Well, that was unpleasant, or this too, shall pass...

Let's just say it's been a rough couple of days. A number of things have occurred over the past week or so to come together and create a quadra-fecta of unpleasantness...

First, my wall AC unit for the the sunken living room took 4 weeks to get installed and now requires siding repair, an electrician to install a 240V socket, and a carpenter to frame it out on the inside. I guess that's what happens when you have an AC unit from the 60's and have to replace with a model from the 21st century. There's more to this story, but you get the drift...people, houses, and appliances were smaller in the 60's than they are today. Trying to fit an old house with new appliances does not always work.

Second, and most annoying, a migraine headache resulted in a projectile vomiting incident in my new car. The second payment is due in two weeks. Seriously. Now you might ask, why the hell didn't you just pull over? Well, when you're driving in torrential rain and hail it isn't as easy as you might think. The words "I can make, I can make it", are still burning in my brain. Really, I thought I would. I spent the following day trying to get "the smell" out. Not good enough. Then the day after that I dropped the car off to be detailed, hoping they could get "the smell" out. Moderately successful. Now the car just smells like overpowering cleaners trying to cover "the smell". So now, I drive the Vomit-mobile. Well, at least I won't be chauffeuring people around.

Third, I have developed pinkeye. It started in the right eye, but seems to have migrated to the left. You're not supposed to get pinkeye when you're 37, especially when you don't have kids.

Fourth, my last date, date number 8 was another unpleasant experience. Really, I am not sure what criteria IJL is using to assess compatibility, but it isn't working. The guy walks in with his shirt slightly unbuttoned, wearing a gold chain. No, no, no, no....men do not wear jewelry. This is not the East Coast. Jewelry aside, he was extremely disingenuous and overly confident. He didn't really care what I had to say as long as I kept the answers short. He explained to me that he had a phone call he would need to take, I said that was fine, and that I understood because I also had a demanding job. He put up his hand in the "stop" position and said, "no really, this is very important, I need to tell these people what to do".  Well, alrighty then, you just do that. There was another point during the evening when he got up and left the table, presumably to take another call. I had to ask the waitress to split the bill and I had this nagging little thought that he just gotten up and walked out, leaving me to pay the whole thing...but rest assured, he returned. At any rate, he was pretty much the opposite of the type of guy I want to spend time with. From here on out I will refer to him as Opposite Man or OM for short hand.

I think that of all the dates, he ranks third worst, maybe second. Second place is really a toss up between him and the engineer I couldn't get a word out of and asked if I would be eating lunch during our lunch date. Of course, the beekeeper still ranks first as worst date of all time. I truly hope to never top that.

At least I can take some solace in my study of Buddhist teachings. I know that this is all impermanent, or to put it more bluntly, "this too shall pass".

Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage...

I had such high expectations when I started this process. However, I am starting to realize that there is really no hope for a woman of my age. I am too old to have kids and too young to date someone who is 50. This sucks (insert scream here).

Trying to draw on the positives here...it gets me out of the house, I get to eat at nice restaurants, and it looks to outsiders that I am leading a normal life (this offers little consolation though).

Last Monday I had date #7. It was another first (and only) date. I had high hopes for this guy. He's a teacher (social studies). I figured he'd be a fairly good conversationalist...but he was more of a talker than a conversationalist.

He told me about how he loves to travel (within the US that is). When he asked about whether I liked to travel and I had told him I'd been to Botswana, Zambia, Madagascar, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, etc...his response was, "wow, that's adventurous".

He then proceeded to tell me that everything he needs to know about foreign counties he could learn through reading books. Big red flag. Now, I don't expect everyone to have traveled extensively, but it would be great if they at least had an interest in it, and not think that a person can learn everything about a country by simply reading about it. That seems so shortsighted.

As I was telling a friend this story, she pointed out to me that she actually found it scary that a teacher would say something like that and that she wouldn't want a person like that teaching her child. I hadn't looked at it from that point of view since I don't have kids, but I can see where she's coming from.

At any rate, he was a nice person and I am sure there's a girl out there for him. But it isn't me.