I've recently joined a book club. It seems that it's full of intelligent women who ACTUALLY want to read and discuss books. Not that there's anything wrong with pure socialization but I like the idea of discussing books and having good conversation about them. Not just, "Oh, I liked that book." or "I only read the first chapter because I didn't have time to finish it. More wine?"
The next book chosen in the club is The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. The way it was described was a man in search of a wife who decided to come up with a scientific questionnaire to be used on his dates to determine if his date was a compatible mate for him. This just made me think of a date that I had gone on once. A horrible, horrible date that I still remember even though it was years ago.
We met on an online dating site. These sites were only just becoming popular and still not seen as a socially-acceptable means of meeting someone yet. We were both online on a Friday night early in the evening when he first messaged me. We spoke online for a little while before he suggested that we should just meet tonight. Why wait a week or two and get to know each other to be only disappointed by each other if we do not look like our photographs. Let's just see if we have a physical connection and see if we can have a conversation. At this point in my life, I had gone the other route many times and generally disappointed in the face-to-face so what could be the harm?
We met at a trendy restaurant/pub in my neighbourhood that he had suggested (not knowing it was in my 'hood). At first glance, he was a good looking guy. Very neat, clean cut, nice-to-look-at kind of man. I think he was pleased at the first glance of me as well. We ordered drinks and started talking. It was small chatter at first and then he told me that he had ten questions to ask me. I'm the kind of person who is quite open once I trust you and am good friends with you but a very private person with acquaintances. The idea of questions like an interview did not appeal to me but he was nice, good-looking, seemed secure in his job (again, qualities that seemed be very hard to find while dating) and how difficult his questions could be? This was our first meeting and first date. I agreed.
His ten questions were not as simple as "Do you like to smoke and how often?" "Do you drink occasionally or often?" "If you won a million dollars, what would be the first thing you would do?" His questions were "Who is the most influential person in your life and why? Give me a circumstance in which you would use their advice or their teachings to help you through it." My answer had to be thought out, explained in detail and very personal. I tried to be as open and honest without telling him everything about myself. This proved to be very difficult. It was grueling.
At the end of all of the exhausting ten questions and one drink more that I wanted to have, he turned to me and then said, "Ok, now ask me those ten questions back." I wasn't memorizing these questions! "Would you like to just answer them?" "No, you have to remember them and ask me them back and then I'll answer them." Not realizing there was a test at the end of the interview, I told him that I had to go to the ladies room. I came back paid my share of the bill, said it was nice to meet him and good night. He didn't seemed too fazed. I never saw or spoke to him again.
I'm just hoping this book isn't the same guy that we are suppose to fall in love with. I won't be able to since I've been on the other side of the table from him.
