My 1 in 2018

My favorite radio show had the funniest opening act last Saturday, where they took the Drake Equation, used to determine the number of planets in the universe capable of sustaining life, and applied it to single people wondering how many potential mates there are for them in their part of the universe. Seriously.

So here is my Drake Equation. Let's call it the Ann Equation.

I'll start by narrowing it down to Oklahoma, even though that's still quite broad for my personal geography.

Population of Oklahoma- 3,450,000

Population of Oklahoma Males- 1,725,000

Population of Oklahoma Males ages 25-34 (13.1%)- 225,975

Population of Oklahoma Males ages 25-34 and not married or divorced (44%)- 99,429

Population of Oklahoma Males ages 25-34 and not married or divorced with a college education (20.3%)- 20,184 (not necessarily mandatory but hey, why not throw it in)

And let's say I find only 10% of men attractive. Let's be honest, this number is quite high. In reality I don't think anyone finds 10% of people attractive. But anyway. That gives me...

2018

That is the pool I have to work with in the entire state of Oklahoma, when applying the principles of the Drake Effect. And let's be honest, that's not encouraging. Because think of all the other factors! Christian, emotionally stable, no felony records, adherence to dental hygiene standards... the list goes on. :)

Anyhoo, see what you learn listening to public radio? Can you figure out your equation?

And let me say for the record, at the end of the day you just have to find one. The right one. :)

With many thanks to the US Census.

Why The Bachelor makes me thankful

Times are tough in TV land, and tonight I settled on The Bachelor from sheer lack of other choices.

Surprisingly, this experience made me more thankful than anything.

Things I am thankful for after watching The Bachelor

1. I don't see a direct correlation between the amount of cleavage I show and my ability to engage a man's attention.
2. I am recognizable once I take off my make-up.
3. I know how to use the word "literally" correctly.
4. The majority of my income does not go towards my wardrobe.
5. I don't consider other women in my life competition.
6. My love and heartbreak aren't being broadcast on network television.

This is probably the last episode I'll watch. One dose of thankfulness is enough.

Friendlationships- a guest blog

This gust post was written by Blake Blackwell. Blake has been a dear friend of mine for almost 8 years now. He has also been the iron that has sharpened my own, and his perspective and insights have blessed me. We both decided to take a topic and write our opinions on the subject without consulting the other. So to see my take on friendlationships, click here.
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Let’s be honest: in the end, there will only be one. Or there better only be one. One what? One deep relationship with the opposite gender, that’s what. After my first close female friend got married, this lesson started to hit me. As female friend after female friend continued to get married, the truth became clearer and clearer. Then one day it dawned on me – the day I get married is the day this equation changes altogether. It’s one thing when my friends get married; I lose one at a time. But then, once I’m married, I lose all of them in one fell swoop.

But that time hasn’t come yet. And so I still have many close female friends. I cherish these friendships, much as I cherish my now married female friends. So what’s the problem?

You see, while these friendships are great I realize their time is limited. Unbeknownst to most of them, I continually struggle with how much to invest personally, emotionally, and spiritually.

I’ve decided that if both sides are platonic (meaning non-romantic), then be thankful for the friendship you have. Several of my friendships with females are completely platonic, and God blesses us both through our friendship. However, if there are signs that one side feels romantic, and the other does not, both of you have a responsibility to each other to protect each others’ hearts. Often this means breaking off the friendship, or limiting time spent together. Investing in another person is a harmful business if the affections will never be returned. Letting someone invest in you is equally dangerous, and even selfish, if you will never return the feelings.

These aren’t easy conclusions. Being single in your young adult years is a time of great joy, fun, but oft coupled with confusion, longing, and sometimes even loneliness. That is why our lives are filled with many friendships of both genders. Be careful though, guard your heart! A friendlationship is oh too finite!

Answers, Redux

A little Saturday night blogging with the new questions.

Amanda asks, What exactly is this job that you love so much?

