Friday, April 15, 2011

Lawsuit? Match.Com Owes California Woman Nothing

This story that broke today hits close to home. As promised in a previous post, you get a review how I met my husband on E-Harmony.com. If you are interested in my online dating story that led to a healthy relationship & happy marriage see below. But first my opinion:


I strongly do not believe Match.com should be held liable in a civil suit to take responsibility for an assault the woman tragically faced. I think many of us watching the story unfold are very saddened that she had to experience this. However, that does not mean its someone else's fault such as the company Match.com. The gentleman that assaulted her is responsible and will reach his day in court to be prosecuted. If I meet a guy in church, college, or at a restaurant/bar and he assaults me it is not the institution of church, university or eating establishment's fault because they allowed him in. All of us who choose to date have a responsibility to know who we allow in our presence. From the news reports, allegedly after the assault the woman Googled him to then find out his criminal history. I do understand that many people feel that any dating agency has an underlying "responsibility" to its members but we are adults and must discern the people we date. What is reasonable is for Match.com to take the next steps in their business to implement processes/screenings to decrease the potential liability that could be determined in a court of law. 


I chose to date on E-Harmony.com for the "peace of mind" they provided: RelyID. RelyID is where members have the option to chose whether to link their profile to a third party site to "prove" identity which is similar to answering a few questions from your credit report. Members who chose this have their profile flagged as screened through RelyID. As a online dater I knew that did not exclude sexual predators, married men, or even he/she men from being on the site. It was ultimately my responsibility to perform my own screening on anyone I decided to date/meet from the site.


My On Line Dating Story
It was winter 2008 and I was a single woman finishing up 4 year career stint in Omaha, NE. I decided to return from an almost year long hiatus from relationships. My thoughts were dating online would force me to really get to know the person as opposed to rushing into something.  I filled out my profile and to my amazement learned about myself through their scenario based questions. A few weeks went by receiving matches, viewing profiles, closing out matches, getting closed out. Then one day I got a profile link from a gentleman that intrigued me. We began chatting through the 'secured' website. E-harmony has conversation starters and questions you can send back and forth to your match. Then we moved to emailing back and forth from our personal email addresses for about 2 weeks. After the conversations kept getting more interesting, we decided to speak on the phone. We opted out of E-harmony's optional secure phone line and used our cell phones. Then the phone conversations continued for 2 months. This "getting to know" period of time included adding each other on Facebook as it allows you to see you are talking to a real person & can validate the things they are saying about their life. We talked everyday about just about everything for the first 2 months.


Then during my drive to move from Omaha to Atlanta we had to go through a suburb of Nashville where my husband is from.  So with my "protection" BKA dad in tow I stopped at a McDonald's to meet my online date for the first time. We had a modest breakfast for about an hour. My father thought I was meeting an old friend. He later said that it seemed like we had known each other for a while. We go back on the road got to Atlanta and within a few days my husband was asking me to be his girlfriend. We had gotten to know each other so well it was just seeing each other in the physical made it know this is it. I now have a profound appreciation for the art of Compatibility.


I am well aware all online dating stories do not result in healthy relationships that lead to marriage. What I want you to remember from my story is TALK to, COMMUNICATE with & INVESTIGATE anyone you are dating.





Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand: East Atlanta



"Holy Mother Clucker" is a term that is often used these days as patrons of the new Chicken Sausage stand of East Atlanta take a bite of this messy but delicious meals. The owners are the same food geniuses that brought us The Flying Biscuit & The Porter. The stand makes handmade chicken sausage that is served embedded in a fresh hoagie roll topped with succulent toppings such as homemade beer cheese, sauerkraut, fire pepper mustard aka the The Sleezy Cheezy. They have great weekend hours (4AM Geesh!) so perfect for that late night after bar/club snack.


http://www.thesausagestand.com/

Monday, April 11, 2011

House Buyers Remorse


Yes, you heard it and it is very possible to make an over $100K big purchase mistake. Rewind to 2008 I had just moved to Atlanta and my lovely sister Social.Life.Style Blogger welcomed me to stay with her in Lawrenceville, a suburb of the city. Well this became challenging as I worked downtown on Peachtree in the heart of the city and the commute for me was nothing I wanted to handle even short term. So I start the first time homebuyer’s journey to the "American Dream". I thought of myself as a city girl so I decided to only look at condo properties no more than 10 miles from the city. Can you believe I never looked at a single family home? Never stepped foot inside of one? Ughfff (kicking myself). You might ask why? Well I settled on a 2 br/2.5 bath townhome in a growing gentrified East Atlanta condominium.


We all know what happen to the housing market late 2008 so me and another homeowner were the last 2 owners to purchase into our property. Little did we know this is our builder's first investment like this and they think of themselves as being well versed at rental property management? They have since tried to keep afloat financially by renting unsold units in a development that they have not event finished (skeleton units, no pool, fitness center). Imagine our property value with this plus the actual market tank. On top of that we have drug dealers, former or current male/female call girls or boys (yeahhh), people of want to film low budget movies, etc all currently or have lived in our condo community as renters. Gasssp..!

Now imagine this married women living with her husband in the home purchase property from hell. I find myself longing for the gingerbread house in the suburbs of Atlanta. It is sad that as a homeowner me and my husband would not feel comfortable procreating living in our home! I have to apologize for this rant but the market is picking up and people are buying homes. I want to make any unsuspecting buyer in the condo market beware on what is on the other side of the wall. If you must buy a condo I would highly suggest considering only the mature neighborhoods already filled with many homeowners.


Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Tribute To Mr. Wonderful




I consider myself a modest person because I appreciate the blessings that I have receive and the things I have but often do not talk about them. I must confess that I can not hold this in. I am married to the most wonderful man I have ever met. We have been working so closely together on our business ventures, projects, fasting for lent that I have to stop and take moment to let this man know how grateful I am for him. His patience, sincerity, humbleness, strength, tenacity for things he believes in, creativity, uniqueness are among the many things that make him who he is & especially Mr. Wonderful to me. I feel so blessed that all the things I wanted in a man and more I have. I will have to do a full post one day for my readers but just to let know Mr. Wonderful and I met in e-harmony.com in 2008 and my life was enhanced from his presence from the first connection.