Wow Guy

On our first date, we met for brunch. I met him at Cliff's Edge, where, incidentally, I had two other first dates that week. Anyway, wow guy. He was tall, dark, handsome, smart, and a perfect gentlemen. We shared great conversation, had a lot in common, and when he pulled the bouquet from the boot of his Bentley, I was. Well. Wow'd.

And maybe it's that first impressions mired in such boldness and sparkling memories, leave nothing but a high cliff from which to free-fall in the event of a second...

We met at my place for the second date, to walk to dinner. I think he thought he was being cute and funny, but I wasn't impressed with his complaints about walking, his perfectly clear discomfort with my low-brow night on the town, or him dissing my neighborhood [sidebar: I love my neighborhood, like maybe even in a little bit of a psycho kind of way. It is an urban village, in a city of sparkle, diamonds and red carpet, and it's where I belong and feel the most comfortable being the tree-hugger-leaning me].

And he doesn't vote. For much of my life, I have been intrigued by those who "don't vote", whose principals are defined by a silent opposition to a broken status quo. These days when I meet someone who doesn't vote, I find their behavior irresponsible, their silent opposition a cowardly shirk from public discourse, an "it's not my fault" wall to hide behind when government fails as they predicted it would. I cannot date someone I cannot respect. And at this point in the history of my life, this country, and the world, I cannot respect someone who does not speak their opinion by casting a ballot.

Oh, and he dissed my neighborhood.

The end.