reverie

Good ol ' MSN never fails to disappoint. I found an article in the Faith-Based subsection of their Dating articles section entitled "8 great first dates." (I figured it would be a treasure trove of amusement.) My comments in italics. Here are the suggested dates: 1. Putt-putt your way to love. “A miniature golf course is fun and you can talk,” says Jon Caroulis of Philadelphia, PA. “But make sure you have a backup plan in case it rains or if it’s too hot or too chilly.” Tip: If you’re a scratch golfer, give up a stroke or two in the interest of building a good relationship. Mini golf is definitely a good idea. It's fun; it's outdoorsy. It gives you a good idea what kind of sport the other person is -- it's a good sign if they aren't great at it but can still have fun & be goofy, or if they're great at it but don't take it too seriously. FYI Keith, I read this article after suggesting that we go mini golfing. 2. Serve others. “I’m pr...

From time to time I like to peruse some of the articles MSN offers on the subject of relationships to see what kind of crazy, ridiculous advice they're peddling of late (like proposing via a billboard, a very bad idea). Much to my surprise & delight they had a good bit of advice on where to take a girl on a first date: The zoo. Sure, it’s childish, but childish sometimes works. And meandering among primates provides a nice contrast to your own charms. It says, “Compared to these monkeys, I don’t throw feces.” Now some of you may be thinking, of course you think that's a good date, you've been saying that forever. And you would be right, I can't disagree when someone else stumbles upon the good sense that I've had for many a year. Nevertheless they get props for not offering a terrible suggestion and for presenting it in a humorous manner. Plus if you actually use the feces quote it will be a good gauge of the girl's appreciation and/or tolerance of poop...

It has been quite some time since I've written about relationships, though much has been brewing in my mind the past several weeks. I feel compelled to hit upon 2 subjects related to this matter: 1. dating rules 2. the "friend zone" (which yes falls under the purview of rules, but is such a large topic it deserves it's own point.) I recently heard a friend say, "I'm breaking all my rules in dating this girl, but it's going so well." Now don't misread that, he wasn't talking about compromising his morals or integrity. All he was doing was going against all the silly dating guidelines he had built up for himself. Examples: (not specific to this friend) 1. don't date a friend 2. don't date someone from work 3. don't date someone younger 4. don't date someone who a friend used to have a crush on 5. don't date someone who doesn't like the same kind of movies/music/television as you Okay wait, we might have something subs...

Spend more than about 5 seconds in a conversation about relationships and it's bound to dissolve into, "boys suck" and/or "girls suck" depending on the genders represented in the discussion. Relationships are frustrating, not being in a relationship is frustrating, but I think, no I know that cutting each other down like that isn't going to help anything. Don't get me wrong, both genders do more than their fair share of annoying & idiotic things, and have remarkably similar complaints about one another, but what if we made a serious effort to build each other up & encourage each other? It's easy to play the blame game. "All the guys I know are idiots." "I just can't seem to meet a nice, single, Christian girl." (Let me introduce you to about 20 of them!) "Nice guys never ask me out." "The girls I know wouldn't be into me." What if we tried something different? I think most of us who are sin...

One of my good friends called tonight & I got to talk to him for awhile. I always really enjoy talking to him. He's just one of those people with whom I click really well. He knows me well enough to know if I'll probably like a movie or not. We work really well together. And he usually makes me laugh. Sometimes I wish LA wasn't quite so far away from the midwest. Somedays I wonder what my life would be like if I had stayed in Omaha. I read this article recently that said it was detrimental for young single women who wanted to get married to be moving away from home and pursuing career paths. The article suggested that without the parents there to help guide relationships and limit a man's access to their daughter, which would then force him to marry her in order to spend the kind of time with her he coveted, without these boundaries relationships wouldn't have the proper guidance to help usher them into marriage. I think that a family's input on a r...

Waiter Rant is my new favorite site. Oh the joys of working in a restaurant. Speaking of restaurants and food and the like, I can't even begin to tell you how many guys I know are on diets right now. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great if people want to be responsible and try to eat well, but the way some of these guys talk about it is the girliest thing I've ever heard. And for the record, I would just like to point out that a lot of girls don't mind a guy with a few extra pounds on him, it makes him very huggable & it makes a girl feel safe. So if you're doing it to be healthy, that's great & we applaud that. If you're doing it because you don't think you can get a girlfriend otherwise, you're just asking the wrong girls.

