The Climber

I met The Climber on the free internet dating site. Online communication was ordinary. He called me once, and he's really quiet. I can't handle a guy who can't initiate conversations. We went to dinner at a restaurant of his choice. Something is creepy about this guy: he stares, and he doesn't blink. At least I haven't caught him blinking once. He will just stare at me while I talk. It made me very uncomfortable. He's very quiet in person, too. I asked him what he likes to do besides work and climbing. He said that's pretty much all he does. The reason? If you want to get good at something you have to devote time to it. I know that's true. But why do I find him utterly boring?

I don't even know if these bad dates are due to my still hung up on Dr. TGIASE, or these are just genuinely not good matches. I was cleaning out my voicemail inbox today, and I was reminded of the three months of depressing dating before I met Dr. TGIASE. I met tons of people at parties and online, but none of them felt good. What about Dr. TGIASE that made me fall head over heel for him?

Well if I want to meet another great guy, I will just have to endure another long season of bad dates until that one comes by. You never know. The night before I first talked to Dr. TGIASE on the phone I didn't know I was going to be very happy for four months. Perseverance.

The Climber paid for dinner. I had a feeling the date would be bad, but I wanted to do something tonight, and I wanted a free meal. I no longer feel bad about having a guy pay for dinner on the first date. If I have to go through these bad dates, at the very least I should get some free food out of them. I invited The Climber to a pub where they serve a beer I wanted to try for a long time. In part I wanted to at least buy him a beer. He seemed hesitant. Then at the last minute before we went to our cars he said it's kind of late. I was sort of relieved. We hugged, and he said I should call him if I want to climb. Well that works.

What I learned: the defense contract industry isn't doing well at all.