How To Relieve Stress After College

I loves me some multivitamins, but have you ever gone on a date at a nice restaurant and pulled a handful of pills out of your purse at the end of the meal and gulped them all down with the dregs of a glass of wine? Boys don’t usually don’t think that’s hot.

So, how do I combine my social world with my vitamin world?! I’m supposed to take my vitamins with meals, but how can I when so many of my meals are with friends or potential boyfriends in trendy places. I’ve tried to nonchalantly down my vitamins at clubs or fusion restaurants, but usually two things happen: 1) People think I’m an addict or else I have some weird colon cancer 2) I explain that they are only vitamins, and pity turns to contempt as people realize I’m one of those anal retentive health freaks. I’m not, really!!

And let’s not even get into omega 3 fish oils. Fish burp can be the single most devistating thing to a relationship. It’s a very simple formula: Kissing + Fish Burp = throwing up in someone else’s mouth = “Let’s just be friends (actually, scratch that, let’s not be anything, and don’t hang out with my friends anymore)”

If I have to give one up, it’ll be the asian fusion bars, because at the end of the day I’d rather be a healthy freak than a trendy slob.

This weekend was a total shopping nightmare! I went to my usual haunts at the Westfield Plaza to pick out a handbag and a matching pair of shoes, and the place was swamped because of some Macy’s promotional giveaway. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from shopping, giveaway’s draw the wrong type of customers. 80% of the people in the plaza, probably couldn’t tell the difference between Versaci and payless Kathy Lee brand, but by God, they wanted their free perfume samples, or make-up bags, or whatever, and nothing’s going to stop them and their hordes of children from infesting an otherwise classy establishment.

So I ditched the plaza, and strolled down Wilshire, starting at the vitamin shop on Centinela and ending at Borders. Borders is a pretty go-to standard for the end of a day spending money. People are quiet, I can read about the market, or some candidates new promo book and feel a bit more intelligent to balance out the $400 I just spent on a fake plant in an expensive bowl. Ah, shopping is idiocy, so why is it so much fun?

I’m 27. I spent 8 years of my life in college. A lot of bruises and a couple degrees later, I’m now in the on-the-rise actuarial industry. Being an actuary is as zesty as being a shoe salesman in Denmark (nope, not sure what that means), but hey it pays for endless fast and furious weekends, and I can afford to total my car occasionally. And by occasionally, I think I’m doing pretty good with one major accident per year.

In college, I dated other people in college. Now I’m in the real world and I date other people in the real world. There are two major differences:

1) College people, no matter how old, do not have the responsibility of fiscal survival impressed upon their faces. I mean this in literal terms. You can look at a person’s face and instantly recognize if they are pressured to pay their own bills. Not having that “shit-I-have-to-pay-my-bills” look is an extreme turn off for me, and I’m assuming for anyone who also walks around each day with that look.

2) The age range of people I will consider dating in the real world has widened rather drastically. In college, I believe 27 was my cut off. Now I believe somewhere around 53 is my cutoff. I have not yet dated a 53 year old man (dated a 43 year old one though), but I’m now old enough to go for the George Clooney types.

So this blog is about my new experiences with keeping a healthy, stress free sex life going in the REAL world. I’m hoping the real world is worth it.