Day in Review - Yes, It Can Happen To You.

Hello, friends. I want to start off by saying this will not be a typical Christa post. What I am going to discuss today isn't funny, but I think it is important to share. There are some graphic parts of the post, so if you don't handle things like vomit well, you may want to just skip this post til the end.

If you are anything like me, you generally go through life seeing things happen to other people, but never think bad things can happen to you. I always thought that about roofies and date rape drugs. It would never happen to me. Except it did...Saturday night. Thankfully my friend, Laurel was with me, so the guy who slipped whatever it was into my drink didn't get far, it could have been a bad situation and I think it is worth a quick discussion.

We went out with the best intentions. A fun night at a club in Cleveland. We weren't on the hunt for men or hook-ups, we were just two early 30-somethings looking for a few drinks, some good beats and a fun night.

Much of it was fun. We had a few drinks, they were playing some good dance music, I was shaking my stuff like a rockstar. I hadn't had many drinks. No more than usual. Certainly not enough to get sick or totally drunk. I remember drinking rum and coke. My memory gets fuzzy here. I remember Rhianna playing on the video screen and I was dancing with a guy, though this may have not happened concurrently. I remember no other music and no other faces. We had to have been there for a few hours though. The last thing I remember was a guy smiling down at me and putting a drink in my hand. I don't know if it was a new drink or a drink I already had. After that, I am blank until the next morning.


I will try to make this as "un gross" as possible, but if you don't want to read it, skip this paragraph -

I woke up on Laurel's couch laying on a sheet. I was holding a bowl and covered in this brownish/black substance. It was from my hair and shoulders all the way down to my feet. The brown/black substance was all over the sofa and apparently on the carpeting too, though I found out later it was cleaned up before I was lucid enough to wake up.

I had no idea where I was, who I was or why I was there. I knew I needed to throw up though so as I looked around and observed my surroundings,  it became clear where I was and I made a bee-line for the bathroom, carrying my bowl with me. I didn't even recognize myself in the mirror.

I looked as I would imagine a heroin junkie on the street would look, covered in vomit, bloodshot eyes, stomach and shoulders sore from repeated puking. Laurel filled me in at that point once I got back on the sofa. She gave me some clean clothes. I had no concept of time, day or anything that happened. Everything I know came from her.

My thought process, once my brain started turning on was this: 
My poor dog was still at home and I felt horrible I had left her in her crate all night.
I think I sent some texts and tweets and scrambled to find my phone. Everything was erased...all my sent texts, all my sent tweets.  Obviously I sent something or many somethings I shouldn't have, as I never delete my sent texts or tweets unless I have to. I hope I sent a mean text to that guy who had the "broken phone" from my last post.

 I remember driving home.  I felt fine enough to drive and I had to get home to my dog. It was the perfect window I chose to drive in, because once I got home the vomiting started again. I took the dog out, got back upstairs, grabbed my trashcan from the bathroom, a blanket, turned on the tv, called Chloe and slept for hours...I didn't eat, I didn't drink, just slept. I don't remember waking up until about 6pm.  I felt better, but not right. I fed the dog, took her outside again and fell back on the couch. I slept til 10pm. I took some Advil, got into my bed and slept until 6:30 Monday morning. Seriously, I didn't even know about Osama Bin Laden until Monday morning. I hate that, as if you know me, you know I need the news as soon as it happens.

(You can join up now if you skipped the middle)

Laurel said it was bad.  It was as far as I know, I don't even know all the details. It could have been a lot worse and that's what is so scary. It happened so quickly. I just thank God she was with me.

I want to share this story for a few reasons. One reason is, this could happen to any of you reading this. I always heard of it happening on college campuses and to cute little 20-somethings.  I am 32 and it happened to me. As Laurel told me today, "We will have to be more careful next time". She's right.  We will. If you are reading this, you need to be more careful too. I admit, I don't think I have ever been extremely vigilant on watching my drinks at clubs or bars. I think that will certainly change now. It seemed like such a simple act to slip something in my drink. So very simple...

Lets be honest, I most certainly could have been raped, assaulted, abused, beaten, killed or died from this. None of that happened and I thank God for getting me through it. Don't let any of those things happen to you. I am so thankful to Laurel and so glad she was there with me.

