Since the whole bartender fiasco, many of my friends and family members have offered their services to help me meet a great guy. Here's an example of an email I sent to my friend Michael, who had asked me to send him a reminder with a description of what I was looking for:

This is your official reminder to make it your mission in life to find a guy for me who's not a jackass.

Leora and I were instant messaging about this one day, and here's the description we came up with, which I think is pretty on target:

Religion: doesn't much matter, just not too religious either way - looks - edgy and cute - not any type specifically, just not preppy - personality - same - edgy and funny - must be sarcastic and also able to be warm - must "get it" and also not be intimidated by your friends - job: must have one with some plan for future - status: single and actually looking for a relationship - location: new york - -yes? is this right?
[16:37] Larenator S: yes. and must like food and music
[16:38] Larenator S: would be nice if he had creative side, but doesn't have
to be creative for a living

I also think he should be close his friends and family, and 30 or older would be a plus.

This weekend was my second foray into the world of Midnight Madness. Team Charlie Brown, comprised of fellow Tufts a cappella freaks, (a few imported from Boston, even) slogged through about 12 hours of the game, which brought us through Chinatown, over the Manhattan bridge, and on into DUMBO in Brooklyn. We think we came in 6th or so. And we still all like each other! Wow.

Click here for more pictures.

The other piece of randomness stemming from MMVI is that I got a response on Nerve (which I just reactivated for the hell of it) from someone who participated. Haven't I been saying that I've always wanted to date someone who would like Midnight Madness and OJ? Hmm. . .

Another food site -- 8Legged Entertainment. This site features an animated cooking show hosted by an octopus named Tako. Can't beat that!

A few of my new favorite food sites:

Chowhound's New York Region Home Page -- this site contains great message boards about eating out in NYC. You can type in a question about where to find fish tacos, find out what people think about a new place, or read about the eternal Mary's Fish Camp/Pearl Oyster Bar debate.

The Julie/Julia Project -- this woman has spent the last year of her life methodically cooking every recipe in Julia Childs' The Art of French Cooking. She also has a fantastic potty-mouth and raves about all the crazy NYC shit that the rest of us only think, but don't commit to writing.

Menupages -- this site contains printed menus from tons of NYC restaurants (Manhattan only, though). Very handy.

And finally -- through Friendster, I discovered that a friend of mine is a major foodie -- a fact I never learned in the 5 years that I've known him. He's sort of an ancillary part of my circle of friends, so it's not completely surprising that I didn't know this before, but we've been having great IM chats about food, restaurants, and life in general. Who knows where that may lead?

So we broke up. Again. It's amazing -- I'm torn between hoping it sticks and calling him to go out for dinner tonight like we had planned originally. The range of emotions is terrifying, especially since they are so damn contradictory.

The other bartender is just as unavailable as the first -- keep on movin'.

Tune in tomorrow . . .