Love on the Rocks

Dating… love… relationships… Funny things, aren’t they?  As I’ve been getting back in the game [feel free to exclaim “heeeeeey girl” – totally acceptable], it’s almost been amusing to see how many of us single folk, living in the same city, all within the range of a decade – are somehow all on different pages from each other.  What we want out of dating, out of flirtatious interactions, out of communication, out of showing affection – the lengths we’re willing to go to, the lengths we refuse to go to… Every new person I meet has a whole new take on it all – and a whole new set of characteristics to both amuse and bemuse me. 

I’ve always been floored by grand romantic gestures.  They’re in the movies all over the place – they’re in art, in poetry, in song.  Girls like me have been daydreaming about them since childhood – imagining future suitors unveiling handmade mosaics or dueling with swords for our love, for our hand in marriage, for our attention. 

One of the first times I found such a sighting in real life was as a junior high kid, on a walk through the Northwestern University campus.  

Of Sirens and Mermaids

Within every woman are two mythical creatures: a siren and a mermaid.

The siren is seductive and deadly.  She owns her power and utilizes it mercilessly - reeling in men, chewing them up, and spitting them out - leaving them surely to die.  She thinks only of herself and feels no emotion or empathy towards the hearts she breaks and the lives she ruins.  As I said - seductive and deadly.

The mermaid is another story entirely...  She falls in love easily and passionately.  She gives her life over to the person she loves - is willing to sacrifice her humanity, if that is what it takes.  She is tragedy at its purest: beautiful and lovely, but with misdirected strength and destructive amounts of selflessness.  She is ultimately destined towards a heartbreak that will consume her and wither her to nothing more than foam atop the waves of the sea.

I Dream of Chicago...

Prettiest Chicago song I've ever heard:
"I Dream of Chicago" - Parlours