Twice bitten, thrice shy

Maybe I could make a check-list to hand out when people hit on me. It would state my political preferences, my favorite book, why I am a vegetarian,and so forth. Like that people would immediately know if there was something so offensive to them that they could politely decline: "Sorry, eating pulses is morally repugnant to me." Of course, I could also quickly peruse their check-list (hmmm, hates puppies...hates watching sports on TV...I'll pass).

This fantasy is completely dumb. Let me rephrase that: it's not dumb when you come out of a long relationship. When you remember saying:"Just got a call from So-and-so" and your boyfriend looks at you with compassion because he knows the deal with So-and-so, and you don't have to explain anything. Maybe my allergy to exposition is why I'm a serial monogamist. It's pure laziness.

"Relationships take a lot of effort." I agree when someone says this to me (usually just before they get married, for some reason) but I would say that meeting people is a lot of effort as well. Trying not to be fake, but also trying to make a good impression. It's all pretty exhausting. Add to that the jittery feeling that you are about to discover something terrifying about your date and the whole thing just does me in. Like that night when my date told me that immigration was a sin. Slowly backing away now...

Every single one of my boyfriends has been someone incredibly different from me. Different temperement, different interests, different backgrounds. So maybe the check-list wouldn't even work, because I like being incompatible with someone. Or maybe the checklist should only be one question:



Picture from the absolutely marvellous xkcd