Good question! I thought about whether or not I should put it online, but frankly, I am very googlable. I have an extreme web presence. :) I work at my dear alma mater, Oklahoma Christian University, as the web content coordinator in the marketing department. I also do some technical writing. I work a lot with news stories and keeping the content of our site up to date. If you go to the new, amazing www.oc.edu, I worked a lot on the organization of menus.

Rachel O (one of my fabulous co-workers) asks, what is the scariest thing you have ever done?

I've had a lot of scary things happen to me, but I'm going to guess this means something I've willingly done. Definitely getting on a plane to move to Japan. I'd never been there, was moving to a town where I didn't know anyone, had no idea what to expect... oh man, I don't know if I've ever been as scared as I was when I got on that plane. Talk about a leap of faith.

BONUS QUESTION! Rachel also asks, WHAT QUALITIES DO YOU DESIRE IN A HUSBAND?

LOL! Alrighty, well here is a short but serious list.

• Involved, Christian leader already active in ministry
• Someone who encourages me to pursue my spiritual gifts
• Humble
• Kind
• Gentle
• Shares quite similar viewpoints (theological, political, family roles, etc)
• Compliments me (not like saying nice things, but accentuating who I am with who he is)
• Push back. I don't know how succinctly phrase this, but I have a fairly strong personality and opinions, and I have found that I need someone who will push back at this- not argumentative or debating, but challenging me with their own thoughts, perspective, and experience rather than just agreeing with me.)

There ya go. Fascinating, hmm? If you know any good fellas who match this list, drop me a line. :) I promise I'll be back with real content soon.

Conversation with a 5 year old

There is a very precious and precocious five year old girl in my life, and for privacy purposes I'll call her Connie*. Connie has an equally precious 10 year old brother named Jonathan*. Last night I was with Connie and Jonathan, and the following conversation ensued.

Connie-- How many babies do you have?
Ann-- I don't have any babies. I don't even have a husband yet!
Connie-- Oh really?!? Why???
Ann-- (flustered and laughing) Well I don't know...
Connie-- Is it because you're waiting to find a handsome, wonderful man?
Ann-- Yes! That's exactly right.
Connie-- Well how about Jonathan?!? He's a nice gentleman!

At that point I was about to fall over laughing. Poor Jonathan was probably embarrassed beyond belief. But hey, she's right. Her big brother is a pretty swell guy. Darn that 15 year age difference. :)

What Men Want

CNN brings us confirmation of many women's deepest fears and insecurities:

Men Want Hot Women, Study Confirms

I love how that is the actual title of the article. :)

Does this offend any men out there? Is this an over-generalization? Can women have hope that there are men out there with more depth than this? Ladies, how does this make you feel? Remember, this blog allows anonymous comments.

Praise Night/Singles Mixer Report

I promised a report, so I'd better make good on that.

Dennis Jernigan is one of the most spirit-filled people I've seen (perhaps even more so than Gary Bruce, if you know him). It would almost be over the top, but he is completely sincere and passionate about what Christ has done for him and wants to share that with others. DJ has written a lot of songs. Seriously prolific writer. Some of the ones people would most quickly recognize are "I am a Sheep", "All in All", "Thank You", "We Will Worship the Lamb of Glory", etc etc. You can google him to see some others. It was fun and meaningful and an overall great night of praise. If you have the chance to go see him and have a rather open mind to worship expressions, then definitely go check him out.

The singles mixer was... interesting. :) First things first, they had a great cookie/donut/pastry spread and a lot of coffee. But most of the singles there were I'd say 40s and over. Considering the average age of our group is mid-twenties, it wasn't really our demographic. Honestly, no one in our group was excited about going, so I'm not sure why we did. We did end up playing it a little snotty, probably, because we just stayed in our small circle and chatted amongst ourselves. A couple of the ladies from the hosting church came and introduced themselves to us, and they were very nice. Both asked if we all went to the same church, we said "Yes, Quail Springs CoC", and they were cool with that. But as we said our goodbyes to one lady, we parted ways, and suddenly she spins around and says, "Oh yeah, and by the way you guys, don't worry about the fact that y'all go to a Church of Christ. I grew up there; it's okay." :) Ha, I think I said something mildly snarky like, "Oh don't worry, we've made peace with our identity." Which was then followed by the usual remarks about how Quail really isn't your average CoC. :)

