I MISS MISS GREEN!!!

Hello...The Man-friend here! I'm the type of guy who will let you know what I'm really thinking and feeling (which I hear is quite rare amongst my species!). That being said, I MISS MISS GREEN!!! I love Arnetta. I love her like a fat kid loves cake, okay?

I blame this burst of emotion on by a reply to the previous post from REBEL MEL. You see, about three months before Arnetta left for Japan, she went into this - how do I put it -"culinary coma"! She just went unconscious and started cooking like crazy! (Check out Arnetta's March 21 post.) Now, let me preface this by saying that both Miss Green and I already knew a little sumthin' sumthin' about cooking, so nobody was starving. But this was different. Girlfriend went into super-overdrive! I know she peeped some recipes from REBEL MEL and from ISLANDBABY. She got recipes out of books and off the Internet. Everytime I'd walk through the door, she was in the kitchen, whipping up some new dish. It made her even more happy than normal. I had about 10 weeks of all kinds of different meals...IT (echo) WAS (echo) HEAVEN! (double echo)

The food was amazing, but it just wasn't the food. It was this amazing experience. We went shopping together, looking all around for the exact ingredients. (Now, we used to shop together often, but this was more of a mission.) We set up the kitchen to make it as efficient as possible. She was the head chef and I was the assistant: grabbing this, opening that, chopping, kissing- helping whenever she wanted it. We created an atmosphere that enhanced the food: music, candles, wine (of course!)...and usually a movie afterward (and a foot-rub for her!). And of course, I did the dishes! It was an extremely small price to pay for being treated like a king. It was one of the most special things that anyone's ever done for me, and it was over a period of time. I recognize this burst of "foodiness" was more for herself, but I was THERE. I was a victim of her "collateral damage" of constant cooking. It was like JULIE & JULIA, except Arnetta is Amy Adams and is much, much foiner!!!

Once Miss Green is back blogging once again, I will go back into my world. This is her blog, after all. But for now, I am compelled to say that Arnetta is the best thing to ever happen to me. If she never cooked another thing in her life, this statement would still hold true. Hers is a wonderful spirit, and all it takes is a tiny thought to make my mind become engulfed in all-Arnetta, all the time. I know I'm kind of putting our biznass out there, but I gotta speak on it, or else I wouldn't be The Man-friend!

All that and she can cook too...damn, I'm a very lucky guy!!!

I MISS MISS GREEN!!! I love Arnetta.

Where In The World Is Arnetta Green???

Hello...Man-friend here, the good guy behind the great woman, the most-wonderful Ms. Arnetta Green! If you are even an occasional follower of this blog, you know that Ms. Green has embarked on a year-long adventure in the beautiful and mysterious country of Japan. Now, while I miss her like crazy, I am happy about her incredibly courageous decision to see another country; another culture. It also gives me the opportunity to go visit...and yes, I already have my passport!

She gave me permission to go on her site and just go nuts - okay...not go nuts - to inform you that she is doing well, taking things day-by-day, and is looking forward to communicating all she has done and all she has seen in the three weeks she's been in the Land of the Rising Sun. Unfortunately, it's taking a little longer than she expected to get Internet access, but once she's connected, dear readers, she will bedazzle you with her tales from the other side of the world! She has her journal and assures me she is writing everything down, and in time , she will blog about it all.

That's about it. Good health and happiness to you all!

Peace and love,

The Man-friend

Let's Talk About Sex

So I went to dinner with 2 of my sorority sisters today and while it was all in the spirit of giving me a send off, we talked about the usual subjects. (Their) married life, (their) children, our other sorority sisters and the old college days. One subject that came up that was kind of new (for us that is) was the subject of sex. We're usually a very conservative group but after a few drinks (and a ginger-ale for "preggars") we talked about everything from how often we've done it, having orgasms, giving oral, foreplay, sexually transmitted diseases, different positions, EVERYTHING.

Now both of my girlfriends are married - one has a child and the other is pregnant (and due in 12 days). "Preggars" was saying that she doesn't really have a sex drive and the other one was agreeing that she's not too excited about sex either. Now I didn't want to sound like the whore of the group but speaking as someone who has not had sex in a very, very, very long time, (after sitting for a while and looking at the both of them like they were crazy) I promptly told them that when I get married I plan on having a velcro, rip away wedding gown because it's GOING DOOOWN the night I get hitched. I told them that in all (2) of my relationships, I had sex prettymuch every. single. night. My girlfriends were both thoroughly shocked and laughed saying that they never really initiate sex and don't really care if it happens or not.

Now just listening to these ladies, I had to ask myself if marriage played some kind of major role in their sex drive or lack thereof. For example, a lot of men will say that the sex just stops after getting married. I've known these girls for about 9 years now and while they both say that they've never been "sex people", I remember one of them going through a very whorish liberal stage and the other one was just a major flirt in school. I would have never guessed that they would have gotten married and turned into "that lady" from TV . . . you know the one with the headache every night. I think that's insane. (Oh, and I promptly told them to "get on their jobs" and do what they had to do unless they wouldn't mind hiring a concubine to do it for them).

But then I had to ask myself if I was just being extra because I was single (in the not married sense) and have been celibate for a while. Maybe I don't realize how hard it is to be a wife and realize how the romance starts to ooze out of a relationship and sex turns into a chore. I can understand that to an extent, but I'm still a strong proponent of having a healthy sex life in a marriage. Either way, I hope to hold onto my sex drive by the time I get married. Listening to these girls today was like listening to a scary, ghost story LOL.

