More Dating Foibles

(This was actually written last week but I'm running behind on everything due to the holidays....forgive me. And for more of my dating disasters, see DC Dating Parts 1, 2, and 3 starting here)

I know I promised a post on either boys or baboons soon. The Baboon post is still coming, but since I was hanging out with old friends and reminiscing about ridiculous dating stories this past weekend, the accounts below are fresh in my mind so I give you --

Boys.

And because I'm tired this week (holiday reception crashing attending and all that) and because we all know I have an abundance of silly dating stories, I'm just going to blurt these out, stream of conscienceness style.

Incidentally, I have a friend who does professional improv and she asked to use one of my dating stories for a skit. And I have another friend who teaches college students and admitted he tells my stories to them to make them feel like IT COULD BE WORSE in their own lives.... So now I feel a sort of duty to keep sharing these mishaps, since it obviously serves a greater humanitarian purpose.....

Impressive Resume:
I once went out with a guy a few times and decided I just didn't see a future and I ended things. (note - I hated to hurt his feelings SO MUCH that I cried during our "break up." See! I don't mean to be the bad guy!) Later, he sent me a text something to the effect of "You know, I have a pretty impressive [dating] resume. But I really liked you."

Wha? Resume?? So, you wanted to point out to me that you have, and still could, date a ton of women? But yet you actually wanted a relationship with me so I should feel honored-?

Please proceed to The End Of Us, Mister. Good grief.


I love you....um, vacuum cleaner-!
I'm very expressive. And I frequently tell people "oh my gosh I LOVE you!" if they do something nice for me. Which, has never really felt awkward until I was in a new relationship last year. And I really liked this guy. And he and I both knew we both had committment issues so we were treading lightly around too much talk of feelings.

Then one day, he offered to put together the new vacuum cleaner I had just bought. And I HATE putting things together so I was VERY grateful for someone else to do this. So as I'm sitting on the couch, and he puts the last piece in place in the middle of my living room, I blurt out "I LOVE YOU"

then immediately bury my face in horror.

"I mean! I love...I didn't mean! ...waaahhh" His face registered shock and amusement and we ended up laughing about it and I thought I had convinced him that I did NOT mean LOVE, love. Cuz that would be crazy! So I thought it was fine.

...until the next day when he asked me to make sure the vacuum even worked because he "blacked out after the L bomb" and couldn't even remember if he finished putting it together.

Oh.

(and I later realized he HAD put a part on upside down. I must've really scared the crap out of this guy!)

Note to self - wait until AFTER all the manual labor is over before scaring off a mate.

(The poor guy took more abuse before our relationship finally ended included having to explain to his entire family why there was a women's earring laying perfectly innocently on his couch cushion when they happened to all come over for a get together right after I left. My earring had fallen out without me knowing, but he of course thought it was on purpose and a way of "marking my territory." Sigh.
Another time, when he was introducing me to his mother, I got so nervous getting ready beforehand that I forgot to mention that I had a HOT CURLING IRON plugged into his bathroom wall. He definitly found out the hard way when he put his hand on it.

Funny enough, he isn't even the one who ended that relationship....could ya blame him if he had though??)

Hey guy
I started talking to a guy and we exchanged numbers but getting him to talk about anything was like pulling teeth so I stopped replying. He then sent a text that just said "Hey :)" every day for a week and then once a week for about a month. He then sent a "Hey" (sometimes with a smiley face, sometimes without) text once a month for six months straight.

All without ever getting a single reply from me.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Refusal Refuser
I have been known to try to end things with someone only to either end up going back out with them or have them flat out refuse to take no for an answer. I call these guys BUBs (Break Up Blockers). I had one recently that I met at a Christmas party. After he shared WAY too much about his relationship challenges and after he said, and I quote, "I'm emotionally and mentally available" I literally told him that -

I wasn't.

(at least not for him, but I left that part out)

He then continued to ask me to have coffee with him until I caved and finally gave him my number. (I mean he was really attractive - and I was kind of curious what else he'd confide in me about).

After he texted "hey, totally understand about what you said but I'd love to get coffee" I reiterated back "yes, as long as you understand, then coffee is fine." To which he replied "You're too hard on yourself. You are a fun, smart sexy catch ;) and I'd love to get coffee."

What just happened?

I wanted to reply "I didn't say I don't feel confident enough to date you I said I wasn't emotionally available to you."

I let it go. We'll see if he has the persistence of Hey guy....

And Those With Nicknames
BUB isn't the only nickname I've used for boys. My roomate and I used to always nickname different ones so we could talk in code if need be. "Puppy" earned his because of his excessive use of exclamation points and emoticons in his emails, making it seem like he was constantly jumping up and down in our conversations like an excited puppy. "Clefty" had a cleft in his chin like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (which I actually found attractive). There was Pookie, Cookie, Varkie, PG-13 Booty Call, JFK...Bashful, Doc, Dopey (ok, I lied about those). I'm like the Snow White of the D.C. dating world.

Funny enough, I just added a new one today. I ended up going from one Holiday reception to another to another place to yet another place last night. I met a nice boy at Event #2, who followed me to events #3 and #4 and then got my number to plan more dates in January. Event #2 was a Young Republicans event and Event #4 was salsa dancing at a place called Lima (who KNEW all these people spend their Monday nights dancing away until the wee hours! I finally caved and left around 1:00am like the loser. On a MONDAY.  Don't you people have jobs?!?)  Anyway, since I only know this guy's first name ("Joel"), he now  lives in my phone as:

Joel Salsa Young Republican.

Ah. The dwarf list continues!

So the nicknames are getting weirder, let's hope the stories don't. Not sure how much more I'm willing to give to humanity in this particular area.....