As for the singles mixing, lemmie tell you. Our group was 5 girls and 1 guy, Pete. As we were in our closed circle, one gentleman came by. He carried himself in a manner that made us all immediately suspicious, I think. He stuck his head in our circle and said, "Is this a closed conversation." We reassured him it wasn't and he began to introduce himself to us... well, the girls at least. :) When Pete tried to shake his hand and introduce himself, Cletus* flat ignored him! Ha! We tried to make small talk, but he turned his attention to one young lady in our group. So he was asking her about her profession, which, regrettably at that moment, is a massage therapist. She said that and he eyes took on a new gleam. "Oooooh," Cletus said, "Well where would someone go to be massaged by you?" She explained that she works free lance in peoples' homes, to which he said, "Well do you have a card if someone were interested in being massaged?" We all cringed at that moment. She quickly and curtly explained that she only works off of referrals and quickly whisked herself off, leaving him looking kind of dejected. Sorry, but he totally had it coming. Uh, CREEPY!

We didn't stay much longer after that. It was nice, but really not our scene. No more singles mixers for a while. :) But I'd love to go hear DJ again. All in all, a fun night. No pun intended. :)

Love Offering

Thursday night Christian singer/songwriter Dennis Jernigan is going to have one of his praise nights here in the metro area, and our small group from church is making an event of it. I was thrilled to hear about it; I love DJ and his praise nights have a long, rich history in my life that deserve a post unto itself (at a later date). :)

So as we talked about it, it came to be revealed that the concert was actually a small part of a larger evening that is an area wide singles mixer!!! If only I could have seen the look that crossed my face when I heard that, but I'm pretty sure I said something to the effect of "No way!!!!" But yes way.

It was already an act of God (quite literally) to get me to go to a singles group at church, and it took finding a group small enough that it didn't feel like a meat market. There are few things that sound less repulsive to me than going and meeting a bunch of new people who are there with an agenda. Don't I have enough self-esteem and rejection issues??? I know that sounds harsh, but I should also say that it's just not my personality not to like to be thrown into meeting a large group of new people I will probably never see again.

As you can see, I was clearly not excited about this. But then I decided that if we were going to go, we should make an impression. I implored our group to fast, pray, and meditate to discern the best Christian (or especially Dennis Jernigan) related pick up lines. I searched the internet and found these to be the cream of the crop:

• I just don't feel called to celibacy.
• Did I tell you that my great-uncle was a personal friend of Billy Graham?
• I don't see it myself, but people tell me I look like Michael W. Smith.
• What do you think Paul meant when he said, 'Greet everyone with a holy kiss'?
• You have the body of Amy Grant and the soul of Mother Teresa. (careful not to get that mixed up)
  
• I'm pretty flexible--I don't think a woman should be submissive on the first date.
• Before tonight, I never believed in predestination...
• Just looking at you makes me feel all ecumenical.
• I hear there's going to be a love offering tonight.
• Oh, you're cold? Maybe we should read Ecclesiastes 4:11
• Are you a religious person? Because I'm the answer to all your prayers!

Then Auvrey busted out this Jernigan perfect line-- "Hey there. You are the treasure that I seek."

So I'm going. And I'm going to have a good attitude. :) As a friend pointed out, this is going to be a great chance to people watch. :) I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

If anyone else has any stellar pick up lines, please leave them in the comments below.

Is Chemistry where it's at?

A couple of months ago I wrote about eHarmony, which turned out to be a pretty popular subject. I received more hits on my site from the word eHarmony than I have from any other word! :) Apparently I came across pretty harsh against poor old eHarm, as I have taken to calling it in my head. Several people have since spoken to me about the success stories they know of and I never meant to say no good can come from eHarm, I just don't like their manipulative side.

