So the other day at work, Boss Lady made a comment about how I need a girlfriend. What spurred this comment was my explanation of what my screensaver on my laptop did (Visit http://www.grid.org/ to find out for yourself).

Since then, I've been doing a lot of thinking. I have come to absolutely no conclusion, but I did verify some thoughts that I had in my head.

1.) Time Time is of a premium for me. I mean, yeah, I do play video games almost every day, and I do watch some TV, but all-in-all I have virtually no time to do anything. I work upwards of 50 hours a week (albeit infrequently these days, which may change any time soon), and I have a handful of web projects that I'm trying to juggle and get done. While I would like to have a "special someone" to spend time with, I'm afraid I don't have that time right now.

2.) Money Anyone who says money isn't necessary in a relationship is absolutely full of crap. Yes, some relationships can make it by without those material things, but think about communication costs, travel costs (which today is nearing $0.15 per mile, where it was only $0.09 per mile not much more than 10 years ago), and the other costs involved with "doing things".

3.) Reliability In terms of "being there" for someone, I think I do a relatively good job at it. The only issue is my extremely dynamic schedule. I usually get one day off during the week, work a half day on Saturday, and have Sunday off. The time I'm not at work, I'm usually either keeping up on my projects or sleeping. I've had my day off pulled from me at the last minute before, which is part of being a manager, and I've had to work different shifts than normal. On the flip side, I've also been given days off at the last minute, so it's really hard to plan anything. Planning and scheduling is my life, and not being able to do so makes it nearly impossible to do anything.

4.) Distance I live in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure there's many single girls here that I would hit it off great with, but the chances of finding them (or them finding me) are next to impossible. Traveling to an area with a higher population is out of the question, not only for the money and time issues, but for the lack of a vehicle trustworthy for long distances. The last long trip I took with my truck was a 3 hour drive, and it made me realize a lot of issues I had been overlooking for a long time. Without the finances for a new vehicle and such, I don't think I'll be going very far out of town very often.

Something a lot of people don't understand is how I can live single at the age of 24. Heck, even when I was 19 people had a hard time understanding it. It's all about self control though. I can't explain it. Don't get me wrong, I would like to have a girlfriend very much, but things just don't seem to be in order for me to have one right now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd much rather keep "doing my thing" and not let this kind of thing bother me. If something does happen to come along and work into what I'm doing now, then I will absolutely go with it.