MY APOLOGIES for a lack of actual blogging this week. Believe it or not, I've had a lot of things in the works, but I have been slow about getting them finished. I actually have three Idol interviews in the works that I'm getting ready to publish soon (I hope) that I hope you'll enjoy.

For the moment, though, life has been busy. So, while we're waiting, just a few quick rants.

I got one of my least favorite responses from a woman when I asked her out on a date this week. (And no, it wasn't Kellie Pickler.) "I'd rather hang out with a group." Uh???? Let's forget for the moment that that answer had absolutely no relevance to the question I posed, which was "would you like to go out on a date sometime." It's not the first time I've heard this response, so I'm curious where this comes from in the female psyche. My first assumption is that it's simply a nicer response than "I'd rather cover my body with flesh-eating leeches than go out with you." But if it's NOT, then it totally blows my mind. How can you have a quality date and learn about somebody if you're around five million of your closest friends? Or, let's be honest, HER closest friends. First off, you've got her chatty little girl friends gabbing it up with her, running off to the bathroom with her, and doing whatever it is girls do, but basically precluding her from paying any attention to you at all, let alone speak to you. Second, you've got to compete with all her guy friends who are ALSO trying to get a piece of the action whether she knows it or not. Maybe I'm old school, but doggone it, if I can't have a one-on-one honest-to-goodness date, then I don't want it. My thought is this: unless you believe in group marriages, don't group date.

And if it is the case that you don't want to go out with me, respect me enough to just say it straight out. I can't count how many times I've heard the "yes I'll go out with you, but I'll be busy every weekend until Dakota Fanning starts drawing Social Security." Y'know, I've been accepted, and I've been turned down. It happens. I can handle it. How self-important must you be to think that I have to be let down easy over you? I mean, seriously, I'll get over it. What I won't get over is a dishonest response. I will resent you for that.

I also got one of my favorite responses from a potential employer. "We don't have anything right now, but we'll keep your application on file." Never mind that the file in question is located on the liner of their pet guinea pig's cage. At a close second was "we should be getting back to you by the end of the week". Or the year. Or the decade. If ever. That's okay. I'll just sit here unemployed and subsisting off of Easy Mac till you get back to me.

If you haven't figured it out by now, Emily and I ended things amicably a little over a month ago, and I lost my job last weekend. So far it's been a banner year in JD World.

Okay, end of rant. Those are just my observations from the past few days. It's not really as bad as I'm making it sound. I consider one job lost to be another opportunity to do something I've never done before, and I hope to make the best of it. As for the relationship thing... well, let me get the job first :)

So...essay question time... What are some of the words that you hate to hear the most? It can be from anybody in any situation. C'mon. Make me feel better!

P.S. That picture of Stevie Scott at the beginning of this blog has absolutely no relevance to anything in this post, but it's awfully hard to stop looking at, so I thought I'd put it there!