But lately I've been thinking about internet dating again because of those devestatingly clever ads that are being run from a company called Chemistry.com. They claim to be the home for all people unloved by eHarm. You can see the funny ads here.

So I went to the site to see what it was all about. On the front page is a link to the following article. It it long, but if you have time I think it's an interesting read. The original text will be in italics and my comments will be in bold. Enjoy!

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Is Marriage Dead, by Dr. Helen Fisher


When asked why all of her marriages failed, anthropologist Margaret Mead replied, "I beg your pardon, I have had three marriages and NONE of them was a failure." Really? Then what exactly did your vows say?

Why do Americans believe that one life long marriage is the only real road to happiness and success? Granted, I view marriage from a Christian perspective, one that views a marital union as a covenant with God and one's spouse, and reflective of the love and comment Christ shares with us. My bad.

Marriage has changed more in the last 50 years than in the past 5,000. Yet many cling to traditions that evolved among our farming ancestors.

When our forebears began to settle permanently to the land, they began to need to cement their social ties. What better way than to wed your daughter with my son? One married someone with the right social, economic and political connections. Virginity at marriage, strictly arranged marriages, till death do us part, the belief that women are less sexual than men, and many other traditional beliefs about women, men and marriage arose.

The Greek, Roman, Chinese and early Christian philosophers and theologians regarded ones love of kin, God and civil duty as far more important than love for a spouse. Strong marital commitments were not regarded as the foundation stone of society until the 20th century. I can see where she got that out of the "early Christian philosophers", but it's clearly a skewed and incomplete view of Christian theology.

Today love, communication and companionship have become central to a partnership. We are shedding many of our past agrarian beliefs and returning to patterns of sex, love and marriage that our ancestors practiced a million years ago traditions that are highly compatible with our ancient human spirit. Interesting.

Forward to the past: this trend began with the Industrial Revolution. As men and women began to leave the farm for city work, they no longer needed to marry to maintain time honored social ties. And by 1800 more and more had begun to choose their spouses for themselves, live together before wedding, and divorce and remarry to make happier partnerships. Yes, premarital sex and cohabitation, divorce, and remarriage has made so many people I know so darn happy.

This Marriage Revolution continues. Today some 91% of American women and 86% of American men would not marry someone unless they were in love with him or her, even if this person had every trait they were looking for in a spouse. People in 37 other cultures agree; they want the chemistry of passionate romantic love. To me, this paragraph is the thesis of what is wrong with marriage is America today.

Divorce is also becoming common. The American divorce rate is currently 43%, much like that of several other Western countries. But people are changing their attitude about marital separation, seeing it less as failure and more as the first step toward finding true happiness. Seriously, I cannot think of a single person I know or have seen who is truly happy to have gotten a divorce. Even if it is a terrible situation of abuse or infidelity, I don't know anyone who is happy to be divorced. I'm sure they exist, but I don't know them.

Romantic love within marriage, divorce, remarriage: these trends are not new. For millions of years in ancient Africa both men and women commuted to work to hunt or gather fruits and vegetables. The double income family was the rule. The sexes were economic, social and sexual equals. And men and women married and remarried whom they chose. As women re-enter the paid labor force in droves, we are reassuming these ancient life ways.

Today, for example, most men and women experiment with sex and love long before they wed. Many live together before they tie the knot. Some have children first, then marry. And many have two or three spouses across their lives. All are traditions from prehistory. Yes, prehistory was known as a glorious time of free love, abounding happiness and women's liberation.

In fact, we no longer live in a traditional marriage culture. Older women are marrying younger men. Inter-racial marriages have increased dramatically. Homosexuals can now form legal bonds in several states. Older people are remarrying rather than settling with their children. Living together, commuter marriages, visiting marriages, polyamorous marriages, childless marriages, singlehood, bearing children out of wedlock, registered domestic partners, divorce, remarriage, step families: In short, we can no longer expect most people to spend most of their lives in one traditional style marriage. I will concede to everything being our new reality until she gets to the colon. Maybe I can't say that for "most people", mostly because of crappy philosophies like this woman's running rampant.

