The Windup

The "parent windup party" was educational.

I commented several times how it seemed like a high school dance.  Other than myself, all the men were in one corner of the room, all the women in the other.  There was even a point where one of the girls tried to grab the hand of a guy and pull him off the couch to dance.

All of us are in our forties, give or take, by the way.

All of the typical behaviour was there.  The guys talking about hockey, or acting sheepish when around the girls.  The girls talking in code about dildos being better than men and laughing a lot.  It was all very cute.

It may seem strange how I gravitated more to the women, but I guess that's normal for me.  By the time the night was done, I had talked to everyone, guys included, but had spent most of my time with the girls.

Looking back, though, and thinking about these people in the context of who I'm looking to be in a relationship with, points to how ridiculous my expectations are.

The skinny girls were either country music and god-loving or alcohol-loving.  The fat girls were attractively outgoing and boistrous.  You could see that almost all of the couples were caring and supportive pairs, with perhaps one exception pointed to by the guy who wouldn't stop drinking and go home for a couple hours after the point where his wife reminded him that his parents were babysitting and expected them back at a certain time.

I really like these people, and yet I still would have no inclination to date any of them were they single.


I want it all, of course.

Someone who cares, who is supportive and loving, outgoing, smart, self-aware, fit...  what exactly am I prepared to compromise on?

Because it's going to have to be something.