JoJo's Bachelorette Episode 2 aka Tune in Tokyo

I didn't do a post for the first season because it's all really just the intros and the first cocktail party.

Plus, I actually only watched 20 minutes of it as a certain little guy was having a tough night's sleep so I spent the time hanging with him instead. Priorities won out.

So, starting off with the 2nd episode and the first week of dates.

Group Date

JoJo coming in to wield and spray a water hose. Yeaaah, no innuendo there. None.

Hmm, a firefighting contest, you say? Not too surprising at all that the firefighter, Grant, won. That was a really good kiss, though.

Wells was freaking adorable. Poor guy. And when he was talking to JoJo during the night portion of the group date and grinned. Oh my gosh, I swooned. Great, great smile. Plus, he has a dog named Carl. I love it! Seriously, he's my top favorite.

Luke. What can I say. So, so hot. JoJo's into him. She kept touching him while they were talking and stroking his hair and just constantly in contact with him. Girl is interested and why shouldn't she be? That kiss out on the balcony? Smoking.

Derek's One-on-One Date

The choices were cute, but what would have happened if they didn't say the same choice? I assume JoJo's choice would have fun. I did laugh when the options were "North" and "South" in the plane and they both chose North because going South would mean they would have flown into the ground. Ay yi yi. That's not what that means. LOL They would have gone in the direction of South from where they were. Nutters.

Derek seemed really normal and totally cute. He became even cuter when I saw those arm muscles stretch in that henley/baseball T he was wearing. Yum... And aww, poor guy was cheated on. I'm sure plenty of girls will be more than willing to console him if JoJo doesn't choose him.

NOTE: I have no idea who wins this season. Yes, I've read the spoilers in the past, but trying a new tactic this year.

ESPN Date

Holy shit. It's like the mothership calling the boys home. JoJo grew up watching ESPN? Doubtful! (Edited to add that the Internet proved me wrong, folks. Guess she is a fan.)

Those victory dances were pretty funny. I'm not sure what Nick was doing when he said he was adjusting the shower knobs, but it totally looked like he was playing "Tune in Tokyo" to me. Cracked up when he was doing that.

Chad calling JoJo "naggy". No, hon, just no. That doesn't fly. It's like insulting a girl as a pick-up line. Doesn't work and if any of the girls reading this ever fall for this shit, please take a look at your self-confidence level. Not okay. Although I do have to give Chad props (very begrudgingly since he screams "frat boy douche" to me) for saying it's bullshit that the guys are all saying they're in love with JoJo on basically their first date. That is true. Far too early, kids.

For the night-time portion of the ESPN date...

James Taylor. Oh, honey, I can't tell if those were potential song lyrics or a poem or what, but I think "Hardcore man stuff" was not exactly the phrase he was looking for. Seriously. ;) He did win me over with that sweet kiss, though. Boys, some advice here. When you're going in for a kiss, mimic James T's move of rubbing your thumb against her cheek/chin. It's a winner.

Rose Ceremony and Pre-Ceremony Cocktail Party

Nice steal before the party, Chad. Dammit, way to make me feel bad for ya by revealing you lost your mom 6 months ago. Crap. I felt kind of bad for calling the guy a douche, but then his antics during the party, especially threatening Alex and putting his hand in his face brought back the douche factor. Not a fan. Yes, good choice to actually EAT during the cocktail party rather than drink his brains out, but yeesh.

Wells wears pink socks!! Continuing the love.

Alex, you can't really get mad at Chad for cutting in on your talk, since that was absolutely producer-driven. Plus, have you ever seen this show? This happens every season.

The Men Overall

Chase reminds me of the "I'm a grown ass man" Chris Bukowski from Emily's season. Heck, so many of these men are interchangeable. Chase, Jordan and Chad all look the same. And whoever that guy is that was the last one to leave after the roses were given -- I thought that was James Taylor and was shocked he didn't get a rose. But then I saw James T standing there still and remembered he already had a rose.

My current faves: 

• Wells
• Derek
• Luke

Freebie List 2016

Close to midway through 2016 and I haven't yet issued this year's celebrity "freebie" list? How dare I? And yup, a few people on the list have indeed changed. Let's see who's still there and who's been added to the list -- and kisses to anyone I've taken off the list. Nothing personal, boys. 

1. Alexander Skarsgard -- Okay, so yeah, he still remains number one. Sorry, boys. It's going to take someone damn impressive to knock off Mr. Skarsgard from top billing. Come on... The height. Those arms. That ass. Those abs (image from the upcoming movie, "Tarzan", which yup, I'll be going to see. How could I not??). The ability to look like a Norse god while sitting out in the snow buck naked, and the confidence to know he's damn fine and to go full-frontal (and yes, that link still works) on screen while doing so. Oh, yes, he gets the first spot. He just has it all and he's a blonde, which I still don't get because for most of my life, blondes were a no-go for me until that changed. But bring 'em on! 

