Shopping While Single

I love shopping. Yeah, most girls love shopping – but I LOVE shopping. Shopping makes me feel happy. A new dress? Heavenly. A sparkly never worn necklace? Ahhh. A new lip gloss? Hours of primping entertainment.

If I could pick between shopping and — well — anything, shopping would win. The only thing that comes anywhere close is Spa Time.

Yes, even GROCERY shopping makes me happy. But recently, I’ve gotten frustrated as I push my cart through the aisles. What was once an annoyance is now my idea to make a million dollars! I’m going to create a grocery store just for singles.

Let’s see, we’ll call it Hardy’s, since it was my idea. It’s not just a place where you can meet other singles. That’s actually not event the point of “Hardy’s”. It’s the fact that I end up having to throw out a lot of groceries because I am single.

If I want a turkey dog on a whole wheat bun, I have to buy a whole package of turkey dogs and a package of buns. Unless I plan on eating eight turkey dogs (and I don’t because I am on a 1500 calorie a day diet) before those buns go bad, I have to throw out what isn’t used. Then I have turkey dogs that don’t have buns, and the cycle starts all over again. I have whole grain buns for my chicken breast sandwiches that start growing mold.

I appreciate the effort being made by some manufacturers to bring us “single serving sizes”. That’s Single Person Friendly. I don’t need a WHOLE pizza. I just want a slice or two. God bless cereal for not going bad. It takes me months to work through a box.

I find myself getting creative with what I can put lettuce on, because I need to use it up before it goes bad in a few days (FYI – Lettuce on pizza isn’t half bad! However, do not use it to top eggs.)

Bananas? I buy two or three at a time because I just can’t master how to get those suckers to stay yellow for more than two days. Then I have to run BACK to the store to get MORE – every few days? It drives me, well, bananas!

So, until I can get a business plan for Hardy’s, and a rich backer of the project, here’s what I recommend. Fresh & Easy. There are several aisles of single serving food you can cook up (and it’s healthy!). It’s almost like the aisle knew how sad I was, and created a bacon-wrapped chicken breast just for me.

Until the single grocery movement takes over, don’t be surprised if I invite you to dinner. Believe me, I have plenty of leftovers.

Still a single-serving in Las Vegas – Jennifer

Getting Back To Normal

I’m back from vacation and back at work.

I also have some good news! (No, I didn’t get a boyfriend). I got promoted!

I’m now the Assistant News Director at FOX5. That’s pretty much the next step up in newsroom management. I will be doing more administrative stuff, long term planning, and general oversight – and not spend so much time neck deep in the news of the day.

It’s a great move for me, and I’m pretty easily adjusting to my new role (though there are times it’s hard to let go of the Executive Producer strings.)

I started my new job after a 7 day cruise of the Mexican Riviera. Ahhhh……

It was a relaxing trip with plenty of shopping involved. I got a great tan, read a great book and ate way too much ice cream on the ship. I saw a lot of happy couples in love, including a couple in our dining room on their honeymoon.

I probably glanced their way a little too much, green with envy, but delighted that two people found each other and were starting their life together. I wish them the best of luck.

I wondered “Where will I go on my honeymoon?” (I hope the Outer Banks!)

As I moved through the ship day after day, it was filled with couples. Some were fighting because of stupid things like stairs vs. elevators. Others were having a romantic moment right on the deck of the ship. Then there were the couples all dressed up and waiting to get their picture taken, wanting a memento of this special moment.

While I didn’t meet Mr. Jennifer on the cruise (though I did get some interested candidates in Puerto Vallarta) – I did decide one thing. I want to get married in Cabo, and I want everyone I love to fly down and watch it. I think that a wedding should be filled with loved ones as you profess your love and make a lifelong promise.

So, now that I’ve figured out the honeymoon and the wedding spot, I just need the groom.

Now, I’m back at work, fall is in the air, and the holidays are right around the corner. That means lots of parties and opportunities to meet new people. This Friday, it’s Fright Dome – wouldn’t it be ironic to meet the man of my dreams in a nightmare of a place?

