Wednesday, August 20, 2003

I’m stumped on how to make the whole thing work in pMachine. I’ve tried looking in the pM forums, but the entries I want to look at are for Pro users only. So if there’s anyone out there who uses the trackback feature in pMachine who can help, I’d greatly appreciate it.

LATER (8:25pm): I should explain what it is I’m having problems with. I am able to trackback others’ posts - I’m able to ping their posts. What I can’t figure out is what I need to do in my template(s) and .php files to have my own posts trackbacked by other people. I’m not seeing where that is explained in the documentation and I’m not a programmer/developer to just know how to do it.

My lovely brother-in-law threw down the gauntlet in my post about singles and feng shui.

Okay. Let’s take this point by point. 1. You are not a happy single person. If you were you wouldn’t keep bringing up the fact that others are trying to set you up. If you were truly happy in your singleness, you’d shout it from the highest mountain like Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music.” 2. Nobody said you need a man to complete you, but you do need one to make a family, and a home without a family is not a home—and neither is an apartment. 3. The grass IS greener on the married side of the fence. How do you know it isn’t? Are you married? Why don’t you get married and see just how green it is? 4. Would you rather they set you up with men who are neither single nor meet the age requirement? They have to start somewhere, we don’t see you helping yourself out. Which brings me to your point about God dropping a man in your lap. God doesn’t take the easy way out of anything, why would he make this acception for you? Are you special? You can count on a single hand all the Prince Charmings God has dropped in women’s laps. Snow White and Cinderella. These days He’s dropping them on the Internet or on cheesy Fox dating series. 5. What makes you think you wouldn’t be happy being married? Again, don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. I say since Jen won’t make it her mission to find the man of her dreams, we all take it upon ourselves and find him. Direct all eligible bachelors to [url=http://www.freakinjen.us]http://www.freakinjen.us[/url]. The first person to find her mate, wins a new toaster oven provided by the bride-to-be when she gets a duplicate at her bridal shower. *lol* Let the games begin!

Denis, I know that you meant much of this to be tongue-in-cheek, but I also know that you’re somewhat serious with your questions so I will respond to your points one-by-one.

1. Did you not read my post? I believe I was “singing it from the hilltops” that I’m happy as a single person - you can’t get much more public than the internet. In addition, I brought my single status up here because I was amused by LP’s reaction on Sunday as well as her deliberateness in calling me with the feng shui article yesterday during work hours. I thought it would make an interesting read, maybe generate some comments, and help you who seem to be worried about my single status to understand that I wish to be left alone. Apparently, I didn’t make my case.

2.  Who said I want a family? Besides, I do have a family. And my apartment is my home. The number of people who reside in a domicile don’t dictate whether that domicile is a home. It’s the attitude of the people who reside in that domicile. I consider my humble apartment to be a home.

3.  There’s no need for me to respond to this really. For you the grass turned out to be greener. I also know that for others it isn’t.

4.  I don’t want to be set up. Period. I don’t need help because I don’t have a problem. I am special - even in God’s eyes. He knows me and how I think. He knows that I can’t be bothered with dating, it’s why I don’t date. Why does everyone assume that He wants everyone to be married? Maybe He wants me to be single? Listen, I have things in my life that I consider more important than the quest for a husband. I’m not looking for an exception here. I’m looking to be left alone.

5.  I’m not saying I wouldn’t be happy married. I’m saying I’m happy single and I don’t understand why people have such a hard time understanding that.

To my friends and family: I know you love me. I know you think I’m great and would be a good catch. I appreciate that. I really do. You know what? I think I’d be a good catch too. But I’m not interested in being set up. Got it?

To the commenters at the other post: Thanks for the encouragement.

To the blurkers: Feel free to add your 2 cents.

All comments are welcome, even if you’re wrong. :wink:

LT Smash posted something on the potty. Er…he posted something about the potty. He posted something to be posted on the potty.

Oh, go read it for yourself.

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

I hope my dear friend, LP (with whom I plan to duel with the penlights up the nose next month), will allow me to post this without her being offended. But I was really amused when she called me earlier with some love life advice. I’m still tickled, so I’m writing about it here. LP, you know that I adore you. What follows is out of my utter affection for your zaniness and obvious care for me. :smooch:

The post title is derived from this article she found at iVillage.com. Actually a co-worker of hers found the link - a single gal herself, she was looking for a way to improve her odds in finding a husband. LP thought it might help me as well. In my case, I might be able to find one if I were looking. I’m not looking, nor am I interested in looking.

In an aside, on Sunday at church The Marshal’s wife oh, so casually mentioned the new guy they have coming to her super-secret office in the next week or so. I was aware of the move, I got the email with the list of all transfers, noticed her office was getting a newbie and that was the extent of my interest. But she had to mention that he’s single and 35, in front of LP, who started dancing with excitement to such an extent that you would have thought The Marshal’s wife had him in mind for her and not me. But alas, LP is happily married to JHP, so LP’s exuberance was just her natural excitement at the possibility of matchmaking. I happen to be the unlucky matchmakee in her sights.

To make matters a little more uncomfortable is that upon hearing LP’s squeal of delight at the news from The Marshal’s wife, my mother came rushing right over and joined in on the teasing and near-scheming of my dear friends. And I know they love me and just want me to be happy. And I know they’re all very happily married and wish the same for me.

But here’s the deal:

1.  I am happy as a single person.

2.  I don’t need a man to “complete” me. I am complete already. If a guy wants to join me, he’s welcome, but he needs to be complete already himself.

3.  The grass is not necessarily greener on the married side of the fence. Different, yes - greener, no.

4.  Please don’t attempt to set me up with a guy you don’t know just because he’s single and meets the age requirement. For that matter, please don’t attempt to set me up with any guy at all just because he’s single and meets the age requirement.

5.  Why is it so hard to believe that I like being single? Does this mean I don’t want to be married? No, but I do enjoy the freedoms of being single. It took a long time for me to get to that point, please don’t make me go back to the days when I was miserable because I was single.

Let me be honest about my thoughts on marriage (as it pertains to me) right now. There are definitely some perks to marriage that I would like to enjoy that I can’t as a single person. Aside from those perks, I can’t be bothered with a search for “The One.” Personally, I don’t think I need to be looking anyway. If God wants for me to be married, then He knows my personality and knows that I’m not going to be looking. So I fully expect that if I’m to be married, then Prince Charming will pretty much fall in my lap one day, proclaim his undying love for me, and sweep me away from my supposedly miserable single status. Until then, I’m keeping on keeping on as I am.

And no, I’m not listing the perks I’d like to enjoy. Use your imagination, I’m sure you can figure them out.

Maybe it’s because I was a technical writer/editor for seven years, but I tend to notice typos and errors when reading pretty much everything - books, magazines, blogs, etc. I understand when things get missed - the same people reading the same documents over and over will often miss the littlest thing. But you’d think there would be at least one person designated as a final proofreader - someone who hasn’t touched the document at all so they have a fresh eye to catch those little nitpicky errors.

It seems the USMS publishing services people don’t proofread often enough. I’ve caught errors in a few major publications and now there’s a glaring error on the first line of the first page of the new USMS phone directory:

“In the event of an ermgency contact the…”

How on earth did that get missed?

Apparently, today is the day I field, “Can you give me the number to…” calls. My phone has rung 5 times since I arrived and all 5 calls have been to ask for the number at headquarters.