2. Chris Hemsworth -- He was the other reason I rethought my mantra of "just say no to blondes". Funny how dreams work. One day, a guy celeb isn't even a blip on one's radar and then one night there's a dream (oof, what a dream) and suddenly you're looking at him very, very differently. And thanks to a friend, I apparently need to see the movie "Rush" starring Chris Hemsworth in a number of sex scenes. Thanks to YouTube, I've seen the shower scene and the airplane scene, but the full movie is definitely on the to be watched list. 
3. David Boreanaz -- He makes a welcome return to the list. He caught my eye when he played Angel on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and has grown up quite, quite nicely to be on "Bones". Again, tall. Shocker. Okay, not shocking at all knowing me. Hot, great abs and has that mischievous almost cocky gleam in his eye. Yeah, he can stick around the list again for a little while. 
4. Ryan Reynolds -- Deadpool Shirtless. 'Nuf said. Although he first caught my eye in one of the "Blade" trilogy movies when he was shirtless. 
5. Joel Kinnaman -- First learned of him when I saw "The Killing" (hell of a good show, but a very annoying as all get-out cliffhanger for the first season. Watch it knowing you'll have to wait til the 2nd season for answers) and fell in celeb lust. He's also starring in the upcoming "Suicide Squad", which will also be a must-see.

Okay, who's on your list?

The Bachelorette's Boys Revealed

I've been kind of waiting for this day, ever since word leaked that Jo Jo's season of The Bachelorette had the hottest guys ever. The pics of the lads (I so want to call them Jo Jo's harem, but pretty sure that only relates to women, no?) have been revealed and the verdict is...

Honestly? I'm kind of disappointed. <insert Price is Right loser music here>

Maybe it was over-sell by people claiming that the guys were the hottest yet, but I'm not feeling it. Just two or three of the guys made me interested enough by their pic to click to find out more about them. The rest just got a solid "meh" from me.

And I'm putting this out there now because I'm sure when the show starts and the guys are all shirtless basically 24/7, I'm going to change my tune and be all "Whooaaaa, baby" and "brown chicken brown cow". (Also, if you don't know that song, click on the link now and take a listen. Love it. And love Trace Adkins, who is my own personal kind of taller than tall hot.) Or I'll get to "know" them by hearing them talk and hearing their stories/seeing how they are with Jo Jo and they'll become more attractive that way. That definitely happens and I'm sure it will this time, too. There's a Doctor Who quote about that when Amy is discussing her to-be husband, Rory...

“You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful, and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they're dull as a brick. But then there's other people, and you meet them and you think 'not bad, they're okay', and then you get to know them, and their face sort of becomes them, like their personality's written all over it, and they just they turn into something so beautiful...”

So much that. Love when that happens. I'm sure there are quite a few of the guys in the cast that I'm just passing by at first glance and will think are tremendously hot because of who they are (and possibly on account of their abs, too. Yes, I'm shallow. This isn't news.) by the end of the season.

The three guys that stuck out to me the most just from the pics alone are Chase, Luke and Wells.

* Chase - Hot. Just hot. Yowza. And I clicked on his info and "Chronicles of Narnia" is one of his favorite movies. Shut up. Just shut up. Aslan and Mister Tumnus and "Turkish Delight" (It's a candy) and of course, the armoire. I'm still always disappointed when the back of my armoire doesn't lead to Narnia. That needs to happen some day.

* Luke - Okay, my first thought when seeing him was that he's hot but looks like he knows it and is a douche. I clicked on his info fully expecting to see that he was a model or actor. Instead, I see that he's a war veteran. Okay, so I am not the walrus. I'm the douche. Ugh. I guess he could still be a jackass, but he's a vet, so I'm hoping like hell that is not the case.

* Wells - He looks like someone I would have fallen for back in high school, right down to the pins on the jacket. What is up with the pins on the jacket?? But, he's cute in an adorable kind of way.

Haven't read any spoilers about this season, although we all know they're out there and I typically do read up so I know ahead of time. And heck I probably will wind up reading Reality Steve again because I'm addicted to being in the know. But, as of this writing, I don't know squat. Heck, for all I know, all three of these guys were eliminated on the first night, although I hope not!

How a Bryan Adams' Song Brought Me Back in Time

While I was work blogging today, I had the "soft rock" station on. I know. You're all laughing. But it helps me to write having background music and the soft rock channel is the best one because I don't wind up getting up and dancing or singing along like I do when pretty much any other station is on. It's just muzak. Well, until today.

Bryan Adams' "All For Love" from the soundtrack of "The Three Musketeers" movie came on, and I suddenly remembered what that song meant to me in college. For a while, I was obsessed with that song Senior year thanks to (wait for it) a guy. Of course. But, the funny thing is, I had completely forgotten about this guy until I heard this song. For all the thinking about him back in college, and there was far too much at one point, now he means nada to me and I'm slightly embarrassed to say I can't even remember his name.