Still Single, and Assistant News Director, in Sin City –

 Jennifer

I’m Going On Vacation..

That’s not a phrase I’ve been able to say often. I’ve never once in my life said “I’m going on a week-long vacation.”

Well now, I’m saying it.

 “I’m going on a week-long vacation, and I will be out of contact for 7 straight days.” I will be cruising the Mexican Riviera.

Ahhh.. that felt good. And it scares the crap out of me.

When my life is tied to the iPhone, the Internet, the work e-mail, FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, etc., walking away from it isn’t too easy. I have to leave it all behind this time, and if there’s a quadruple murder in downtown Las Vegas, followed by a fire, I won’t know a damn thing about it until September 20 at the earliest. I guess that’s the humbling part – the news will go on without me.

The last time I missed any major news, was when the O.J. Simpson slow chase. I was on a float trip at the time. (For those who don’t know, a float trip is where you go to the middle of the woods, camp out, and then float in either a canoe or a raft down a dirty river. Generally there was a lot of cheap beer and bug spray involved in this process. *We had limited options in Missouri.) I was in college at the time on summer break. Everyone was talking about it when we got back, and I was left out. I felt a pit in my stomach. So what’s going to happen during the next week? Stay tuned to FOX5 to find out.

But I can tell you what won’t happen. You won’t be able to call me. You won’t get to read a new blog written by moi. You won’t see a Facebook update from me.

Oh, and, I’m quite sure I won’t be going on any dates.

Still single, and getting ready to set sail -

Jennifer

To Glee Or Not To Glee?

Tonight the season of Glee premieres right here on FOX5 at 9pm.  It’s a show about a teacher who tries to make the Glee club great again, and there’s a whole cast of people who don’t think he can do it.

For teenagers it will be a look at what they deal with each day in high school, for us older people, it will be a reminder of what we miss, and don’t miss about high school.

 The show is supposed to be a hit. My high school days, not so much!

I was never a fan of high school, from day one. From the bells that herded us like cattle from class to class, to the obscene bus stop pickup at 6:30am, to the cliques and the backstabbing that plague all schools. It just wasn’t for me.

My parents moved me from a bustling St. Louis suburb to a more rural neighborhood outside the city limits (ok, even outside the county limits) right between middle school and high school. I was never a fan of public schooling, so taking me from a nice school district to a less than nice school district just made a bad situation worse. (In case you were wondering why we moved, it was because my father built his dream house in a neighborhood called “Wild Valley Farms”, and it lived up to that name). I will say I didn’t go into high school with the best attitude, but I was a 13 year old angry girl, who just wanted her old neighborhood (and paved roads) back.

My dating life in high school got off to a bad start. My first dance? I was stood up. My second dance? I went with a friend. Prom? I was never invited. My high school boyfriend I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with? Hooked up with several other girls while we were together. The rebound guy? Turned out to be verbally abusive.

For most people, high school is a series of fond memories and stories to tell a lifetime. For me, high school is a bunch of bad memories I have spent the following years of my life trying to replace – and trying to prove I am better than that pissed off 13 year old who didn’t want to have to drive 30 minutes to the closest mall to get her Guess jeans.

I feel I’ve done that teenager proud with my professional life, but my love life hasn’t matured past freshman orientation. However, I do have much better hair requiring no Aqua Net!

Of all the dating lessons I learned in high school, there’s one I’ve stuck to pretty well. Never fight for a guy. If a guy has positioned himself between you and another girl, let her have him. I never win the fight, and I really don’t think I should have to convince a guy he should be with me. She can have him, and whoever the next contender is for his attention. A guy with a wandering eye will always have a wandering eye.

Other lessons, I didn’t learn so well. I still dream about the one guy I can’t have. I still call guys too much. I still get gushy and clingy and speechless when I really like someone. With the advent of social networking, we can now do what a lot of people used to not be able to do – we can see what we missed out on. As my Facebook fills up with old forgotten friends, and past crushes, and even some heartbreaks, I am faced with the high school I dreaded so much.

