Casting a Wide Net: Good Practice for Freelancing and Internet Dating

 Photo courtesy of larrygerbrandt on Flickr

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite bloggers wrote a post about setting parameters when looking for love online. I wholly appreciated her post, not only an ex-online-dating-champ, but also as a freelance (under-employed) writer who is searching for matches online. Just like a single gal on a dating website.  

Back when I actually was a single dating gal, I employed a tactic I affectionately referred to as Operation POE. Process of Elimination. I realized that It didn’t matter how many dates I went on—good or bad—as long as I stayed clear in my own head about who I ultimately wanted to find. I knew that the more people I let into my life, the better my chances of meeting the right guy, thus making every earwax-talk-filled dinner worth it. 

That said, when I set up my "seeking" list on Yahoo! Personals, I included "college degree"  as a must. 

In my mind, college degree = smart. And that's what I was really hoping to find. Someone intelligent, ambitious, open-minded and creative.

It was pure luck that Mr. Wonderful made it across my criteria drawbridge. Like the late great Steve Jobs, Mr. W is a brilliant college dropout. Which is likely why he was smart enough to lie about his education on his dating profile (I think this is the only honesty infraction he’s ever committed since I’ve known him). Had he told the truth, me and my rigid standards may have ruled him out.

Being clear on what you or I hope to find is always the best starting point for attaining it—whether it be a man or a job or a house. I don't think anyone can make their dreams come true without knowing first what those dreams really look like. But I learned from the old online dating stint that you can't just size up the exterior of a package and label it "not the one" without taking the time to open it and see what's really going on inside. 

I have to thank Jane for reminding me about all this as I try to build up my copywriting work. It’s best for me to cast a wide net and try to connect with as many potential clients as possible—and not worry that one may appear to be an imperfect match on the outside. Because the truth is, I won’t know how compatible we are until the first or second date. 

And if the client isn't really who I'm looking for, I’ll just tell them I’m really, really busy next time they call. Process of Elimination style.

A Little Peek at Life in Our Bedroom...

Admit it: you only clicked on this post because you thought it was going to be about sex. You thought I was going to divulge some crazy story about how Mr. Wonderful and I tried the new KY mortise and tenon formula and it was AMAZING. Well we didn't. And that's not what this post is about. So pick your mind up out of the gutter, dust it off and check out how cute our duvet cover is. Right?

My real reason in writing this post was to showcase the super fantastic vintage Santa Barbara map Mr. W bought be for Christmas.

At the end of last year, one of the things we put on our 2011 To-Do list was to buy a nice print for the bedroom. We considered having one of Mr. W's pretty wine country photographs blown up or even buying a stock photo of a vineyard somewhere. Our goal was to hang something on the wall that would have us going to bed and waking up focused on where we wanted to land in the future. Hello, visualization and manifestation.

Mr. W hit the nail on the head with his purchase of this hand-drawn vintage map. It totally supports our dream of wormholing back to old-timey California farm days. Just kidding. But the simplicity of the rendering does underscore our desire to move to a simpler life somewhere. And there are even little drawings of some livestock, which we one day hope to own in the form of some sheep and a couple pygmy goats.

So there's our bedroom. I won't tell anyone about the pervy thoughts you were having when you first landed on this page...

What We're Making: Pomegranate Jelly

Now that we're four whole days into the New Year, I thought I'd start a new little posting series on the blog. Although he hasn't "made" a single blog post yet, Mr. Wonderful is always making something in our house (often with my help) so I thought I'd start sharing some of his creations here. Who knows, maybe they'll inspire some of you!

This week's creation came as a result of receiving homemade wine jelly from my parents for Christmas. Once we ate it, Mr. W was hooked and decided he should use the many, many pomegranates his dad had gifted us to make his own batch of jelly. Thus began our kitchen's transformation from culinary laboratory to crime scene...

Mr. W took on the tedious task of de-seeding the pomegranates while I watched the season premiere of The Bachelor. AKA, Crazy Nutbag Chicks and the Winemaker They Love. No we did not add the asparagus pictured above to any jelly. This was a pee-friendly recipe.

Using the tomato grinder I bought last summer from Williams-Sonoma, Mr. W then ground all the seeds to collect their juice without getting the bitterness of the pits.

I had to document the camouflaged kitchen helper. He lays on that rug and we can barely see him, which means his tail has been stepped on many a time.

All that grinding covered the kitchen with a fine mist of purple juice. We mopped the floor 3 times during the process.

See what I mean? Looks like Dexter's been in our house.

Our All-Clad runneth over with juice and pectin. I think... There might be sugar in there, too, but Mr. W isn't on IM right now, so I can't confirm. Oh, and see those peppers over there? Those are from our backyard and Mr. W used several of them to add a spicy kick to some of the jelly jars. He thinks they're jalapeños, but I've never seen a red one like that before.

Farmer Maris carefully sterilized (dipped in boiling water with kitchen tongs) each of the jelly jars we purchased at the grocery store.

Then he carefully filled each jar with his trusty ladle and screwed on their lids.

The jars were then added back to the pot of boiling water so that the lids could form airtight seals.

A few minutes in the pot and voila! We have a bajillion little jars of delicious pomegranate jelly!

I'm not certain where Mr. W got his recipe, but if you're interested in trying to make your own jelly, here's a link to one that sounds similar: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pomegranate-jelly/detail.aspx