While shopping with my mom in Klamath Falls this weekend, I contemplated a t-shirt with the words "I need a hug" on it. I mean, sometimes a girl really does need a hug, but is advertising that particular want on a shirt worth the $6 investment (or risk)? While it's entirely possible that the shirt will increase your hugability, it is also entirely possible that the only people who will take you into their warm embrace are the ones you'd prefer to have a few feet outside your bubble. Everyone else will just look at you like you're a freak. Maybe it's safer to quietly request a hug from someone you know when the need strikes, rather than have the words written in glittery letters across your chest.

I am all settled into my new place. Learning to live on my own after many years of cohabitation has been an adjustment. I love shaping my own space, but it's weird sometimes having many hours of just me. My mind has an endless number of thoughts, and analyzes everything thoroughly, during long periods of quiet time. It's strange but good for me, I think.

My single friend Chris is trying the online dating scene, and her stories provide me with endless entertainment. After her married friends set her up with a man in a Tigger polo shirt (as in Winnie the Pooh) a few months ago, who she shared nothing in common, she decided it was time to take matters into her own hands. Not yet brave enough to give cyber dating a whirl myself, I admire her ability to cheerfully put herself out there, and we spend lots of time rehashing her experiences.

One prospect sent her a pleasant initial email, but, when she opened the photo he attached, she found herself staring at a black and white "arty" picture of a bushy-haired, scruffy beard man, dressed in camoflauge, holding a gun in one hand and a bunch of dead ducks in another. Yikes. Another evening, Chris gamely engaged in a brief online chat with a man and, finding they had a few things in common, planned to talk with him again later. He followed up the next day, in stalkerish fashion, with six emails before their prearranged chat time. To my chagrin, she compared him to me by saying that I hadn't even sent her six emails in one day while we were planning our trip to L.A. Hmph.

Not to say that all her experiences have been bad. She's had a few good dates too and has connected with interesting people. However, the one thing that never fails to dishearten her are the guys with sentences like "I like many activitys" or "Chily is good" in their profiles/emails. After all, if a guy can't be bothered to take a few minutes to proof his writing, what does that say about him as a date? So, a word of advice gentlemen (or gentleman, depending on how many are reading this). Spellcheck. And, don't even bother to point out my own spelling errors here, as I, my friend, am not trying to pick up the ladies with my prose.