Sponsor Our Relationship | Redhead Ranting

To Kanoodle or Not To Kanoodle, That Was The Question

Filed under Sponsor our relationship by Jen on July 6, 2010 at 9:34 am {103 comments}

: Image by Juampe López via Flickr

The first date actually happened!

It almost didn’t, and some of us think it shouldn’t have happened, but it did.

After months of commenting back and forth, emails and phone conversations James and I finally met in person. I think it’s safe to say that after all this time and going public, no one was going to cancel. But James should have because nothing makes a better first impression quite like hacking up a lung.

Me: You look like shit

Him: I feel great, I’b at de end ob the cold

Yeah, right.

I had to give James points for showing up when he clearly should have been at home sleeping.

You know how women are said to make a decision within the first few seconds of meeting a guy for the first time? Well this cold really threw me. I gave up my double bed life in exchange for a single bed a long time ago so while this decision needs to be made soon it wasn’t going to be made in those first few minutes of meeting. I couldn’t get past the dark circles under his eyes and his inability to speak without coughing. I wanted to but the last thing I need is to catch a summer cold, or typhoid.

Prior to the date James had called and asked if we should meet at the restaurant or if he should pick me up. It was hot out, 93 with tropical humidity, and James’ car didn’t have a working A/C. I suggested I drive but he thought it would be much better if we took his car. He mentioned something about blog fodder but I think he was delirious. He probably didn’t notice the heat since he was already running a temperature of at least 100. The decision was quickly made to take my car.

I wasn’t planning on driving, if I had I would have parked my car in the front of the house so we didn’t have to go through my garage where my smelly couch and rug have been stored until I figure out what to do with them. Of course, James couldn’t smell a thing so he wasn’t offended by the moldy smell, but I was. Women don’t usually show their garage to a guy on the first date because to us a garage is just another place to store things. There is no rhyme or reason to where things go. As long as I can get to the lawn mower and park my car the garage is in order. But I know men well enough to know that garages for men are like shoe closets for women. There is a place for everything and you don’t mix sandals with winter boots. Walking through the garage caused considerable anxiety for me. Thankfully James was too sick to notice the mess in my garage.

We arrived at a lovely Vietnamese restaurant and sat down. Since our date was on Saturday, the day before the 4th of July, there were few people dining in a restaurant that usually has a rather long waiting list. James ordered spring rolls and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they were real spring rolls and not deep fried mini egg rolls. James earned another point.

Prior to the date we had decided that there would be no talking about the blog during dinner. No one was allowed to check their email and there was to be no Tweeting. This didn’t prevent my brother from texting me all night long or my son from calling several times but I am happy to say I did not check my email and I did not Tweet.

We spent the next four hours talking about the Tour de France. Actually, James spent the next four hours talking about the Tour de France. James used to race and was once roommates with Lance Armstrong so he had plenty of stories to tell. I once watched about 30 seconds of coverage of the Tour de France, or at least as long as it took me to find the remote so I could find something more interesting like golf to watch, so I sat there and nodded and considered whether or not I wanted to catch a cold.

In the end I decided I didn’t want to catch a cold and I didn’t want to rub Vick’s VapoRub all over his chest as he suggested. That might have been fun had he not had a cold, and something other than Vick’s VapoRub was being used but because he really needed a mom and I didn’t want to take care of anyone we decided it best if he just went home and had some soup or something.

So, since this one went so well we have decided to try again when he isn’t feeling so crappy. Plus, I forgot to give him his mug and pen that Margaret from NannygoatsINpanties sent.

If you have any suggestions for what we should do for our second first date please leave them in the comment section.

I’m going to get some tea, I feel a little tickle in my throat.

We’ve Got Sponsors!

Filed under Sponsor our relationship by Jen on June 30, 2010 at 11:38 am {68 comments}

So last week I mentioned that I was looking for sponsors for my relationship with James (if you missed the story you can go here and read how I came to decide that sponsors were necessary), lo and behold quite a few sponsors have stepped forward and offered their services or support.

The first sponsor is Cardiogirl

who sponsored two Diet Cokes for us when we finally meet up. Since it’s been a while since I had a first date, and even longer to never since I had one planned and canceled for months in a row, leading to all kinds of build up and anxiety, I promise you I will be drinking something stronger than Diet Coke. Anyone want to sponsor a shot of Captain Morgan?

HairIGo donated his and hers haircuts and waxings. Not bikini waxing, don’t get all excited, we don’t do that in Minnesota. They offered to get rid of any unibrow either of us might have going on. HairIgo is an amazing salon so this is going to be a real treat.

An anonymous donor has suggested we play Bingo on our first date. I don’t think I have played bingo since Alice Reed’s seventh birthday party when I would have won had I not been goofing around and missed the call to the winning letter/number combination. I think I cried and they gave me a prize anyway but it was traumatic and embarrassing so I haven’t played since. Minnesota has tons of places to play bingo so it really isn’t a bad idea. And nothing brings two people together like sitting in a smoke filled VFW with a bunch of old ladies who have their own bingo daubers, and aren’t afraid to use them.

