Weigh-in 2

This Friday I was down to 169!! Measureable progress is always encouraging.

I also have a Match.com derived date scheduled. Take a wild guess what nationality he is... I'll give you a hint; dark hair, brown eyes, speaks Portuguese. The photos look decent, though nowhere near Mateus-level hotness. But I'm nowhere near Mateus level either, so it's all good!

Jobhunt

I was browsing Monster on Monday, and saw a posting for a QC position here in town with Saint-Gobain, a large French multi-national specializing in materials. So, I figured I would submit my resume, and see what happens.
Wednesday, I met up with my friend Joe. We ended up at the gay townie bar to 'have a drink'. While we're there, beginning round two, his friends Luther and Keniah showed up. I've met them before, and know them a little bit. I also kind of like Luther. I get the impression that Luther kind of likes me, as well. At one point this particular evening, he ended up sitting in my lap.
More to the point, I mentioned my loathing of my current employer. Joe joked that I am not leaving Worcester. So, I said I had just submitted a resume to Saint-Gobain. Luther mentioned he was having a meeting the next day with a rep from S-G. He offered to put in a good word for me, if I was any good. I did the 10 second run down of my resume, and Luther got this "oh really" look on his face. He asked if I had submitted a resume to Staples. I hadn't because I was sticking to manufacturing, not retail. He kind of rolled his eyes and said he works for their product development group and works with a whole bunch of QC people. He gave me his email address and told me to send him my resume.
We also exchanged phone numbers, and he invited me to his and Keniah's Christmas party. We'll see which offer proves more fruitful!

Uh DUH

(Please read yesterday's post before this one.)

So, I lived through the experience Saturday, and wrote about it Sunday, but it wasn't until this morning that it dawned on me what was going on. When Mateus said "It was nice meeting you" he was playing along in the "Hey, what's your name" game that I had started when I walked into the club Saturday night. It was just an opening line for me to make the 'nice butt' comment, and then I forgot about it, but apparently he was paying attention.
I feel a little silly for not realizing it...

Addicted to Brazilians?

Thursday night Ronny called to say he was heading over by Cris to wish him a Happy Birthday and asked if I wanted to come along. I declined. A few minutes later, Brad called to say they were having a party for Cris on Saturday, and invited me to come. I, of course, said yes to that.
Psycho Ex from a long time ago was also invited. He was there, but he ignored my existence, as well as Ronny's, and we ignored him. Juvenile, yes. Easier, Oh yes. Some of the other people there said to me that they wished he would ignore them, too!
More importantly, Mateus was there. (I've had some back and forth on whether it is Mateo or Mateus, and I'm back to thinking it's Mateus.) He looked really cute again last night. Maybe it was the very tight, three-buttons open, perfect hot-guy length shirt he had on, and the accompanying occasional glimpse of those little cuts over the hips that point toward the abs, such as Usher has and is so proud of. Or maybe it was the half hour he spent talking to me... At one point, Ronny went over to Mateus's bf, Claudio, put his arm around him, and started chatting. So, Mateus came over by me to say I should keep an eye on my husband. I said we broke up, so Mateus should be more concerned about his bf. He said he isn't the jealous type. I said I am not either, and asked if Claudio is. He said Oh yeah. We then continued to talk for a bit. There were a whole bunch of Brazilians there, since it was Cris's party. As the evening continued, a group them left to go to the club in town. Ronny mentioned that one of them liked me, but I was unable to figure out which one. There was one that I thought was rather cute, but didn't know if he was Cristiano, Alberto, or Junio (they were introduced at the same time).
Shortly after that, the rest of the group decided to head to the club, as well. Ronny rode along with me, and mentioned that Mateus had said he was interested in me. When we got to the club, I went up to Mateus and said "Hey there, what's your name?" as though we'd never met. He said "Marcus"! So, I said "You have a very cute butt." (Oh dear lord in heaven, did he get a nice 'bunda'!) He attributed it to the jeans. I said it wasn't the jeans...
The group then headed out to the dance-floor. Claudio, the muscle-bound gym-rat type with bear-paw hands, predictably doesn't dance. Mateus does, and spent the whole time on the floor, dancing with all of us in the group. As the evening progressed, I guess they had 'another' fight that related to Claudio's jealousy. Brad had told me that those two fight a lot (a 5-week old relationship) and isn't expected to hold out much longer.
Meanwhile, the one cute guy from the Cristiano/Alberto/Junio group kept dancing with me, and I really got the impression he wanted to lean in for a kiss. I played it off as dancing away, not noticing anything... (Imagine my head bouncing like a ditzy blonde when you read that.) That may have been the one that told Ronny of his interest in me. As I said, I thought he was kind of cute. But aside from the Mateus stuff, there is also that nagging thought that I need to stop with the Brazilians. Altho, I had modified that to "no skinny Brazilians" because I didn't want to rule out the drop-dead gorgeous Brazilian I had met at the gym. And Mateus would fall into the disclaimer!
So, I kind of got the feeling that there was a mild flirtation coming from Mateus, and I did my best to throw subtle flirts back. Claudio was standing on the side, watching the whole thing, so I didn't do anything too noticeable. I have already mentioned they had a fight over Claudio's jealousy, so he must have gotten upset about something, but I don't think he would have singled me out. Mateus seemed to be having fun with a lot of us, including Cris, Ronny, and the C/A/J group.
Meanwhile, another guy shows up that all the Brazilians know, and Ronny ends up spending a good deal of time talking with him. The guy was the total twin of my friend Russell's hottie brother. This guy was a bit shorter, though. Still pretty cute. Ronny did not introduce me to him. I'm not sure if that means anything. Ronny's car was still at Cris's house, so he rode back with Cris. Mateus and Claudio also left their car at Cris's, as well as C/A/J. So, Cris's Grand Cherokee was rather crowded. I had my own car, and a 3 minute drive home. As we left, I wished Cris a 'feliz aniversario' and said good night to Ronny. Mateus said good night as well, and followed it with "It was nice to meet you." It threw me off a little, but I replied in a you-big-silly voice that we'd already met before. (Back at the party we had specifically been talking about when it was that we had first met last year.) We had talked a lot more than all previous times combined, and it has that first-date ring to it, so in retrospect, I'm wondering if it means something more along the lines of "I'd like to see you again". Maybe not. He wasn't drinking, so it wasn't a drunken mistake. He speaks very good English, so it wasn't a linguistic mistake either.
If I do end up hookin' up with Mateus at some point, you can bet there'll be pictures taken of him. (Yummmmm) So, stay tuned.

