Jersey Shore boy, Marriage & Society

Boy my opinions have changed over the years.  I love becoming older, because I notice how much more accepting and open minded I am to all different kinds of people and circumstances.

Granted judging people comes naturally to everyone, sometimes we need to catch ourselves before we speak.  Example 'Jersey Shore Boy' {Insert foot in mouth}.

My fabulous girlfriend and I went on a fun friendly outing in Denver to get some burgers when a group of men came up and asked to share our booth.  Pretty good looking guys and pretty entertaining to talk to.  A couple were older 30's and one 28.  One who looked like a jersey shore boy was particularly interested in talking to me which is flattering but not my type.  The discussion of my age came up, "32" I said.  He looked shocked, then proceeded to say the worst A-hole comment you could make... he said " Excuse me but anyone who looks like you over  30 yrs, never been married has got to have something wrong with them, just speaking the truth".   His friend looked like he was going to smack his friend.  I wouldn't have minded.
I calmly looked at him and then proceeded to ask "Are you single?"  He said yes, I asked again "Have you been married?"  He replied yes and mentioned getting a divorce.  I then said " So what is wrong with you?  If you are single and divorced so soon, there has to be something wrong with you?  I've been engaged and personally am glad I didn't marry anyone from my past, so that's not a bad thing because I wouldn't have been happy".   I admit I then said something far from lady-like.  I told him not to be a D*ck.  He totally was in my defense. Even if he was paying me with an odd-ish compliment.
After that night I started thinking about Marriage and Society.

My thoughts on Marriage

Honestly I've never felt "that thing" for a person, don't judge.   Close though.

 I've had many friends marry, some really early and some later in life.  Quite a few have divorced and let me say I don't enjoy hearing the heartbreak from  my closest friends.  I love them dearly.  They are those who tried and I wouldn't say 'failed' but sometimes things just don't work out.  But all their experiences seem to scare me from "settling" or finding a person just because society says a woman needs to have kids and be married in order to be happy.  There are many un-happy marriages also.  Personally wouldn't it be better to find a wonderful person that fits your bill with wonderful qualities that compliment each other?  I have also heard of 'Starter Marriages'.  Women like that scare me and men.  Who take something so beautiful and make it casual and don't take it seriously.  Isn't that like strapping the motto 'ball and chain' on for real?  How emotionally exhausting, lying to yourself and your partner to make others happy that you got married or gain an extra status.
Love is beautiful and sacred in my opinion.  But with divorce rates higher than ever, it's better to wait till you're ready to make such a huge commitment to one person.  After all, you are playing apart of their emotional well-being.
I actually wouldn't mind never getting married.  It's not a priority and it doesn't bother me.  But I support those who do of course, absolutely.  I have plenty of single and divorced friends getting older.  Life is life, we all have our own unique time-line.

Society

Disney love films, we've all seen them.  Standards of love on film created in some fantasy way is not healthy.  Although sweet and fun.
Who said by a certain age you need to have this or that.  Are we saying "settle" because society needs us to be a certain way to be acceptable?
This definitely isn't the 50's where we need to live by certain cookie cutter standards.
So I guess to Jersey shore boy...I'd say "I'm completely un-apologetic for not having married someone I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with and have 2 kids and divorced by age 27."  Which is what I for saw.    There are so many circumstances to people choosing to just be single the rest of their lives, to never have children.  Some don't want them,  it's their preference.  I say bravo for not having one and regretting it or not meeting the child's sufficient needs.

I guess my point is lets be less judgmental of each other and respect all our different opinions and life-styles/beliefs.  We all don't think alike and of course we all have things that are 'wrong with us' as in things that we need to work on to be better/happier human beings.
Let's celebrate our differences, not criticize.  

Adventures in Europe

So I'm just writing about my fantastic trip in Europe I took last year.  It was one of the best adventures I've had so take a seat, lean back and enjoy the blogging ride....

Jules and I have had this long desire for a Euro adventure and mentally had been planning the trip a year before.  My plane ride was incredibly awesome!!! Pop a couple Tylenol Pm's and BAM!!! You wake up in Europe all refreshed at 6am their time :)

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Day 1 in London:

Takin the tube was the easy part, finding my euro outlet was not and almost causing a spark in the Comfort Heathrow hotel was almost catastrophic when I tried to find an alternative to my phone charger.

So, skipped that and took to the 'tube'.  I thoroughly enjoyed my day of site seeing.

I took a jaunt to St. Paul's Cathedral ( I wasn't supposed to photograph but when do I ever listen when it comes to photo opps??? and escorts), then off to Buckingham Palace where I met a police man whom I totally fell in love with just because of his accent.  He was very helpful and said "have a good day, pip pip cheerio".   After I came across a busy intersection where you would totally get run over if you didn't remember that they drive on the opposite side of the street.  

Off to the Shakespeare "Globe Theater".  By then I was walking all day in my kitten heels that I realized tennis shoes would've been more ideal but anyone who knows me knows I always wear fashionable shoes.  Totally not a DO in Europe.  I got to see a reenactment of "Romeo and Juliet" which I loved!! 

I made an effort to enjoy my only full day in London so I strolled the fresh food market, saw chocolate pasta mmmmm!  Had some fabulous fresh drink with fruit and basil mulled, enjoyed some conversation with a fire engine red haired woman with the coolest outfit ever.  She was so sweet and fun to talk to.  

Back to Comfort Inn.  It's almost time for Dublin, Ireland.

Dublin, Ireland

If there's any place I loved it was Ireland.  Carrying my luggage off the bus was a big tricky with my gigantic zebra suitcase and heels.  Trying to find my hotel.  I walked for a good hour and found this wonderful market with the most amazing market foods.  I eventually found my hotel, un-packed and headed to get some Irish Pizza :)  It was AMAZING!! Especially after walking all over and ate the entire pizza.  No help needed there.  Some really hot Irish biker dude whistled and hollard at me... I thought it was flattering until I realized almost all the men act that way there.  It almost felt like a construction site.  BUT I love the accents and didn't mind.  Off to bed.

My full day in Ireland was absolutely amazing.  I walked ALL over Dublin and went to every single church, land mark you could possibly think of. My favorite church was St. Augustine built in 1796.
I saw an old castle built in 1504 as well.  I love places you can go and immerse yourself into what it must have been like that many years ago.

Paris

Intense! We saw every site in Paris pretty much and got ripped off by some men who  made bracelets for 8 bucks.  Never again! Food...AMAZING!  They know how to  make it.  The most beautiful city for sure I have ever been to.  There was a man pretending to be blind with 8 puppies.  Those homeless sneaks are goooood!  Puppies, hard to say no to puppies & he didn't like me petting them unless I paid up.
Fashion there...let's say I could've spent more money on clothes but I ended up spending a lot on sites.  French 'Tubes' are ridiculously hard to use but their fruity beer during the process helped a little.  I met a ton of guy travelers who shared their stories & I shared mine.
Pastries.....yeah, I went back to one pastry shop a few times.  I loved seeing the Chanel store across the street from Notre Dame.  Amazing church.  Julia stood inside picturing all of the old famous people in history walking the same stair case ect...I could get lost in Paris.
The Eiffel tower was beautiful.  Julia & I stopped in a french pizza restaurant and they apparently don't have health codes since the pigeons just pecked around our feet.  The waiters also don't work off tips so they can be as rude as they like.  They were okay.
I could go back to Paris, that's for sure.