Before Facebook, I can say I didn’t have many fond memories from those years, but as my friends list gets populated, I remember there were good times.

There were laughs.

And there were a lot of dodged bullets and wasted tears.

 So you tell me – what was great about high school? What was awful? What dating lessons learned? Talk to me, Retro style! jhardy@fox5vegas.com

Single single, and so glad high school is over, in Sin City –

Jennifer

P.S. Stay tuned tonight for FOX5 News at 10, where you can see Then & Now of some FOX5 anchors, reporters, and staff members – including yours truly.

First Dates Are Never Easy..

We’ve all had our bad first dates, but try to top this one:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-firstdate-charge,0,7884043.story

A woman looking for love, ending up watching her date drive away in her car.  That guy now faces dates in court, and the woman will no doubt never let a date near her car again.

I’m not a fan of first dates, though I realize they HAVE to happen in order to get to Happily Ever After. First dates stress me out. I can’t decide what to wear. Do I have on too much makeup? Not enough? Should I offer to pay? Should I at least pay for the tip? How much should I tell him about myself? Will I get a goodnight kiss? Does he want a date 2? Will he REALLY call me?! Ugh, it’s exhausting!

I can’t really think of any great first date stories, but my worst first date story is top of mind.

I was still living in St. Louis, and I must’ve been 18 or so. I met a guy at a bar. He was an interesting fellow, very eccentric, but there was something attractive about him. All the girls were desperate for his attention, and for whatever reason, he chose me. After a few nights of flirting and “goo goo eyes”, he finally asked me out. He wanted to take me to a winery.

I was so excited for the date with Mr. Eccentric. I was going out with the guy all the girls wanted, and I was so excited that finally, FINALLY, someone picked me over a short, petite girl.

We went to the winery on a gloomy, rainy, cold St. Louis day. It got colder as we drove out to the middle of nowhere to look at wines I wasn’t old enough to drink. When we got to the winery, Mr. Eccentric wanted to sit outside and stare at the vines. It was getting REALLY cold (and those who know me, know just how much I HATE cold weather), but under the warmth of a blanket, and the gaze of Mr. E, I was sucking it up in the name of  “this could be my last first date ever!”. He spoke about weird topics, and was much more amused with himself than he was with anything I said or did. So as the temperature dropped, and the conversation turned into unintelligible babble, I realized he probably wasn’t going to make it to date #2.

We left the winery, and started the drive home just as a sleet storm moved in. I made a comment about how I needed to get home before the storm got too bad, and he said “Well let’s take this shortcut”. As he turned right, I knew he was going the wrong way — and I told him so. He insisted we were going ”the short way” and I said ”unless we intend to swim across the Missouri River, we are not going the right way.” Two minutes later, we slid off the road, into a ditch, and the scene became silent except for the quick ticks of ice hitting the car.

I was pissed.

I didn’t hide it.

He then thought the best idea would be to have me stay in the car, while he went to get help. I refused. It turned into a HUGE fight. I finally got out of the car, in my stylish, but not warm boots, and started hoofing it up the road we shouldn’t have been on in the first place. He finally followed, and for the first time — offered an apology.

I didn’t speak (It’s hard to shut me up most days, but if I ignore you, or don’t speak to you — it means I am pissed beyond forgiveness). We walked for miles in that freezing rain. I can’t remember being colder in my life. He kept up with the random babble that possible included more apologies, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to be home. It was dark now, and there was no way for a passing car to see us on the slick roads (who was I kidding, nobody was going to be driving on that road).

After what had to be a 5 miles walk down a two lane empty highway outside of St. Louis, we finally came to some manufacturing plant. The guard let us into his booth, while we called for help. My weird date called his dad who lived down the street (WHAT A COINCIDENCE?!), while my parents lived a good 45 minute drive away. His dad came to get us, and took us back to his house.

I called my mother, and she was even more pissed than I was, and insisted I get home right away. It wasn’t raining or sleeting at her house, and she didn’t believe me that it was sleeting where I was. Finally Senior E. got on the phone an explained to my mom it was too dangerous to drive me home, but would get me there as soon as the weather cleared.