I want a guy like this. If I could dim the lights in the mall And create a mood I would Shout out your name so it echoes in every room I would That's what I'd do, That's what I'd do to get through to you I want someone who is so excited by the idea of being with me that he'd do anything, think up crazy scenarios, try whatever it would take, when really all he'd have to do is ask . . .

Nicole brought to my attention today an article on MSN called "A Guy's Guide to Proposing." What you will see now is the abbreviated and editorialized version of the article. (My comments in parentheses.) What fun! For some, a public display of affection is the ultimate intimate gesture. (Umm okay sure or uhh no, isn't public and intimate almost opposite of each other?) Most movie theaters will let you buy a slide that plays onscreen before the feature. You can design your own and watch as the entire theater strains to see the lucky proposee's astonished expression. (Yes which is great except if you're dating me, I'll be looking around too to see what rube decided that buying AD SPACE in front of a movie was the best way to propose. Nevermind the fact that I'm almost always the only Azina in the room.) Have your proposal painted on a billboard en route to her office. Park beneath it or await their arrival at work, armed with champagne ready for toa...

sometimes the only way is jumping I hope you're not afraid of heights . . . Sometimes I wonder what would happen if you could hear what's behind my words. What if you could read into my eyes and see what I really want you to know? Would I find the same thing in the depths of your soul? God knows that for which I am praying. He will answer me in time. I'm hoping you will too . . .

Yes kids this is it, the night you've been waiting for. The night on which I write my 300th post. And oh yeah the last night of 2005 or something. If you had the misfortune of seeing the beginning of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve you saw some guy propose to his girlfriend in the middle of Time's Square in what I imagine was the freezing cold surrounded by a gazillion people and on tv in front of a gazillion more people. Let's just say that in the rules of proposing according to Azina that is a hugenormous no no. (Yes I like to make up words.) Here are the 3 things wrong with that proposal: 1. it's public 2. the standing out in the cold all day 3. it's complete lack of anything resembling romance Now I could be wrong and maybe she found it to be incredibly romantic, but when the awkward girl on the silly New Year's Eve show is the lead in to your proposal I think you've got problems. Again I'm not someone who believes in some big or ridi...

The following in italics is from a comment Amber posted on the Valentine's date post . With the flurry of blogging that must take place in these remaining days of December to reach 300 by the end of the year I didn't want her comment and my response to get buried. So here you have it. Let me start by saying that what I like best is to be made to feel special, be it Valentine's Day or my birthday or Tuesday. I would argue that that's what most women really want - from significant others, from friends, from other women. I would definitely agree with that. In fact for me, random acts of love make me feel at least as special as the ones that occur on special days because those are ones that are sort of expected. The ones that occur just because you love me mean a lot. And really that can be something as simple as a handwritten note to say, "Have a great day! I'm thinking of you" or a flower you buy when you run out to pick up some groceries. Little things go...

This marks post 285. If I am diligent enough I think I can hit 300 by year's end. 16 posts in 18 days (including this one), it can be done! I don't know why but every time the 14th of the month comes around I feel like there's something I'm supposed to remember. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because 4 months out of the year there significance to the 14th- Valentine's Day, Flag Day, the Un-Valentine's Day (which is not a day for spreading hate for those of you who weren't with us when I declared it a holiday in August), and Joe's birthday. Speaking of Valentine's day, Nicole & I decided that we needed to write a dating book since we decided that in addition to our stellar party planning skills we also have great ideas for dates. Sadly when we talked to a couple of guys at church on Sunday night they were completely resistant to some of our brilliant ideas. Regardless I will post them here because I still like them. Now I just gotta find a g...

red balloon dreams float hopefully through my mind tarry by day and sojourn in my sleep for now it hovers comfortably close I am content to remain here and see if it will decide to light upon me hope whispers for only the wind to hear asking for guidance in whichever direction is fit only time will tell if we may traverse this path together

That's what I think should be the title of a new book explaining this whole dating "crisis." I was at Red Robin this weekend with 4 girls and 4 guys and the topic of dating came up. It seems to me that whenever such a discussion is brought up Joshua Harris (author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl ) garners a lot of unfair blame. Now I'm not saying that I'm the president of the JH fan club or that he's completely right about everything, but I think he has some good points that a lot of us are missing. It's been a very long time since I've read these books and perhaps some of the things I am about to say are actually just wisdom from my own little head, though I'm pretty sure a lot of it was at the very least influenced by these books. I think most of you are aware of how important I think it is for a guy to step up and be a man when it comes to relationships, but I also disagree with the idea of dating for the sake of dating. That'...

