Another Online Sweet Talker

September 12, 2007

The Sweet Talker wasn’t the only bad thing that happened to my friend Karin online. In fact it was a party compared to what happened later. This next guy was such a terrible experience it made her think seriously about giving up the online dating idea completely. I even agreed and told her it would be a good idea! Anyway, it was a few months ago. She was all excited one day and sent me a photo of this guy she just hooked up with on the date site, and this one was so AMAZING looking it even made me a little jealous. He was gorgeous, blond and tanned, like a surfer model from another planet, maybe planet HOT. Karin was walking on a cloud right away and it was no use getting her to talk about anything else. No wonder, because everything else about this guy sounded too good to be true.

She told me he was a petroleum engineer, just out of school and working on the oil rigs up in Canada. He told her his father was an oil executive and his mom was a missionary. They talked on the phone about three times a day.

This doesn’t sound like a bad thing, and it wasn’t, not yet at least. It actually made me kind of happy because Karin was so excited and focused. It was like an advertisement for online dating sometimes being like winning a lottery for some people. But I noticed right off that he didn’t seem to be asking many questions about Karin, or her life or anything. Guys can be like that, just thinking about themselves, especially hot guys, but this was strange. Still, she told me I was just paranoid, so that was it — for a week or so.

Suddenly gifts began to arrive at Karin’s place, nice gallant-gentleman gifts like chocolates, roses, big balloons and even a few teddy bears. Now she was talking about going up to Canada and never coming back, starting a family with him. Then she told me he’d called for like the fifth time that day to tell her his mom had been involved in an accident while doing missionary work in Africa and he needed to wire cash right away to make sure she was shipped back home to a hospital here. He asked her to contribute as much as she could and to ask her friends to throw in money to help. Right away after we hung up I went online to a fraud-busters blog and described the situation to people in the chat room. They kind of laughed at me and said that Karin had – almost – been the victim of a notorious online fraudster ring run from somewhere in Africa. The guy’s photo was a fake and the gifts were probably bought on a stolen credit card.

You can imagine how terrible it was to bring this news to Karin, but I did it right away. Nothing special for me or anyone else, I think, because friends have to help friends. She cut the guy off and I hope people reading this will always be careful, EXTRA careful, because who knows what’s out there anymore?

 

Dating Journal
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How To Choose A Beauty Salon

September 9, 2007

There are some horrible stories in the news about catching staph infections and having allergic reactions in beauty salons so I thought I would go to the trouble to write a bit about how to choose a salon that has some integrity.

First of all it is probably a good idea for you to check out a beauty salon before you make an appointment. It doesn’t matter how famous someone is who goes there or what your friends say. A girlfriend can lead you astray because she may not want to give her real beauty secrets away and tell you where she really goes to get her nails or hair done. Your own eyes, sense of smell and judgment will tell you if it is a clean salon and if it is the place for you.

The salon should also be affordable. The best way to find about the treatments at a beauty salon is to ask for a breakdown of their rates and their treatments, which should be readily available in a brochure that they hand out to customers. If a beauty salon does not have this kind of brochure then they are probably not reputable and may change their prices at whim. It also means that they probably change their staff all of the time.

Another good way to find highly rated salons in your area is to look through the services offered listings in local high-end magazines. Often these city style magazines have rating systems that can help you choose a quality high-end beauty salon that you can afford. However avoid reviews where it looks like the Salon that has paid for an ad as the review might be rigged in its favors.

In general it is probably a good idea to avoid beauty salons that are in the more run down areas of town. You also probably have less insurance against an infection or fried hair as the result of a bad perm job if you go to a beauty salon that is a hole in a wall or run out of someone’s home. These cottage industry style beauty salons often cut corners to pay the rent by doing things like not sterilizing their tools, reusing tools and using old product. This can be a recipe for disaster for your looks as well as make you ill.

The best beauty salon is usually located in a more upscale end of town or in a shopping center. Usually they are chains that have some kind of quality control or cleanliness policy in place. As is true with many things in life, the more you pay, the better you will be treated. So in this sense the rates of a beauty salon can tell you a lot about the quality of service that you can expect.

However one drawback of using the more expensive salons is sometimes they have real attitude. Remember that you don’t have to pay money to be treated in an arrogant or insulting way by some guy who thinks he is the next judge of America’s Top Model or Queer Eye show.