The next thing I knew, I was settled into a 5 year olds bed, with a Spider-man blanket over me, my clothes soaking wet from the storm, and my bones chilled from the walk. I just wanted to go to sleep and get the whole thing over with. This had just been the worst date ever.

Little did I know it was about to get worse.

Here comes Mr. E in the dark of night, trying to crawl into the bed. He was looking for some action. What he found was a Gucci purse upside his head. I stormed out of the bedroom, and woke up his father, and insisted I go home right away — or I call the police. 

I was home two hours later.

Later, Mr. E told people he intentionally drove into the ditch because he thought it would be funny.

That date will haunt me, but it also taught me a lesson — the guy all the girls want isn’t always what he’s cracked up to be. Sometimes he’s a wine drinking weirdo who likes to drive his car off the road in the middle of an ice storm and then try to round second base in his brother’s bed.

So what about you? Tell me your worst first date stories! Send them to jhardy@fox5vegas.com.

Still single, and first date fearful, in Las Vegas –

Jennifer

Are We Dating?

There are a lot of questions that are easy to answer in my day to day life.

What are we leading the 5pm newscast with?

Which reporter is at the house fire?

What did you have for breakfast?

But there’s one question that sometimes stump me.

Are you dating anyone?

Most of the time, the answer is no, with no confusion.

But there are those few and far between times when there is a man around my life, but not necessarily IN my life.

I’m not talking about the “Do you have a boyfriend” question, I’m talking the steps before that. You might be hanging out with someone, talking on the phone, running into them regularly at your favorite spot, seeing them late at night, exchanging many text messages – but you aren’t necessarily dating them.

One of my friends, we’ll call her Ashley, always seems to have a way to break things down for you. There’s really never any confusion in her advice, and she’s not going to sugar coat anything.

She has an interesting theory on dating that will help any Las Vegas woman answer the question of “Are You Dating Anyone?”

Under the definition of dating there are three key components:

1.)    Pre-planning. You actually make plans days in advance.

2.)    Food. You get fed.

3.)    Progression. You are actually moving your relationship in a forward motion.

So, under those guidelines – Are you dating anyone?

Still single, and not dating anyone, in Sin City –

Jennifer

Dodging Dating Bullets..

While my blog is about being single, and how to find a way to NOT be single, there’s a part of me daily that thanks God I am single. Working in the news, I see too much violence between couples, or estranged couples. This week has been especially bad.

Just this week, a beautiful young woman named Jasmine Fiore was found brutally murdered – and her husband is the suspect. Her teeth and fingers were removed, and the only way she could be identified was by her breast implants serial number. It appears it could have been sparked by her sending a text message to another guy. (You can keep up with the latest on this story at fox5vegas.com)

But I’m not writing about just one story. I sit in the newsroom and hear scanners – more domestic violence calls than you can imagine. We run stories of crisis centers for women needing money, supplies, any kind of help. Women are being abused, all because they thought they were with someone special.

Yes, I want to find my Mr. Jennifer, I just don’t want to die trying.

I’ve already had to deal with one guy’s crazy ex-girlfriend who blamed me for her lot in life. I should have run when the guy wouldn’t do anything to stop her. Even getting him out of my life didn’t get her to go away. I had to change a phone number, e-mail address and delete a website to make it stop. That has been enough to scare me into a safe territory when it comes to meeting new guys. When I do meet them, I ask about criminal background (and I double check). I do a thorough check to make sure his stories match up. I am direct about asking who they are dating, if they are married, what baggage do they have, what’s the biggest drama you are dealing with right now, etc.

Sounds way too hesitant? At least I won’t make news headlines this weekend because some guy I was dating snapped.

Love is a powerful emotion. Hate is as well. The two are explosive when they meet, and I’m not talking about fireworks. I’m talking grenade.

When I look back on my love life, I have some relationships I look at fondly. I have some great lessons learned. I have some great stories I will tell my own daughters someday when they run into dating issues. But I can tell you this, there’s not one person from my past I wish I had ended up with. There’s not one “person who got away”. I’ve dodged a lot of dating bullets, some by mere millimeters.

