Word

So Cowboy Skinny, The Fainter and I went out for drinks and appetizers Tuesday evening. I hadn't seen CS in a while, so I gave him a rundown on what was going on with me, including the perils of jumping on the dating wagon. I said, "I'm taking a temporary break and hopping off the dating wagon. I'm just not in the mood to do the things right now to make a relationship work."

So he asked me what kinds of things. And I thought for a second and said, "Well, communication for one. I'm just not so much into the whole returning of phone calls and email thing."

Of course that's a vast exaggeration, because I *do* eventually return phone calls (and ::gulp::, there are two on my voicemail from last week I still need to get back to) and I do eventually return emails. But I admit it takes work to get to know a person, and the last four or five months have *not* been conducive to that kind of thing. I'm slightly obssessive-compulsive about my schedule (for instance, I call my mom at the same time on the same day every week and this has been going on for years), and I require lots of downtime and time to myself. And when I say 'lots', I mean entire evenings of time -- again, not terribly conducive to a relationship. "But," I said, "I believe these types of issues fall into place when you meet the right person."

CS nodded contemplatively, and I braced myself. Surely he would tell me to stop being so picky, or uptight, or judgmental. Surely he would say those things. But he just said, "You know what the real problem is? It's that you got on the dating wagon in the first place. You should have got on the dating Mercedes-Benz instead."