But are we happy? The New York Times recently reported that 51% of American women are currently living without a spouse. Is this reason to panic? On the contrary, it may be reason to celebrate. I'm part of that statistic, so I can't say it's a bad thing, but reason to celebrate? I dunno.

Take the widows. In past centuries most women died young; today they are enjoying their senior years. What's wrong with that? Others are still young. Unchained from the narrow routines of farm life, they can finally postpone an early marriage to explore their opportunities in a wider world. What's wrong with that? Last are those who have divorced. Finally, these women have the economic means to leave bad marriages to make good ones. Really? Is that why re-marriages after divorce has statistically higher divorce rates than first marriages?

In fact, demographers and historians say that women in the western world are experiencing happier marriages today than at any time in history probably for two reasons. Foremost, many women (and men) can afford to walk out of bad marriages to make better ones. AGH! Second, with the current emphasis on companionship within marriage, people today expect more from their partnerships and are working harder on their relationships than at any time in history. Now there's an idea!

Despite these obvious, largely beneficial, and largely worldwide changes, Americans cling to their outmoded beliefs about traditional marriage. I wonder if they know what they espouse?

In historical times, most husbands had the sole responsibility for the family's economic worth, while most wives were uneducated and confined to kitchen, church and nursery. Virginity at marriage was required; divorce was almost impossible; and a double standard for adultery prevailed; even rape within marriage was excused. Yes, those are bad things.

I think it is time to practice the democracy we preach. Prince Charming. happily ever after. till death do us part. The belief that there is only one true love for each of us. These fantastical beliefs may be as damaging as the fantasy of the perfect female body. Most of us cant live up. So lets embrace what we see around us men and women following their own paths in their primordial drive to love. Till death do us part is a fantastical belief? Primordial drive to love?!?!

And love is a drive. Deep in the human brain lie three circuits that evolved to foster reproduction: the sex drive, romantic love, and attachment to a partner. Each is associated with different brain chemicals and each interacts with the others. This, for example, is why casual sex is often not casual. Any sort of sexual stimulation activates dopamine systems in the brain and can trigger feelings of romantic love. And with orgasm comes a flood of oxytocin and vasopressin, chemicals the can create deep feelings of attachment to a partner. These brain systems will never be extinguished. So maybe romantic love, life long partnership, and sex drive should all be linked, huh?

And marriage is not dead. In fact, United Nations data on 97 societies indicates that over 90% of men and women in most societies wed by age 45. But it is metamorphosing into many supple, varied patterns. Most important is the rise of the 21st century marriage form, what sociologists call the symmetrical, companionate or peer marriage: marriage between equals.
Okay, marriage between equals I can handle.

Its time to enjoy our freedom to be ourselves. Yes, our sinful, selfish, fallen selves.

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I gave eHarmony a hard time, but at least eHarm is programmed more or less on the basis of a Christian marriage system. Apparently Chemistry is about finding your primordial love drive.

eHarmony Gone Wrong

Let me admit upfront that I am borrowing my friend Auvrey's shtick. In case you don't know, she is somewhat infamous for a blog she kept as she went through the eHarmony matchmaking process. It's really one of the funniest things I've ever read, and I encourage you to check it out.

Anyway, I filled out an eHarmony personality profile way back when I lived in Japan. I never actually joined (i.e., paid), but since then I have received notifications for matches with eligible young bachelors every once in a while. I never paid much attention to them.

These days, now that I'm just a single gal living in the US, I've been thinking more about wanting to leave the whole single demographic, so I started paying attention to my eHarmony notifications. The process is this: eHarmony sends you a note saying you and fella XYZ have computed as compatible, and you are allowed to see the other person's "Introductory Page", which has basic info and answers to a few broad yet significant questions you would want to know about someone you date. In order to communicate you must join (i.e., pay).

Well let me tell you, although I have received a few matches I thought could have potential, I received a one recently that made me question the validity of the entire Dr. Neil Clark Warren, 29 dimensions of compatibility system.

