PSA by a Hopeless Romantic

I was always taught you should date for love. Find that inexplicable feeling someone gives you that makes you lose yourself in him or her and eventually find a better version of yourself. However, on several occasions now, friends have confessed that they aren't looking for "love" in the former sense, but they are looking for a partner that makes sense for them financially and politically. Now, none my friends are in politics, however, I keep reading all of these articles and posts about how love is dying etc. ... and I'm wondering if they drank the Kool-Aid? Or are hopeless romantics like me an endangered species?

Take friend #1: attractive, educated, reasonable stable and looking for someone that can fit in his cookie cutter vision. Love optional.
Take friend #2: good looking, type-A, currently seeking higher education and looking for someone that appreciates the obvious offerings AND can match her current expectations +.

I've purposefully chosen one male and one female so I don't read comments about "well it's a girl thing" later :) Both individuals come from great families, are very educated and looking for partners. So it's not to say they can't recognize love. I've argued at nausea the reason love is important AND recommended they watch the Notebook a time or two.

Unfortunately, I think my friends have given up. They don't see a benefit in looking for someone that will give them that half-baked cookie feeling in lieu of being stable and satisfying a vision that might/or might not work fundamentally. Partially, our economy is to blame; everyone in my generation is grasping their wallets and looking for efficient and successful ways to accommodate their dreams in reality -- and this same strategy has been applied to match seeking.
As a complement to all the articles that dictate the overabundance of work in our lives and ridiculous imbalance of work and life of course we have problems taking time to get to know someone for who they are and who they can be in one's future.

Given the current social dynamics and obligations, perhaps us hopeless romantics are on the endangered species list...but we won't go down without a fight (or at least we won't forget to release a movie this summer to inspire summer love).

Oh where, oh where has my little blog gone?

...Oh where oh where can she be? Apologies for the lack of posts, seems my blog inspiration decided to go into hibernation along with my running shoes for the winter... Never fear, they are both back and ready for running and writing (and boy the skinny girl inside me is just as happy as you are about the resurgence). So here we are, a few days before one of the most optimistic days of the year; where everyone vows to be a better self, be organized and create goals - GO YOU! I'm sorry to say you guys are late to this party. Part of my sabbatical was due to my quarter life crisis that decided to remind me in nearly two weeks I will be a quarter of a century so there has been a lot of "goal processing"...Two weeks away from that long list of things I wanted to do before 25 like climb Everest goes into the fail pile and onto the bucket list...Two years away from a drastic metabolism yield...One year away from my dream age -- 26. You know, when you were younger (and with apparently no concept of time) this is the magical age you thought you'd be married, in a glamorous apartment somewhere and VP of something...Although all of these dreams were pretty much crushed in the last two years or so by a little thing called Realism and his sister Practicality, it's hard to come to terms with the idea that your magical age is disappearing into the same purgatory as fairy tales princesses and Santa.
Anyway the list goes on, I had to get a new license, I will move into the 25-30 box column on surveys, and my decision making skills need to be sharper than ever. So I'm nervous. I don't think per say anything that day will happen, but it does lessen my chance that I will be on the Inc 30 under 30 list.
Is this an appropriate age to freak out? Can you imagine what I'll be like at my midlife crisis? Hopefully, you'll be reading my amazing book by then and you can read all about it vicariously through one of my fictional characters.

Triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number 13, Mr. Webster should've thought of one for the number 25.

Fairytales for all!

In a perfect girl world, the most magical, romantical fairytale includes: a boy, an unrecognized love that grows over the course of 2 hours (movie time, 6 months real time), the epic fail of that love and then a male realization that he's almost lost the best thing he ever had. For years, no wait decades - this fairytale has manifested itself into the "happily ever after" syndrome that women dream of. We also tend to evaluate the success or failure of each relationship based on where the relationship falls in this ebb and flow.
But then, imagine this fairytale, with Justin Timberlake... cinema gold.

OK OK, this is not only because I'm an obvious NSYNC fanatic (closeted owner of the Justin Timberlake No Strings Attached marionette doll); the new movie "Friends with Benefits" was absolutely charming. A unisex romantic comedy, even the males in the audience (bf included) didn't feel like poking their eyes out throughout the movie. The perfect "one-size fits all" romantic-comedy naturally plays into the ebb and flow of the fairytale, but it also becomes a punctured story with jokes, witty comebacks and a peek into the real life of relationships. To every hyperbole it starts off with some truth and this movie is no exception.
The most obvious reveal is the boy/girl relationship and expectations, for example:

Partial Truth reveal no. 1: In the movie, Justin is closed off - not shocking if you date anyone in the 21st century. The reveal is as a girlfriend no matter how close she thinks she is to her boyfriend she always thinks and feels like he should tell her more. While he might consider family tragedy to be none of her business, she's always hurt when she didn't know.
Partial Truth reveal no. 2: Boys will hook up with the crazies no matter what density of attractiveness. Girls, will always upgrade (unless she's a bottom feeder). MK - chose a doctor, JT - chose a random from the bar.
Partial Truth reveal no. 3: Girls do not share. The inevitable moment when the girl becomes jealous and the boy becomes surprised and drops the whole "oh we aren't dating" line. 

There were plenty, but this blog will not submit to spoilers.

Justin has an air about him that seduces women and makes men want to be him. So in essence, a male digestible fairytale includes some truths as a nod to the brotherhood and still follow this trajectory onto happily ever after; where they find the person just past the end of their nose, and end on Day 1. You can't really see where things are a year later, which explains why there are never sequels to romantic comedies. I guess the morale of this tale is it's all about the moment, the submission to happily ever after, the love, and the fruition of a fairytale (and now I will put away my: I believe in LOVE button).