wasted dates and car insurance.

hmmm. well here are the challenges of late:
1. restaurants. I have given myself permission to eat out/coffee out in a dating context. this is all fine and dandy. now i have found myself out for a drink and eats on 3 other occasions(excluding funerary activities surrounding grandma's passing, which i consider exempt) on 2 occasions out of town work people have been in Regina for meetings and I have been social and attended. this has been cordial, and I am sure good PR for future work in HIV/HCV stuff that i do, and also generally socialisation with Regina friends that i have met through work. but I am wondering if I should be taking a different approach. I will not suggest that should not have spent evenings with these folks. I think it is important to be a host in your city. but should i have pushed for them to come and eat at my place and shared a drink here? should i have eaten a cheese sandwich at home and socialised over as glass of water? In both instances i have insisted upon eating in a locally owned and non-chain restaurant. I have walked or car pooled to the location. But i can't help but feel like I am slipping.
The other restaurant event was out with my friends Amy & Mike, but they have been trying to take me out for sushi since the summer, and we have just not gotten around to it. so should i have deferred until next year? should i continued to insist upon eating at home, and that they didn't owe me dinner at all? I guess the problem is that i LIKE to eat out. I miss it. I miss not doing dishes. I miss the diversity without having to cook too much food. miss the feeling of being out. but this is not a need! this is not even close to a need.

a 4th event that is annoying me is that a friend set me up on a blind date 2 weeks ago, and i used my dating rule to meet this guy. His kids are 19. he has lived in the same place his whole life, and I have NO idea why my friend thought there would be chemistry. When he dropped me off at my house after lunch at a "family restaurant", he asked "Do you have problems with Natives around here?" I believe this question describes our compatibility. I answered "No, just systemic racism." I think this was lost on him. the sad thing is that it was a total waste of a "going out" opportunity. blah! No more blind dates for a while.

This weekend i temporarily re-insured my car. I was going to rent one to go and spend the weekend with my dad at the cabin, after all it cost the same for a month of insurance, as a weekend rental. but then 2 things came to the fore front.
1. I could get a refund for the rest of the month so it would be cheaper to use my car.
2. Most of the reason i wanted to rent was shiny factor. sure winter tires were in my head a bit, but it was more fascination with driving a Suzuki swift for the weekend. and that is not the point of this exercises.

So Kia And I drove up to the Cabin, spent a quiet weekend with my Dad, and Ben the dog, watched the gray cup, cooked in the fireplace, and walked in the woods. I will take my recycling to the Depot this week, and next weekend I will go and see my other grandmother, who is almost 90 and lives out of town, and then I will nix the insurance again.

Oh, and for any friend of mine who wishes to set me up on a date: please don't.