Thursday, September 11, 2008

Talk Nerdy to Me

I appear to be a complete geek magnet.

I hate to even use that phrase, and put it that way, because tonight I went out with a sweet, gentlemanly, friendly guy for a blind date, who I had interesting conversation with for two hours, who did absolutely everything "right" (whatever that means for a blind date), and I in no way want to slam on him as a person... but yeah. Not geeky in a hot-geeky sort of way. Just geeky. He played the pipe organ. At one point in time he was talking about adopting cats, but he was concerned about being the "single guy with cats," and was wondering how many cats would it take to put him in that category? He thought four was definitely too many, but wasn't sure about three, and what did I think? What I was really thinking is that he had just officially confirmed what I knew, in the very pit of my stomach, the minute he walked in the door... I was going to have a very pleasant evening but, in no uncertain terms, I was not going to be interested.

The last two guys I went out with have been computer scientists (the first one - of "not-a-date-date" fame, who finally asked me on a real date last weekend - was much more socially inclined than this last one, though, and if he were to actually flirt with me somewhere in the middle of one of our great conversations I would probably not be upset), and I'm going out with another guy next week who will probably put the first two to shame (in a "Booger" from Revenge of the Nerds sort of way, from what I gather). Apparently I am sort of in the "what the hell? why not?" phase of returning to dating. Maybe I'm secretly dating geeks because it's so easy for me to talk to them, and therefore, honestly, a bit of a confidence booster before I actually put myself out there for real?

Don't get me wrong, I like smart people. But there are different kinds of smart. And while I get a kick out of a good conversation about, say, the future of artificial intelligence, at the end of the day I just want to fall asleep in the arms of somebody who gets me in a totally different way.

So perhaps if I took that line about "being good at math" out of my online profile, I'd change my odds?

5 comments:

LindsayDayton said...

Oh sister, I feel your pain! It's a tough needle to thread, though.

I recently went on a blind date. My biggest fear was that he would be dumb. Turned out he was very smart, but he was something worse than dumb.

He was a W supporter. Ack.

Anonymous said...

Maybe you shouldn't keep wearing your "I heart Nerds" shirt on all your dates. Or...maybe..you really do heart nerds, and that's why they (we!) all love you!

Swiftyjess said...

You do seem to attract the nerdiest of the bunch :-) And if you have to ask yourself how many cats makes you a "single cat guy" then well...therein lies your answer :-)

JulieBee said...

Becky! I met you CLIMBING MT. SHASTA. Remember? Then we busted our butts trekking 80 miles over 15,000-ft passes in Peru. You may be an engineer, but your commitment to physical punishment in the name of adventure takes you squarely out of the "geek" category! :)

Anonymous said...

keep writing .. i love hearing it. music to my no date soul.

becky in montana