So this weekend, when I feel a tinge of loneliness, and I wonder where Mr. Jennifer is, I can rest assured he’s not in my past. I can go through the weekend knowing nobody is going to lie to me, mislead me, cheat on me, disrespect me, beat me, or neglect me. I won’t be put into an uncomfortable situation that I’m not sure how to get out of safely. I won’t have to be forced to do something I don’t want to do. This weekend, I don’t have to worry.

Still single – and safe – in Las Vegas, Jennifer

Looking For Love In All The Typical Places

My mother always told me she knew I was going to be boy crazy. She said the first sign was at a young age. I wandered off when I was little (I guess around 5 years old) in the middle of a Sears store. As the story was told to me, they looked all over for me, and yet they couldn’t find me. They called store security, and the child hunt began.

A short time later, I was found in the TV section, watching TV with some random little boy I had apparently picked up in the store.

And so my “boy crazy” days appeared to have started.

You’d think for a girl who’s been chasing boys since she was 5, I’d have gotten better at catching a good one.

Maybe that’s why I love Las Vegas so much, there’s a lot of single people stuff to do, right?

Well take a look at the Forbes List of Best Cities For Singles. We were right in the middle.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/27/best-cities-singles-lifestyle-singles-methodology.html

While we got high marks for “coolness” and “nightlife”, we are lagging at “culture” and actual amount of “singles”.

Hmph.

As I write this, I think back to the last date I had. Kelly Monaco was premiering in Peepshow. It was April, I believe. Now we’re in August. To call that a date is a stretch anyway. It was more like a female friend and a male friend hanging out. I didn’t know this at the time, of course, until I got the obligatory hug without so much as a “I’ll call you” from my “date”.

Maybe that’s my problem? I don’t know I’m on a date until I’m NOT on a date?!

Regardless, I need to go on a date, and apparently I’m in an “okay” city to do that according to Forbes.

So, I’m throwing down the gauntlet for myself. It’s time to get back out in the dating world full steam ahead!

This is the goal I am setting for myself, before Halloween, I am going to go to the most common places women allegedly go to meet men. I am going to take Bars & Nightclubs right off the list, since those never seem to be prosperous, unless I want to date a guy from Omaha who is 5 years younger, but really wants to “see if long distance can work”.

Through a random and unscientific search of the Internet, I have whittled the list down to these places as to where I will search for Mr. Jennifer. I will document my travels, and I will beg single friends to come along with me, and see if they have any luck.

Dog Park

Concert

Sporting Event

Home Depot

Church

If that doesnt’ work, maybe I’ll just head back to Sears and hang out in the TV section.

Still single, and searching in the most typical places, in Las Vegas –

 Jennifer

Singles In Sin City

I’m back from a hiatus return trip to St. Louis, and I’m working on a blog about dating guys from different regions of the country. Until then…..

There’s a great event this weekend for singles in Las Vegas!

http://www.luxor.com/singlesinsincity/

The Luxor is hosting this event with a slew of opportunities to meet someone special.

Let me know if you have any luck — or — say hi if you run into me there!

Still single, and brainstorming a new blog, in Las Vegas

–  Jennifer

Looking For A Fling This Thursday?

This Thursday night, money might not buy you or me love, but you sure can bid on some great dates!

It’s the Adam & Eve Charity Love Fling at the M Resort Pool!

http://www.fox5vegas.com/video/19791195/

It’s all to benefit the New Vista Community.

You can meet and mingle with singles, spend time in a great locals resort, enjoy the warm summer night, and maybe, just maybe, meet someone special.

I’m going to the event along with a group of FOX5 colleagues.

You should come too. Here’s more info.

http://www.newvistacommunity.org/

I will be there, not as a person up for auction, but to add to the group of singles.

I actually did get a date out of this event two years ago, and I didn’t even have to bid on him! I’m hoping the same luck will strike this time.

Still single — and not for sale — in Sin City,

Jennifer