And 7 days left . . .

100 Posts and Seriously Wondering What the Future Holds

So yeah, this is officially my 100th post and uh . . . I'm still alive. You may think I'm saying this because my blogging has been quite sporadic lately but that's not it. I'm saying this because I'm a survivor. Allow me to catch you up.

First things first, the man-friend lost his job. Yes. You read right. He lost his job the day before we went on our vacation. I would get into the details, but it was for a stupid reason and the management at his job are insecure, spineless, incompetent, dickwads that have been making really bad decisions that have lead to a lot of people being cut from that department (in the worst way) over the past year. Another thing, the manfriend makes literally about 3 times as much as I do (which translates to a whole lotta money) and it's going to be interesting seeing where this situation goes.

Second of all, we went on vacation and had to digest this information the whole time we were away. It was interesting the different transitions we went through, especially considering that we knew when we got back (Thursday) we were going to have only 2 weeks before I head off to Japan. So there was sadness, anger, more anger, numbness, confusion, laughter and later on, acceptance. We made the most of the trip and have been diving into the job hunt thing with high hopes and a whole lot of prayers.

So what this all boils down to is this . . . when I get back from Japan next year, (God-willing) the man-friend and pup will have started a new life somewhere without me. Can you imagine? I will be overseas, while my little family is picking up and moving and making all kinds of decisions that I can't be a part of. *Sigh* Life is crazy.

Either way, I am hoping for the best because the man-friend is the last person who deserves to be fired or looking for a job. He's always been that guy. You know? The "go to" guy who stays at work late emailing everyone to let them know what's going on, learning equipment and taking the initiative to create things while everyone else has long gone home and went to bed. He comes up with creative ideas (despite the fact that he doesn't get any credit for them) and has been respectful and personable to everyone in every department for the 17 years that he's been employed with the place . . . yes, 17 years. There have been times when he's gone to work and stayed so late that he comes back the next day and I've literally had to fix him a plate and drive it to the job for him. No one else has taken these kinds of initiatives and to tell you the truth, there's a teensy weensy part of me that is a little happy that he's gone from that place. Maybe this means that he will finally start looking into some management positions (something I have been pushing him to do for a while now, anyway).

One of the biggest arguments and problems that I've always had with the man-friend is his tendency to procrastinate and/or stay in a situation that is in desperate need of an upgrade. He just gets comfortable and won't budge, despite my aggressive nudging and hinting. To his credit I can be a super emotional, overly suspicious, cynical, paranoid, pain in the butt . . . BUT, I am still a female and my "wimmin's intuition" is rarely off target. So I'd been giving the old man hints that he should upgrade to another job for over a year now, and I think this kind of shows that I wasn't so crazy after-all. Either way, this wasn't the way I wished it would happen, but I guess it was necessary to whatever major change was meant to take place in our lives.

So enough of that . . . I have about 12 days left before I am on an airplane flying over the Pacific Ocean. It's been a little overwhelming lately with all of the parties and people wanting to meet up. Unfortunately, with all of the phone calls and "let's get together before you go" invitations, I have gotten just 3 donations to my ChipIn account to buy an Amazon Kindle (and one of them kind of doesn't count because it's from the man-friend). It's a little disappointing considering the many gifts and favors that I've given to friends over the years. I talked to my ex boyfriend this morning and he made a really good point. He says that I've done favors for people and given gifts, but that people don't appreciate it because they don't know the monetary value of what I've done. For example, I've provided services (on several occasions) for my friends that otherwise would have cost them thousands of dollars. My ex was saying that if I'd have provided an actual invoice that said, $2,500 (or whatever) that people would get a better idea of how much money they've saved or how much work was put into a project. I totally get what he was saying and agree with him, but at the end of the day I have just been blown away at the fact that it is taking this long for people to give . . . what? . . . $5 to my account after I've jumped at the opportunity to contribute to any major milestones in their lives. Also, I've always been proactive about helping my friends out, whereas I haven't received not one phone call asking if there is anything they can do/help me with. Am I taking this too far? Maybe I'm expecting too much. The man-friend has always said that I'm a really good friend and I go the extra mile for people but I always assumed that this was something that my friends would be willing to do for me in return. Guess I was wrong. (Insert sad face and womp, womp, wooomp sound effect).

Either way, I am gearing up to go to Japan and am quite sure that this will be the furthest thing from my mind when I arrive. I will be running around doing all kinds of stuff and will probably be missing my family, the man-friend and these same self-centered, inconsiderate friends that I've been moaning and complaining about in this post. Right now I am doing my best to spend as much time as possible with my doggy's daddy before I go (which isn't too hard because we have a lot more time to spend together now that he's unemployed . . . cue the laugh track). Oh, and highlight to our vacation (which was at Disney World by the way), one of the characters sees me and the man-friend walking arm and arm and says, "You guys look like a happy couple. I bet you're celebrating something!" and the man-friend says without missing a beat . . .

"We're celebrating the fact that I just got fired from my job!"

And then we just burst out laughing as the poor guy stood there looking at us with confusion. Needless to say, we have been curbing the stress of the situation by exercising our morbid sense of humor and actually, it's been effective.

So things are insane right now, but for some odd reason I believe they are going to get better. I hope they are going to get better.

And since when did Brian McKnight get a late night talk show? (Yes, I know that was mad random but his talk show is mad random. It's like, where the heck did it come from? I never even saw a commercial for it. Okay, I really need to go to bed, LOL)

Goodnight Brian McKnight. Goodnight everybody!