Halloween is a fantastic night in Chicago.  Plenty of Chicagoans are dressed up, out and about, and geared up in party mode.  This is a great night to go out and meet a special crush out on the town.

Do you have your costume yet?

If not, here are some places you can hit last minute to throw something together.

Salvation Army Thrift Store – 2270 N Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL‎

Always full of the most random pieces of clothing and accessories, this is a great place to hit up that won’t break the bank.  If you are going to go here, make sure you have a reasonable plan of what kind of costume you want.  There are so many types of clothes and strange items, your head will be spinning and you’ll feel like you’ve walked into a life-size version of that old smelly box full of random crap in your parents basement.  (more…)

Sometimes, people just don’t have the guts to break up with their latest crush in person.  While there are certain rules to when this can and cannot be done, generally speaking, if the relationship is very young (a couple weeks), it is not necessary to break up with someone in person.  But what happens if you know it won’t work with this person and have no desire to call them up and let them know they didn’t make the cut? (no guts, yes. does it still happen? absolutely.)

Enter: The Phase Out

The phase out occurs when you gradually remove this person from your life.  Like a dying heartbeat, the tempo and rhythm of the short lived relationship pace themselves slower and slower.  Text messages become ‘no-response’ statements instead of questions and phone calls become a rare gem.  While there is nothing you can do on the receiving end of a phase out (dust yourself off kid and get back out there!), there are a couple keys when implementing it so you don’t come off as a complete jerk (or bitch).

1. Have a plan – Once you decide that watching paint dry is more entertaining than this person, commence the phase out and stick to it.  Start hitting the brakes and slow that train down.
2. Keep it gradual - Slow and steady wins the race (or in this case, douses the flame).  Draw out the texts and ease up on the calls.  Baby steps.
3. Avoid weekend dates – If you’re going to hang out, hang out during the week.  Weekends are prime real-estate, and you don’t want to play with fire after drinking… which leads to…
4. Don’t have a sleep over – This just resets the clock at zero.  Everytime you get it on between the sheets, it sends a signal to the other person you’re in it to win it.
5. Axe the late night calls and drunk texts – “What you up to?” at 2am isn’t as innocent as your drunk mind convinces you.  Have a little restraint or else you’re back at square one and just extending the phase out.

Whatever your opinion of the phase out might be, it’s still a tactic that is used in the streets of Chicago and many other cities around the globe.  Do you phase out?  Have you been phased out?  Share your thoughts in the comment section!

To piggy-back off of last week’s suggestion, this week’s date idea involves a spot downtown called Bin 36.

Bin 36 is a great American cuisine restaurant that holds an event about once a month called “Movies in the Loft”.  While dinner and a movie might be a little cliche, it is definitely a date that will occur at some point in your fresh new relationship.  If you’re going to do it, do it in style…

Instead of taking your crush out to dinner and cabbing your way to a movie theater, why not kill two birds with one stone?   These events have a 3 course meal coupled with some wine that will keep your belly’s pleased while your eyeballs are entertained.

They play classic movies, the two upcoming being ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ and ‘Bottle Shock’.

The next event is coming up on November 22nd, for more details click here.

Overall – 4/5 Stars

Living in the city has some great perks.  We have the beach at a stone’s throw, festivals to fancy anyone’s delight, and different nightlife activities to cater to even the unique of circles.

This leads to meeting many different kinds of people… tall, short, strange, beautiful, different races, religions, ethnicities, and so on…  Which helps us create a mental checklist of things we want and don’t want in a potential partner.

Straddling the line of staying in the game and being kicked to the curb, lies the deal-breakers.  With so many options, which breakers are valid, and which are part of your own neurosis? (more…)

I wrote a guest post for a great blog called Sex, Lies, and dating in the City by Simone Grant (check it out, it’s very well done).  The story was about how you can have blinders in a relationship.  Here it is:

To this day I still can’t figure out what it is about being infatuated with someone that allows one to become so oblivious to seeing red flags.  I’ve personally always lived my dating life to a three red flag system.  It normally never fails me: three flags and you’re out.

Some of my previous red flags have included a girl handing me a toothbrush the next morning (first night together) saying “I always have a spare toothbrush for my overnight guests.”  Really?  When did I check into a hotel?  To a girl who spoke the entire time during a date and allowed enough gap in the conversation for three words:  “Hi.” and “Check please.”.

