The joys of dating.

I was chatting to my new mother-in-law at a family get together. As usual when the men are wondering around outside either checking out the garden or talking about manly things that can’t get spoken about when women are around, women talk about men. We compare their good and bad points and try to ‘one up’ each other with the things they do, ‘What! He really did that? Well mine did this!’ We talk about the kids in the same tone so I guess there aren’t too many degrees of separation between the two in our eyes. Conversation shifted to the pre-husband years and my mother-in-law who has been single for longer than I’ve been alive told us about her internet dating adventure.

Judy wanted to meet a good Christian man so she joined a Christian dating website. She’s a charismatic woman who speaks her mind, is funny, vivacious and doesn’t hold back if she feels something needs to be said. She had several suitors who tried to woo her but finally she whittled it down to a couple of men and those she began to interrogate, I mean correspond with. One especially had all the qualities she wanted in a prospective husband, Christianity, class, charisma and cash of course. They spent hours talking telephonically and online. One day the issue of marriage came up and he said that he was ready to make a commitment and go to the next level in their virtual relationship but he needed to speak honestly about something.

He took a deep breath, explained once again that he really liked her and she needed to promise that she would never divulge his secret. Meekly he asked if she could accept a man with a quirk. Judy replied that he could trust her and she would try to be open-minded but it obviously depended on what exactly the ‘quirk’ turned out to be. He took a deep breath and asked if she would mind a man who dressed up in her clothing. She told us she was speechless, what does one say to something like that? He waited. Finally she said honestly that she didn’t think that was something that she could get over, and broke off the relationship. I think they were both too embarrassed after that anyway. She confided in me that even though she wasn’t a small woman she was worried about a few things. What if he looked better in her clothes than she did? She would hate it if he stretched her clothes, she was protective over her wardrobe and she didn’t want to share.

We obviously agreed we wouldn’t want to share our clothing either, besides both our huge husbands would look ridiculous, thank goodness. On second thoughts it might be wonderful to raid someone else’s wardrobe; I think men spend more money on themselves without that “I just spent my salary on a handbag” sick guilty feeling. Can you just imagine the designer clothing she missed out on?