Don't talk to me (unless you send spam e-mails for a living!)

FYI for those faithful commenters (I love you.) I've had to turn off my comment button because, about 15 times a day, I get this e-mail on my phone:

"Hi! You site is much interesting. I truly like read for wonderful content! My friend has blog such same as yours and she finds routes to many threads such as you do. I'll post your blog on my work page as I have network of kind individuals. Please visit my page Gonna spam the crap outta you"

I'm so tired of getting these spam e-mails...I wish it were nearly as fun as trying to write one! But being able to imitate one on my blog was worth all the battery-drainin', inbox-crammin', second-language readin', attempted wool-pullin' spammy-town ridiculousness. 

My only question is: does it actually work? Why else would they take the time day in and day-freakin-out? Anywho, if you have something burning you'd like to say in regards to one of my posts, you can use the contact e-mail on my About Me page. Or, you can just catch me at work Ashley. Or Facebook message me, Francine or Christina K. Or call me, Boogs and Amanda. You get my drift.

And thanks a lot blog comment spammers...that's why we can't have nice things.

Get the Guy?

"You seem different...like you are more confident than before," said one of my best guy friends as we were hanging out recently. This may seem like it's not a big deal to you, but it is for me. You see, there are several reasons why this made me grin from ear to ear.

For starters, I've been told by friends that I'm a pretty easy-going, charismatic, jovial kind of person. I tend to agree...untiiiiiillll an attractive boy enters my 'awkward' radius. I seem to turn absolutely robotic. If you don't believe me, ask some of these friends of mine. They've witnessed the brain-mouth delay firsthand. I recently answered a flirty guy with something that sounded like this:

This particular guy friend I was hanging out with is someone who knows me very well and has seen me at my absolute worst/awkward times. Because of this closeness, he also knows the different boys I've liked and flirted with (I use that term loosely); he has graciously given me words to say so that I don't sound like a doofus. Ooops. I might've failed that test though.

To be honest, I've even turned the tables on this same guy friend and tried to DTR with HIM! {I kinda hope he's not reading my blog...I guess it wouldn't matter because although he's darling, we're totes in the friend-zone.} Regardless of where we stand, I was so excited that he noticed a genuine change in me. I'd love to say it's because I'd taken some risks with my hair or started dating someone but it wasn't. I'm going to let you in on the secret to my new confidence...

Matthew Hussey.

Wait! I thought you said it wasn't because you started dating someone. Well, that's true. It's a dude I found on YouTube. I'm totally serious. I've been watching his videos over the last year and I hinted to his program a bit during goal #2 in this post.

When I started watching him and his 3 minute nuggets of wisdom, I wasn't totally sold. His advice kind of flies in the face of what I've always been told. Then I realized that what I've always been told is a load of poop. I started taking his advice and trying it out, bit by bit, until it came more naturally. I've still got a looonnng way to go overall (have you forgotten the above clip of the camel doing Peter Griffin's laugh? I haven't.) but man, I feel like a different person when it comes to confidence around cute peacocks.
 
When I hopped aboard the Matthew Hussey love-guru-train I had no idea he was about to become a wee bit famous. He's now one of the relationship experts on NBC's Ready for Love and he's just released his book Get the Guy!

I mean, even Eva Longoria read his brand new book and called him "a genius who has cracked the code on men and relationships".

He's blowing up! And I knew him way back when...haha. But in all seriousness, he created a system to get women a date with the guy they want within 30 days, and then keep him! It gives you the behind the scenes secrets to how men think, and how to have your ideal guy chasing you for a relationship. He's done events for over 50,000 women (and I'm going to one in Dallas! Keep reading if you wanna come with...)

Here's Matt talking about the attraction formula:

And here's a Q&A at one of his live events:

The good news is that I've bought the book and I nabbed an extra to give away to one of you! But that's not even the best news...since I'm so tight with Matthew's people (you see what I did there?), I've secured 30 special guest tickets to his live tour. I'm not kidding. {Married peeps--don't run away yet! You keep reading too...}

He's going to be holding his talks in San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, NYC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago, and Dallas. I'm heading to the Dallas event on May 11th. You can view other dates here. 

You wanna ticket to the live event? Easy peasy:

Just grab a PRINT copy of Matt's book from Amazon. That's it. (kindle/ebook orders won't count towards getting your free tour ticket, so make sure it's the print edition you order).

Once you've made your purchase, email your receipt to me and I'll get your place confirmed. Woohoo. I've only got 30 spots, so get crackin'!

>>>Get the book
 
**And if you are married and made it through this post, I hereby declare it your duty to forward this blog post to a single gal you know! Or better yet, buy it for her and get.her.to.this.seminar.

Trust me...if Katie, the Princess of the Awkward, can start to show some real confidence, then you know this dude's advice is legit! E-mail me that receipt and if you can't buy a book right now, that's ok...still comment or e-mail that you are interested so I can give one away!

WIWIW: Hair

I've done a couple of WIWIW (What I *wish* I Wore) posts in response to blogland's versions called What I Wore Wednesday. Feel free to read them here, here, and here. I ain't got nothing in my closet you'd want to see, trust me. In fact, my jeans are so threadbare and worn that I've split 2 pairs of pants in 2 weeks. If that doesn't make you want to lose some weight and get fit, I don't know what will!

My clever friend assured me that all threadbare pants split like that so I am choosing to believe her. I DID realize that one pair of those jeans was purchased 8 years ago from Goodwill for $3. Maybe it was time for them to go in like 2005?

Back to the point: WIWIW. This week I've been thinking a lot about hair. I've cut my hair before and always regretted it, except for the one time I chose to chop it off for charity. When I donated my ponytail to make wigs, it felt so purposeful. 

Very opposite to purposeful was the time I cut my hair to an Annie-style 'do because my grandfather gave me $100 to do it. True story. I've shredded all those pics but this will give you a good idea of what I looked like:

*Shudder*

The good feeling from donating hair also helps when all the awkward-hair-stage annoyances crop up as I'm growing it back out {which I ALWAYS want to do as soon as I cut it!} This time around, I wanted to give to a charity that makes wigs specifically for kids. So, we'll see if I bite the bullet and go for it.

I've been thinking/dreaming a lot about changing up my hair pretty drastically. Many of the organizations want minimally processed hair without coloring or highlights. Because of this, I wonder if now's the time to go ahead and ponytail it/chop it/donate it and THEN proceed to color it and experiment. What color would I go for, you ask? I've always been drawn to red hair {must be my Irish roots!} and I love how this gal Katie styles/colors her hair. 

Her blog is called Skunkboy Blog and she also makes adorable handmade critters. Awww.

I've toyed around with the idea of going really dark {maybe it's my Native American roots!} or edging more toward my natural tendency for blonde highlights if I spent more time in the sun. My hair typically looks like these pics in that perfect world of sun and no responsibilities (read: when I was 13):

I also like some version of those blonder looks but with the ombre style that allows for darker roots (a subtle, natural dye job though). Something like this:

Just kidding. Nast. I mean, like this:

 Or this:

 Not so much this:

I guess if my hair is chopped, I can't pull off these longer ombre styles as well. I may have to wait for that until it grows out a bit. 

Any ideas on what might look good on me? Should I go for it?