Since I make it a habit not to start fights on other people's blog and I'm adding on message boards to that rule, I thought I would bring this discussion over here. Nicole pointed out to me a thread on Relevant about bad marriage proposals. The girl who started the thread posted these 2 things: "So my boyfriend popped the question on October 15, and it was bad. It was just all around, bad . Girls dream of that day. The romance, the love, the guy kneeling, etc." (Things which were apparently lacking.) "I had been waiting for months, and then he's so horrible at keeping a secret, that I knew it was coming. And that irritated me. And then, when I was pretty sure he was going to do it that night, I was thinking in my mind, 'Ugh, I know about it and this is not fun. Don't do it!'" First of all, I can't imagine how the guy would feel if he read these things. I really think a message board is not the place to air these sort of grievances. She sh...

This so wins for quote of the day: "It's not so easy to see if a woman is interested. Those signals have dual meanings most of the time. For example, she might have just had a really good frappuchino, and you can mis-translate that to attraction." - Tmproff Visit this post on Tmproff's blog to see it in context. Quite an interesting discussion going on over there. It's true too, btw.

Last weekend one of my friends said something that I find quite troubling. First let me preface this by saying I appreciate his confidence in women, but I think his attitude points to a larger issue. He said he believed that men and women were equal and that sometimes girls think he's insensitive because he assumes they can do things for themselves and doesn't offer to help. And he said that most of the time he feels girls do things better than guys do anyway. I am not going to argue that point, I think there are some things that girls do better than guys and some things that guys do better than girls, which I guess in some way points to what I do want to argue, this equality nonsense. Now, I'm not sitting here saying that women are only good for having children and housekeeping. I'm not saying that at all. Goodness knows I know plenty of girls who are worthless when it comes to housekeeping and I know guys who keep their places immaculate. But what I am saying is that ...

Mmm it was a good weekend. I sit here watching Gilmore Girls from last Tuesday (again) hoping to purge from my mind the episode of Crossing Jordan we just watched. It was a fantastic season premiere, but creepy as all get out. Wow. Smart in the way that Se7en is a brilliant film and similarly creepy. But Nicole and I were smart enough to figure it out, so that's good. Anyway, it has been a little while since I've graced you all with my presence here. :P I feel this is a good time to point out to any of you who haven't been around long or who don't know me or whatever that I'm actually not that full of myself, I'm just a bit cheeky. ;) So yesterday I followed this trail of articles: The Cost of Delaying Marriage Defending the Cost of Delaying Marriage Pray Boldly Finding a Husband Pulling a Ruth, Part 1 Pulling Ruth, Part 2 Now, I realize that is a good deal of reading and I only put that list there in case you're interested in following it. But rea...

The most annoying thing I read today, "It seems as though there are no intelligent, fun-loving and moral girls available. Anywhere." Okay, even not speaking about myself, though I hope people see those things as true of me, I know plenty of girls who are intelligent, fun-loving, moral AND available. Not to mention a million other wonderful things about them. So umm possibly it would help to be looking for available girls somewhere other than a cave. Just a thought. For your convenience, here is a list of places probably not suitable for finding intelligent, fun-loving, moral, available girls. (Note: this is a sweeping generalization, there may be exceptional circumstances in which you meet the right girl in one of these locations.) - Antarctica (possibly you might meet the right girl here, but you're actually more likely to learn to communicate with penguins, which sounds fun now that you mention it . . .) - the middle of the ocean (you might meet some cute pirate chicks ...

I want to know that I will not spend All the nights of my life alone For that is the saddest thought to me I want to marry in the church Where I grew up I want the wedding to be a reflection of us And not some crazy fiasco I want to plan for a marriage And not just for a wedding (I think too many people miss this point) I want to be really good friends with his mother My idealism tells me it's possible I want to slow dance in the kitchen When we should be cleaning up I want to quiet giggling children Half an hour after their bedtime I want to sponsor youth group with him And offer the kids a refuge from the rest of life I want to grow old And love his wrinkled face I want to pray with him and sing with him and laugh with him I want to grow with him hold hands with him and cherish him I want to meet him --------------------------------------------- I dream of worlds Where you'd understand And I dream a Million sleepless nights I dream of fire when You're touching my hand But...