On Your Mark…Get Set…Date!

Six minutes. One tenth of an hour. Sometimes it can seem so long and sometimes it’s short. I just returned from a speed dating event where I spent six minutes at a time talking to 12 guys. At the end of it all, I am exhausted.

Bachelor Number One was very promising. We started chatting before our allotted six minutes and carried on until it was time to end. The six minutes went by very quickly, we seemed to have a lot in common and he was very easy to talk to. At the end of the night he found his way back to me for further small talk. He started the evening off with a bang. Unfortunately for the other gentlemen, he was a hard act to follow.

My next 10 gentlemen ranged from perfectly nice guys I would like to see as friends–fun, friendly, easy conversation without a spark–to so-so guys, to some very intense guys. Some of them monopolized the entire six minutes. I can only be relived it wasn’t a real date. Some started off with an entire spiel on themselves, like an autobiography that I wasn’t expecting. I anticipated conversations, not sales pitches. A few were decent but lived in the suburbs (shudder) and were sort of blah.

Finally, it was on to Bachelor Number Twelve who redeemed the entire evening by ending on a high note. Like Bachelor Number One, Number Twelve was also easy to talk to, funny and we seemed to hit it off. Talking to some of the other women, I noticed that Numbers One and Twelve will have their pick of the litter.

So where does this leave me? Well I had a good time tonight. I got a well-deserved boost in confidence. And I think I agree with Best Friend that I probably won’t find someone like this. I’ll just continue to be my fabulous self and wait for someone to appreciate and love that as much as I do, wherever I meet him.

Basket Case

We all have those days sometimes.

Bumps and Bruises

Last night I was up until the wee hours of the morning, sitting at a diner with two of my friends while they lamented and analyzed their relationships, and the events of the evening which led them both to declare their relationships over ( or almost so).

I listened to them. I tried to be the voice of reason when one of them declared it would be easier if human beings didn’t have the capacity to love each other. I acknowledged their feelings, reassured them that what they said or did is ok, and couldn’t be changed. As I talked to them, I had to have another conversation with myself.

As I was sitting with both my friends I realized that I could react internally two ways. I could freak my self out about relationships and wonder why I should ever get involved in one in the future. Or I could not do that.

I chose not to do that. Sure, it would have been easy to do it. And the scardey cat that I am would have had no problems doing it at all. It would be the safe and easy thing to do; it would offer me and my heart protection. One friend even said “I don’t want to discourage you, that’s why I haven’t told you about this all week.” I told her I already had those thoughts and wasn’t going to let it freak me out.

In the end I decided it wasn’t worth it. Living in a safe little bubble isn’t really living. Part of life is sitting in diners with your friends lamenting relationships, families, work, and other stuff. Using your life means bumps and bruises along the way, but in the end of it all I want a well-worn life. So scaredy cat no more, I am ready for everything it brings me.

Random Facts About Me

1. I love chocolate but went for two years without eating it in high school.
2. I went to two colleges, and the second one was all-female.
3. I hate it when people touch my nose.
4. I consider being told I am funny the ultimate compliment.
5. I don’t eat red meat or pork.
6. I once gave up poultry for a few years, but missed it.
7. I don’t like being told what to do.
8. I am half-Italian, half-Czech (specifically Bohemian).
9. I love turtles.
10. My first trip out of the country was to London after I graduated high school.
11. I still have a teddy bear I was given when I was born.
12. I form ridiculous emotional attachments to things.
13. I have horrible depth and spatial conception.
14. I went to a very small Catholic grade school.
15. I no longer consider myself Catholic.
16. I am horribly frightened of centipedes—my idea of hell is me in a hole covered in centipedes as more centipedes fall on top of me.
17. I trained myself to not speak Minnesotan any more.
18. When I get upset, I revert back to Minnesotan.
19. I named my car “Ella.”
20. I have little to no upper-body strength.
21. It takes a while for me to consider people friends, but once I do it takes a LOT for me to stop.
22. I’m almost always cold.
23. I have a good memory.
24. I’m a pop culture junkie.
25. I’m all about comfort food when I am upset.