There are other donors as well and I will be posting a page where they will be featured in the next day or so. We’ve also had some local press interest and as soon as I know the details I will let you know. If you would like to donate you can leave a comment or send me an email. When the page goes up there will be a section where you, the reader, can vote on where we go next as well as information about sponsoring for corporations and individuals. Sponsors will be featured on the sidebar, in the posts and on the pages dedicated to these updates.

We are trying again this weekend, James says he has everything figured out and all I have to do is show up. James is going to quickly learn that I am not a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl but I’ll go along with him because it will probably make a good post. As long as I don’t get my hair wet, all should be good.

It’s Sorta Like The French Lieutenant’s Woman

Filed under Blogging, Sponsor our relationship by Jen on June 25, 2010 at 9:04 am {119 comments}

Remember that book by John Fowles, or the movie adapted by Harold Pinter with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons? The French Lieutenant’s Woman was a very long story written by a great writer about the story within a story. I read it in college and recall there was a lot of jumping around. See the movie, it makes more sense.

You probably don’t have a clue what I am talking about and honestly the analogy made a lot more sense before I typed it out but bear with me (I actually had to Google that phrase, I’m never sure if it’s bare with me or bear with me. I know bare with me means to get naked with me but how does one become a bear with other people?).

This is why I haven’t been able to put out a decent post lately, my mind is off in all kinds of directions.

Continue to bear with me, I will get there.

Anyway, a few months ago I wrote a post called Boyfriend or Blog. I basically told the world that it was time for me to meet a guy and start dating again. I had a few prerequisites however, such as the guy needed to know about computers and accept my need to blog. I said I needed a geek who was okay with me blasting our relationship all over the internet.

Now if you are a believer in The Secret you will be pleased to know that by posting that piece I indeed met a guy who fit that description. Of course blasting my desire to meet a guy to the whole world probably had something to do with it. But still, I put it out there no matter how firmly my tongue was planted in my cheek, and someone responded.

Just one, but still, one is all that is needed. And I’m not all that choosy anymore. Seriously, go look in the comments and you can see the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

So James and I started conversing through my comments, he was even grilled by a few readers. Eventually, they decided he was okay for me to date and we took our courtship to gmail. Not long after that, and because both of us tend to talk a lot and the emails were getting way to long, we moved to phone conversations.

Which is where the relationship has been ever since.

We’ve actually set up several first meetings but for different reasons that first date has been canceled, at least four times now.

We were supposed to go out last weekend, all of our kids from previous marriages (and there are a lot of previous marriages between the two of us) were with their other parent. So there was a lot of pressure on this date, at least from my perspective.

It’s been a while since I dated so I needed to do a few things to prepare myself. I got a hair cut and actually had some things waxed. Not that thing, I can use something like this for that. I went shopping for something to wear, since I didn’t think it best to make that first impression in sweat pants and ripped t-shirt. I actually considered wearing a dress but I don’t own any dresses except one of my wedding dresses and the dress I wear to all the funerals I’ve been going to lately.

See that last paragraph? That is the story within the story, or the blog post within the blog post. I considered that paragraph last week and decided that there were a couple of spots that could be easily monetized. I actually contacted the PR people at Proctor and Gamble and told them about my story and where I planned on linking to their product. I asked if they wanted to sponsor the post. They politely declined, said it wasn’t there policy to compensate bloggers for editorial coverage, and then sent me all kinds of information on the product to include in my post. I was not going home empty handed, I just couldn’t. I asked if they had any of the bikini kits they could send me so I could have a giveaway for my readers. Because dammit, someone is going to get something if I am going to give away a prime spot in a blog post that is way too long and all over the place. So they sent me two kits. One of which I am going to keep and the other I am going to giveaway but I don’t know how yet.

I think it was JD from I Do Things who coined the phrase “it’s not worth doing if you can’t blog about it” or she’s the one who says it all the time, not sure which, but it doesn’t matter because it is still true.

Luckily for me James is just as deeply devoted to Web 2.0 as I am and sees the marketing potential in this relationship. You see, James is about to become a published author, a real one, not just a self publishing author, not that there is anything wrong with that. His first book is due out next March so we’ve been trying to figure out a way to capitalize on that. Okay, he doesn’t need to capitalize on it, I do. But, whatever.

I saw this article and thought the possibilities were endless. I even sent the link to James which was kinda risky because it talks about marriage and we haven’t even met. But James likes marriage so he wasn’t scared off.

So, if there are any restaurants in the St. Paul/ Minneapolis area that would like to sponsor our first date please leave a comment. And by sponsor I mean give us the works for free, there will be blogging about it after the fact. Neither one of us is picky but neither of us likes liver and onions and James has issues with onion rings. Okay, James might be a little picky. We’re open to activities too so if you own a paint ball place or something fun like that please let me know.

Stay tuned readers, I’m going to get this relationship sponsored and you get to read all about it.