Which SATC girl are you?

I was watching Sex and the City on TBS last night, and was once again reminded that I am totally a Miranda. I was having trouble ignoring the cupcakes in the kitchen, while Miranda was eating chocolate cake out of her trash bin. The episode was about relationships versus sex.

As I was getting ready for bed, the thought crossed my mind that despite the title, the show really is about relationships. The four heroines depict the four possible control situations in a relationship. Miranda is the one in control. Charlotte prefers to have the other be in control. Carrie is more of an equality type. Samantha doesn't really DO relationships, so she doesn't have any control scenario. Extending my "Miranda-ness" in this thought means I am the control freak in my relationships. That, of course, is not a common thing people like to admit. Which makes sense that everyone wants to say they are most like Carrie, but most aren't. I would want to. But I know I am too much of an organized anal-retentive perfectionist to be Carrie.

Reflecting on my relationship with Ronny, and the complaints I have had with him, I realized how tight a grasp I can have on relatively pointless things. Even cooking dinner was often an exercise in control. Use the right pot, not that spoon, the heat's too high, why are you adding so much oil, oh my god that's a lot of salt, stir less, don't forget to rinse that afterwards, and stop using the vent fan because it's totally pointless. We didn't cook together. Either I did and he watched TV, or he cooked and I watched TV. It was easier that way...

For some reason, my mind then went on to my friend Russell, who is a Carrie, in my opinion. His girlfriend is an evil Charlotte. Their relationship totally doesn't work, and it fits the pattern. He wants to be equals, while she is expecting him to take care of everything. So, when he assumes she will contribute, the gaping hole in her expectations sets fights in motion.

It would seem to me that two Carries would work, and a Miranda/Charlotte pair. Two Samanthas would have a lot of fun together, but not be LTR material. Any other combo is going to cause a lot of tension, anger, and frustration. Going back to my earlier comment about wanting to be a Carrie, but not actually being one, the essence boils down to a lot of relationships are one in control and the other happy with that. My parents are a classic example. The 1950's image of the working dad, Stepford-ish housewife, and 'traditional family' structure all but worshipped that type of arrangement.

So, should I make myself into a Carrie, or should I just look for a Charlotte??