hang out the following weekend.  I was busy, but also asked... "what happened to you last weekend?"  He said he owed his uncle one, and had lunch with him instead.... UM.... coulda called buddy.  He suggested we hang out during the following week, and I stopped responding to give it some real thought.

Deep down, I just didn't WANT to give this another shot, but it took me a while to come up with why.  Since my last relationship, I've dated a few people, but while we kept talking and continued a friendship, no one has been willing to make any kind of commitment to me.  I couldn't figure out why I was attracting this kind of person until this conversation with Cartman.  After thinking quite a bit about this situation, I realized that there came a time in each one of those friendships/relationships, where this kind of thing had happened, and I had given those guys another chance, or sometimes 2 or 3 more chances.  At heart, I'm just a hopeful person about love, but because of this, I think I've wasted plenty of time with people who clearly showed me exactly how things were going to be.

I talked to a few friends who both encouraged me to give Cartman a chance, but I didn't respond right away because I knew I REALLY didn't want to meet up with him.  I knew that I deserved better, and maybe that is part of this journey even though I originally meant the journey to be more of a man-free one.

A few days later, Cartman offered to tell me a story about his day, and gave me a call.  I literally understood NOTHING he said, and asked "WHAT?" about a hundred times in a 20 minute conversation.  I didn't get his sense of humor, and he literally talked like Cartman from South Park (hence the nickname).  Seeing as how I couldn't carry on a conversation with him, I went with my original feelings and decided not to go out on this date.

Because I deserve better.  And maybe we have to show the universe what kind of love we want to receive with the actions we take.

Always go with your gut.  Lesson Learned!

Whales, whales and more... Okay, no whales.

First, my apologies for getting behind on the blogging portion of this project.  I went whale watching at the end of October, but it's the holiday season so the blogging hasn't come easy... but here we go!

If you know me, you know I LOVE the ocean.  The beach is the one place that brings me peace and I love to go at any time of year.  Admittedly, I have been on a whale watch before about a year and a half ago, but this time would be different, because Lori and I planned our trip during Whale migration season!

We also planned our trip during the coldest possible time to do a whale watch... Exhibit A:

We <3 whales!  (And the Flyers obviously!)

We headed out from the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center (http://www.capemaywhalewatch.com/).  In the spirit of my year of adventure, I was sure that I'd see a whale.  On my last Whale/Dolphin watch, we saw an amazing super pod of dolphins, about 100 dolphins splashing and playing around.  So, I knew we'd see something.

The trip started out with some interesting information that I was not aware of.  The Cape May area actually has the 2nd largest fishery in the United States (Lund's), 2nd only to Gloucester, Massachusetts.  The area also provides about 90% of the clams eaten in the United States.  And about 80% of gasoline used in the U.S. passes through our waters headed to Philadelphia.  Fascinating!

As you can see from my title, we did NOT see any whales, which surely would have been one of the most thrilling moments of my life so far.  We also didn't see much of dolphins either, only got a quick glimpse.  Our Captain tried very hard to find a whale for us, and we did a lot of circling, but more on that in a moment.  Because we didn't really see marine mammals, we actually got our tickets validated for a future trip.  I thought for sure that our glimpse of dolphin meant that we would NOT get a free trip, so I was pleased and surprised when they said they'd come around to write on our tickets that we could come back for free.  I highly recommend the Starlight Fleet and Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center because of this!  Their staff was also very knowledgeable and I enjoyed talking to one of the gals on board for a few moments about some of the cool stuff they see.  They do sometimes see sharks (WOOHOO!) and over the summer, had gotten to see a great hammerhead shark circling the boat and then going after an injured sea turtle.  Hopefully, on a future trip we can see a shark too!

We did see quite a few jellyfish, which had me a little worried about the ecosystem, but they still looked pretty cool.

The real adventure came from our pursuit of whales.  About halfway through the trip, the wind picked up a bit.  We headed down to the front of the boat for a change of scenery.  At the same time, the Captain picked up speed trying to get to a location where a whale had been spotted earlier.  We were rolling back and forth quite a lot, but luckily, neither Lori nor I have a history of seasickness.  I was a BIT uneasy standing close to the rail when the boat was catching air going through the waves, so I tried to sit down.  I took one step back and basically fell right onto the bench behind us.  Lori stayed where she was and a minute later, we hit another wave and caught a mouth of saltwater.  She also fell right into the seat and a few minutes later, one of the gals on board asked us to move to the sides of the boat because the Captain didn't want anyone in the front.  I would think the Captain would try not to drive a big tourist boat like a bat outta hell, but it did provide a little excitement in the day.  It was a great help in determining that I am NOT the seasick type, so I guess we did learn something anyway!

Afterwards, we visited my favorite shore point, Cape May for a bit.  It was a great day, but next time, I hope there are whales, and of course, SHARKS!

Before I leave you with some pictures of the trip, I'd like to send a big shoutout to my first readers I am aware of that are not people who are obligated to love me, and therefore, my blog.  Hello, Texans!  Maybe we can do the same adventure separately in the future and we can have a little guest blogging action here!

Cape May

The Cape May Lighthouse

Apparently, our waters are green because they are so rich with algae and plankton!