This one girl in particular that I dated, Sarah, was my devil in a red dress. Despite the abundance of flags thrown, I wore my blinders on snugly and marched forward. (more…)

What’s a better way to spend an evening than drinks and a movie?  How about drinks and a movie with a bunch of other people at the Vic!  This is a great way to hang out in a relaxed environment, not spend an arm and a leg, relax with a beer, and watch a great movie.

The Vic Theatre is typically a concert hall but on their off nights they’ll use the space to project a movie and fill your belly with cheap beer.

They play solid movies that range from new releases (the Hangover-which if you haven’t seen it, get out from under your rock and GO) to classics like Animal House and Office Space.

Here’s a link to their website: Brew and View

Overall – 4/5 Stars

I know that Cosmo puts out sex tips for women in each and every one of their magazines.  It’s staring me in the face every time I walk through the checkout aisle at the grocery store.

“745 Ways to please your man’ (really?), ‘Where to meet your man” (hey, how about EVERYWHERE), ‘4,354 Ways to tell if he’s into you’, etc, etc…

So I found this article on Cracked.com that picked out 7 sex tips from Cosmo that will put you in a hospital’.

Please ladies, DON’T do any of these…

1. Bite the Family Jewels – Self explanatory… they’re not seeded grapes.
2. Shake His Nuts – I really don’t think it’s going to help bring the rain.
3. Yank His Crotch Hair – You yank.  And I’ll yank.
4. Give Him a Sneezegasm – Keep the black pepper where it belongs… in the kitchen.
5. Milk His Cow – What’s good for the cows, is NOT good for the guys.
6. Go Joystick On His Boner – This isn’t asteroids.  Hit the wrong button and you could trigger an accidental roundhouse kick.
7. Put Him in the Fucking Hospital – This one said to basically GIVE HIM AN INDIAN BURN down there.  Don’t!

You can see the original article here

Don’t dip your pen in company ink.

Don’t $hit where you eat.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water….  wait… that last one didn’t make any sense.

Everyone says that it is a terrible idea to date a co-worker.  Obvious reasons include if they go psycho on you, you have no where to hide.  Maybe it’ll change the work dynamic and make it terribly awkward for you and the rest of the office.

It could also end up putting your ‘feel goods’ in a vice if one of you gets promoted and has to deal with not only who wears the pants in the relationship, but now the office as well.

Even though it’s frowned upon, it happens all the time.  Spending hours upon hours a day with someone that you’re even mildly attracted to can make your mind wander to that dirty gutter that flows so freely.

If you do decide to venture down this much traveled path, just remember a few things: (more…)

Man alive, do I love Halloween.  So many fun memories come to mind when I think of this time of year.  TP-ing the neighbors house, back-yard football, and strategically plotting out the neighborhood like army generals to hit the best houses for trick-or-treating.  Those memories are now replaced with present times which are even better.  Women dressed up in scantily clad uniforms of delight (you know we love it ladies!).  Something about a room full of people in costume just brings an aura of wonder and excitement in the air.  It’s similar to that group camaraderie when everyone in the room is “getting a little bit softer now” to the Isley Brothers at a wedding reception.  SHOUT… Come on now!

So to keep with the theme of the month, this week’s date idea involves Halloween festivities.

This week’s date ideas include: Apple orchards, pumpkin patches, hay rides, and haunted houses.

Instead of doing my typical breakdown of pro’s and con’s, here are links to places to so you have a handy guide to take that special crush.

Apple Orchards

(more…)

While not a terrible idea, buying drinks for girls isn’t the most inventive or memorable way to introduce yourself to a girl.

Here’s the part that threw me off my game.  The past few weeks while I’ve been out, I’ve had two girls walk up to me and say “Want to buy me a drink?”.  Personally, the first thought that goes through my head is “Are you serious?  Get lost lady.”  Do guys actually fall for this?  No matter how attractive or unattractive the girl is in this situation, I find it to be completely obnoxious and she’s thrown all credibility out of the window faster than a starving fat kid devouring chocolate cake.

If I were going to buy a girl a drink, it would be after we’d been talking for awhile and there is obvious chemistry or solid conversation.

Ladies, do you actually see any success with this?  Or are these ladies just crazy?

Share your thoughts in the comments!