Be aware of your surroundings and never go out like that if you are alone. It happened to me and as Laurel and I saw on Saturday, it can most definitely happen to anyone.

I am OK. I am slowly but surely getting back to normal.  This morning I was still having some waves of nausea and I am still pretty tired, but definitely 95% better.

Take the message you want from this story.  If you are a woman, read it again, except this time, put yourself in my place.

Weekend in Review....Why I am Still Single and the Bridget Jones Rhetoric

Happy Monday! I had a great weekend. My Aunt Debi and Uncle Dan were in town from New Mexico and we had some long over due family time. It was wonderful to spend time with them and I look forward to them moving closer to home in the future.

Now the rest of the weekend, basically the day we call "Sunday", wasn't nearly as enjoyable.
Note: I will attempt to keep the rest of the post as "PG-13" as I can. It will border on "adult" content...

Many of my friends are married, or "Smug Marrieds" as Bridget Jones would say. I, however, and a smaller number of my friends are "Singletons", or "unmarried and romantically unattached". For those of you "Smug Marrieds" who ask us "Singletons" why we remain "Singletons"...read on...

As I have mentioned in this blog, I have been "talking" to a guy for the past few weeks. This basically consists of talking on the phone, e-mail, texting, Yahoo Messenger, etc. We had gone out on a date a few months ago, but I found him a little immature and felt something just wasn't right. As you know, we re-connected a few weeks ago and I finally decided, Yes, I will see him again for another date. He was very excited, and I admit, I was looking forward to it as well. He is definitely attractive and didn't seem to have any major issues I would say is not compatible with myself....until he sent this message to me....

(Copied from my Yahoo Messenger History)

Him: "I don't know if I told you, but I have an 11 inch penis"
Me: "Thanks for the info. I think that is kind of inappropriate though at this point in the relationship"
Him: "I am really sorry. I don't know why I said that."
Me: "It's fine, I just don't know why guys do that. It is kind of annoying."
Him: "I know. I shouldn't have done it."
Me: "No, you shouldn't have. That is a "date killer" for me. What makes you think I care about your "size"?"
Him: "I don't know...I am really sorry, again. I won't mention it again"
Me: "Thanks. I have to go write an article"
Him: "Are you mad?"
Me: "Annoyed, yes, but you appologized, said you wouldn't do it again, so I am cool"
Him: "Ok..good. Well text me later"
Me: "Ok."

Signed off at this point....went back to work.

10 minutes later, I get a text...I check it...it's from him...it says "I wanna do something rash that I can't take back once its done but I don't wanna offend you I guess I have to take a chance and hope for the best"

1 minute later....a picture message....

Yes...you guessed it....a picture of his....you know what....manhood?!?!?!

Now I pause to tell you, just a few weeks ago, my friend Laurel and I were just talking about how guys have some fascination for sending penis pics.  Seriously...I have dated a lot of men...and though there are the rare cases where you can get through the first or second date without any mention of the word "penis",  it seems for the majority, you get that penis pic. I thought it was just me, until Laurel said one of the guys she was talking to did the same thing!  I could probably cover my wall with them if I wanted to. (If I saved them!) I also feel the need to mention there were absolutely NO pictures of ANY part of my anatomy sent to anyone, so obviously, I wasn't asking for them.

Of course, I BBM'd (Blackberry Messaged) her as soon as I saw the photo. A feverish BBM session took place between Laurel and I discussing what I should say and how to handle this. Meanwhile, I got two calls and one text from the guy in question asking if he "messed up" by sending that picture.

Um.......

YES! 

I sent him a quick e-mail this morning saying "Sorry, but I am not into this...blah, blah, blah"

So to the "Smug Marrieds"...you now know why my "Singleton" friends and I are still "Singletons". THIS is what we are dealing with out in the dating world. I have too much respect for myself to be treated like that. It is highly inappropriate in my opinion and I don't care to see your penis without even properly dating first. Though it does seem possible that you can meet nice guys out there, I have seen it with my own eyes, it seems like the guys that find me are A) Quasimodo's twin brother B) Divorced with 6 kids C) Attractive but only after the physical relationship or D) Saying they are looking for something real, then send a picture of their penis after talking for 15 minutes.

Are there good guys left? If you know someone around my age who does not fit into those categories, send them my way...until then, I will stick with the "Singletons"...and if anyone wants to see the picture, let me know...I will pass it on...