 

Dating Journal

Mr. El Cheapo

September 6, 2007

Okay this is not my horrific story but it is my girlfriend Kate’s. Kate was seeing this guy for a year. He seemed like perfect marriage material. He was tall, handsome, kind and good in bed. Even better yet, he has a job as a researcher that pays him about seven thousand a year. Kate by the way is an assistant to a mortgage broker and only makes about thirty five thousand a year.

So it turns out that his mom gets sick and that they have to go down to San Diego to visit her. El Cheapo, as he is now known, has a very nice SUV but it turns out he doesn’t want to take it on the road around the gulf as he fears it might be damaged. Instead he encourages my friend to take her cheap Honda instead. This way he doesn’t have to pay for insurance and all the rest.

His mother lives in a one-bedroom condo in the middle of town in a development that is not too pretty. Even though his mom’s two sisters were already staying there he insisted that he and Kate stay there too to save money. The result was an aching back from sleeping on the iron bars that you can fell all night when you sleep on a fold out couch. All night she was longing to be in a hotel, any hotel, even a Holiday Inn. Furthermore the two old ladies that were in the bedroom would not stop snoring.

All night Kate kept thinking, “Well maybe that real engagement ring he has been promising me is not on the way. “ Instead of proposing with a diamond ring he bought her a zircon that would do in the time being.

The next morning El Cheapo and Kate had toast and coffee and then spent all day at the hospital where his mother was fine. Kate bought his mother a big bouquet of flowers, a teddy bear and some candied fruits that she could enjoy later. She also bought his mom a housecoat so she would not feel embarrassed walking down the hall with the rear flaps of the hospital gown flapping open. Then Kate suggested that they go get something to eat.

Kate suggests celebrating the success of his mom’s operations by eating somewhere five star and really good like Benihani’s but instead he takes her to a really cheap pub down by the wharf where they have watery corn chowder and hamburgers with buns that taste like cardboard. When the bill comes he takes a look at and when he sees that it comes to a grand total of sixteen dollars plus tip he says to her (quite seriously) – “We’ve got to stop going to such expensive restaurants.”

Needless to say the two of them broke up for good shortly after that episode. The moral of the story is – always go for the diamond in the rough and don’t settle for a cheap Zircon.

 

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The Best Date Treatments At Day Spas

September 3, 2007

I really like preparing for a date at a day spa. There are a lot of great ones in Miami where I live one. The thing is –do you know what beauty are worth the money and which ones should you choose if you have never been to any type of day spa before? Well talk to me I have had every day spa treatment in the world

One of the most popular and worthwhile services offered at many day spas is the therapeutic massage. This is a massage, sometimes done with essential oils or specialty creams in which a masseuse manually manipulates your skin and muscles. This calms my nerves and I find also stimulates the skin by bringing blood circulation to the surface.

Yet another practical and effective service is the facial which can involve a number of practices including analysis of the skin, exfoliation deep cleansing, massage, infrared therapy toning, moisturizing and the removal of black heads. You can also get similar treatments at day spas for the entire body.

These body treatments are basically facials for the whole body that also include exfoliation, toning, heath therapy, moisturizing and massage. One of the most au-courant body treatments is a salt glow or body scrub, an exfoliating treatment where the therapist rubs off the outermost layer of dead skin cells and that stimulates the skin so the circulation is brought to the surface. This gives your whole body a healthy, fresh glow.

Another specialty treatment offered by many day spas is the body wrap. Basically there are two types of body wraps – the detoxifying wrap and the hydrating wrap. Algae, mud, fruit and seaweed are used in detoxifying wraps. Hydrating body wraps consist of such ingredients as shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado and other types of rich creams or oils. Many day spas also add vitamins, flower petals and even chocolate to their wraps to make them more beneficial and pleasant to experience.

Another common offering at day spas is the manicure or pedicures along with foot and leg massages. These massages can be done with aromatherapy. However you can also get these types of services done more cheaply at a hair salon.

Before you go for some of the more exotic services that are offered by day spas such as hot stone therapy, Thai Massage or iridology (looking at the irises of the eyes to diagnose health conditions) you might want to try some of the basic services described above to make sure that it is a quality day spa.

Quality day spas will be ones that come highly recommended by your friends and local magazines. They are also usually located in high-end areas of town. Some of the very best day spas are located inside hotel chains. Also like most things that can be purchased in life, treatments at day spas tend to be better if they are more expensive. This is because the expensive day spas hire better-qualified staff and use more expensive ingredients in their potions.

 

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