I'd look him up in the yearbook, but he didn't go to college with me. Instead, I met him through a personal ad. Again, yes, you're all laughing. I am, too. But it was Senior year and I was licking my wounds after dating a buddy hadn't worked out (nothing personal to him at all, but when I kissed him, it felt like I was kissing a relative and that was not sexy in the slightest LOL) so I had figured what the hell, let's see what happens and posted it in the Personals section of the local city paper.

Back then, the Internet didn't exist, so I had to call into a voice mail box to see if I had any messages. And to my surprise, there were quite a few. One memorable one that I think I've mentioned here before was from an artist who was convinced that he and I were fated to be together and left numerous rambling voice messages to that end. Now, looking back, I'm very proud of my then-self for not contacting that guy because that's the kind of shit that then-me would have lapped up. But I didn't.

However, I did contact the guy who was my age and went to a college that was in that nearby big city. He sounded normal, so I left him a return message or called him and we agreed to meet up. A friend and I picked him up at the local train/subway station since there wasn't a direct stop at all to our college and he and I went to go see "The Three Musketeers", so I affiliated that song with him for a while.

We must have hit it off (I do remember thinking that first kiss was definitely NOT like kissing a relative, thank heavens...) because we agreed to hang out again. He came up again and a group of us (including the buddy I had tried dating and his then-girlfriend) went out to the local pub for dinner and drinks. (Side note: Because of this, I realized this was senior year and not junior year, because I wouldn't have been out at a bar drinking junior year.) Then, we came back and were playing some "I never" drinking game up in the suite. I don't remember how this came about, but the guy admitted that he had worked as a gigolo when he was working out of town the previous summer and was seeing the wives of a bunch of politicians. Ooookay. That was a bit much for my little then-virginial self to handle. Yikes.

He did spend the night in the dorm room and no, dear readers, nothing happened other than making out. What I do remember of him the most is that he had a school meeting the next morning so he had to get up early, and because I had no car, one of my good buds was graceful enough to let me use her car to drop him back off at the train/subway station. I seem to remember that he called a few times after that, but ehh, not my cup of tea at all, so I stopped answering his calls and he stopped calling.

Now that I'm thinking of him though, I wish I could remember his name or even just his first name. Hoping that I haven't somehow run into him over the years and have no recollection of it. If so, sorry dude!

Yeesh, all of that memory from one little song.

Public Speaking

As part of my freelancing/owning my own consulting company, I've been attending scores of business-to-business (B2B) networking events. The first one I attended was absolutely nerve wracking as small talk has never exactly been one of my traits, nor going up to strangers and starting a conversation. OMG, this person could hate me and shun me and turn away and mock me wasn't an uncommon (albeit irrational at best) thought before leaving for that first event. 

But, to my surprise, I actually found myself smiling and talking to new people with ease and having conversations with them. Seems bursting way the hell out of my shell by selling sex toys at house parties was exactly what I needed to make networking events seem like a breeze in comparison. Who knew? 

This skill has also helped in interviewing with companies for freelancing gigs because I now go in with the mentality that I'm there to help the person/company instead of fretting about if they'd like me or would hate me on sight and want to flee (thank you, years of being an overly self-conscious person for that perception). What I need to know when I'm meeting with a company these days is if *I* like them and want to work for them. Yes, of course, I'm there to hawk my skills and what I can do for them but at the same time, I'm not nervous, feel confident and am observing and considering if the company is a right fit for ME. So, so important. Trust me on this. I've not listened to my gut instinct in interviews before and should have. 

Today's event was interesting as I met a woman that I hadn't previously met before. She started up a local access TV show to promote successful entrepreneurs who have been in the business for 3 years or more. That doesn't apply to me yet. Key word there -- yet. But she and I got to talking and she told me how she teaches classes at a local business center and how I would be absolutely perfect to teach a class on my specialties (which I won't list here so as to stay far, far away from having this online persona connect in any way with my business life) because I'm so outgoing, bubbly and have a great speaking voice and presence. 

Holy shit. Internally, I was stunned because my first thought (again, thank you to years of growing up without self-confidence) was "Me? Seriously? Are you crazy?! I have nada to teach a class and would just turn beet red and mumble and bore the shit out of everyone." 

But, as we spoke further and my brain decided to shut the hell up, I thought about it and realized she was actually right. I've been hearing more and more from people I meet with at these events and at interviews about my bubbly outgoing demeanor and how easy it is to talk to me. And I know that I have information to give to people just based on what I do and heck, I have presented on the topics before in person to sales teams and others (again, keeping this kind of vague). She was actually the 3rd person recently who has broached the topic of public speaking to me but was the first one who actually mentioned a specific center that might work really well. 

So, when I hear from her about the information (and yes, I've already reached out -- fortune's in the follow-up, kids...), I'll talk to them and see what's possible. It's an exciting idea and these days have been insanely odd but fun/nutty days. More to follow...