The first red-flag was within the first question-- "What are you most passionate about?" This is really your chance to succinctly and clearly tell what your life's purpose is. With most of the matches I receive, the answer is something to the effect of God, my relationship with God, Jesus or something involving spirituality. Maybe it's a little predictable, but when you're considering a person for a relationship, that kind of predictable is good. Well this guy broke that mold.

MIC (Mr. InCompatible) , an air force pilot, responded, "I really enjoy flying...raging around low to the ground in a jet is tough to beat! Not to mention it's even better in formation...or starting with your wingman at your six and trying to spit him out in front of you...really any time we're out flying around having fun (and yeah, all this is while we're teaching students the basics of flying, so we're not really wasting any government tax dollars, haha)." Alright. Well, it's good that he enjoys what he does, but to me the entire answer had the same tone of a 8 year old boy playing with his GI Joes. That's just unsettling. No military jargon necessary to impress this girl.

Well from there MIC continued to confirm the growing doubt of eHarmony's compatibility ratings. When asked to comment on the last book he read, he said, "I haven't read anything but news, flying stuff, and textbooks for a while, so I'll go with the best book EVER: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's set in the future and we've got spaceships and stuff. Through no fault of our own we're fighting a galactic battle against these aliens that are rather insect like. The survival of the human race depends on our success. So, to get the best minds as the commanders, children are screened and selected to go to a military academy where they play games of increasing complexity...the adults running the school set up running the whole battle with the aliens like a giant video game, (no more space)". I've got nothing against SciFi, and I even looked this book up on amazon.com to see what it was really about (and apparently it's a really popular book), but what made me laugh out loud was the way in which he talked about this book. Why on EARTH does he go into the first person when talking about the story? To me, that might have to be a deal breaker. And please also note that he actually ran out of room in his over-eagerness to tell this story.

BUT, the kicker for me was in the last question. eHarmony provides a place for you to share any additional info you'd like-- a last thought that you can carry with you about this match. All MIC had to say was, "party on wayne!" Yes, I can just see MIC and I some day, sitting on our front porch in our rocking chairs, and I loving take his hand, look into his eyes, and say, "You had me at 'party on wayne!'".

I don't doubt MIC is a good guy. He seems rather harmless, but what gets me is that of all the people in the eHarmony system, I am supposedly extremely compatible with him. Maybe I am and I'm being over-critical, but I have my doubts about Dr. Warren now.

I haven't even mentioned another guy I was matched with who referenced Ronald Reagan 4 times in his introductory page.

Just in case I might forget that I'm alone and have no hope of finding love on my own, eHarmony sent this nice reminder to me tonight:

Dear Sojochick,

Did you know you have several men who are waiting to communicate with you?

Our matching system has found several highly compatible men for you—men who match you well on the important inside qualities.

We know you've searched for a caring guy to share your life. We know that reaching out to these men might be hard, but we don't match you unless we're sure you have a deep and profound compatibility.

Your Soul Mate may be waiting and we don't want you to miss out on meeting him.

Sincerely,

eHarmony Customer Care

See, they care about me. :) Needless to say, I won't be joining eHarmony anytime soon. I guess I'll just have to rely on the providence of God like they did in the olden days. Or maybe I should hang around more water wells or threshing floors. :)

Bittersweet Symphony

Tonight I was invited to the most wonderful Valentine's dinner. The ambiance was perfect-- candlelight, roses, great food, chocolate, and wonderful company. It wasn't a traditional hot Valentine date, but I did have a wonderful evening with the ladies group of a local church. One of my friends (Auvrey S) was their guest speaker this evening on the subject of singleness. It was an extension of their ladies ministry, which has been using different spices as the monthly themes. This month's theme, on singleness, was bittersweet (as in chocolate).

When I heard that bittersweet was the "spice of singleness," I laughed, but it is really quite appropriate. I've been thinking about singleness a lot lately. When I was in Japan and Brazil it was kind of nice, because in those two cultures it would be quite strange for someone my age to be married. But coming back to the US, especially my unique little subculture of the US, I am feeling the stigma again. I think part of it truly is that in the Christian south people don't know what to do with people who don't fit into the pattern that seems pretty standard. College, marry, kids. But I will be very honest to admit that a lot of the stigmatism is self inflicted. I would love to find "the one" and settle down and live the life that my heart truly desires.

But I don't begrudge my singleness. Although I sure thought I was ready for marriage in college, looking back I am thankful for the opportunities that remaining single afforded me. I've lived some dreams that I would have given up otherwise. And that has been truly priceless. I shouldn't speak in the past tense, because clearly I'm still single. :) While you're living in exotic countries and things like that, it's easier to be contently single. :) But hearing my friend speak such Godly words of wisdom tonight reminded me that although I am not happy in my singleness now, I still have things to learn from this stage of life. I have to learn to depend on God and not others to fill me. I have to learn to use my energy and time wisely. I have to be able to see my own value and the value God's placed in me and not depend on others to make me feel worthy.

So whether in relationships or single, content or not, it's my prayer that we'll all find our completeness in God alone.



PS-- Funniest Valmumtimes Video EVER! :) (Copied from Dan)

Zody, where art thou?

While web surfing today, I saw a banner that claimed their website could tell me the precise name of my soul mate. So, seeing as Valentine's Day is coming up and I'm single, I had to check it out.

After entering my first name and astrological sign (go pisces!), they revealed me the name I've been waiting so long to learn. Are you ready?

Zody.

I googled the name Zody to see if it really exists and apparently it does and was created by deranged people who thought it would be a good idea to combine the names Zoe and Cody, and it means "cushion of life". I'm not kidding; that's what it really says.

So alright, at least I have something to work with. This is my petition to my Zody named readership to come out of hiding and show yourself. Or, if you know a Zody, feel free to tell him that you have found his other half.

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In other wonderful news, I would like to share with my readership that Eb+Flo, the label that Chris Rice co-owns, is having a clearance sale of their music inventory, including arts such as Derek Webb, Caedmon's Call, Sandra McCracken, Chris Rice, and a lot of other great stuff. This is cheap, like under $5 cheap. Go check it out if you want to catch up on some of their collections.

Why I´d Like a Husband

In a nice conversation with my friend Meredith tonight, I mentioned that I´d really like a husband. Of course there are emotional reasons, but I´m not talking about those. Besides, I´d never talk about something like that-- it might be a sign of weakness.

Anyhoo, I feel like there are many practical needs that having a man in the house can fulfill. This was even clearer to me while I was disabled this week.

Here is a short list of reasons why I wish I had a husband. I really don´t know who does and doesn´t read my blog, so I don´t know if any potential husbands are reading. If you are, please take note that you will be expected to do these things/fulfill these needs.

1. Changing the water bottle. Not really an issue in America, but here everyone uses those big water bottles on a little dispenser. You have to be strong to manuver that thing!
2. Related to number one, carrying heavy objects in general. At times I find myself with a suitcase in the wrong place that I wish could be moved, and often it stays where it is until the next time a strong man comes to my house. :)
3. Putting the groceries away after shopping.
4. Putting dishes away after they´re dry.
5. Cooking for one is not fun. Not only do you end up with a million leftovers, there is very little motivation to cook a nice, nutritious just yourself.
6. Taking the trash out.
7. Driving. I don´t like to drive.
8. Splitting rent, food, utility costs. It´s so much cheaper to live with two than one.
9. Always having someone to automatically sit with in church.
10. Taking care of any mechanical engineering type things-- appliances, cars, electronics, etc.

Ten´s a good round number. I´m sure there are lots of other great reasons to have a husband. These are the ones I will admit to caring about. :)

I would also like to add that I am most certainly capable of doing all these things, except maybe the water bottle. But I´d like someone else, especially a cute man, to do them for me. :)

Are there other good, practical reasons to have a husband? No emotional/physical comments desired. :) What are the practical uses for a wife? I challenge my single man friends to write the mirror to this blog. Challenge! ;)