So the other day, this girl walks into the store (for those of you that still don’t know, my servitude to the local camera store has yet to expire). She lived in Jefferson City and she purchased a camera from me. More importantly, she was cute, nice, smart (went to Baylor University), has some dough (she is a lawyer), likes to talk (she is still a lawyer), single (at least no wedding band which is good enough for me), had most of her teeth, was breathing, and seemed to enjoy talking with me (that or she faked it very well, which is certainly a possibility). Basically, she could have help me to realize my dream of being a stay-at-home dad!
So after the aforementioned girl left our store, I tell one of my coworkers (it should be dually noted that this coworker is female, in fact, all of my immediate coworkers are female, for what it’s worth) to remind me to give that girl a call in a few weeks to “make sure the camera is working well for her.” In other words, a lame excuse to talk to this person again. No sooner than I get this statement out, my coworker says, “What? That girl? Oh, no. She’s totally not your type!” WTF???!!!??? Needless to say, for the rest of that afternoon I asked her about each girl that walked into the store afterwards if they were my type. On this particular day, none of them were. In fact, I believe since this day, only one girl has apparently been my type that has walked into the store. A consolation prize will be awarded, however, to the girl that was “more my type than the girl that walked in directly before her.”
Every few days at work, I write the “Question of the Day” on a white-board in the back part of our store, occasionally allowing the girls (coworkers) to add a question here and there. Usually, the questions are fun, such as: “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” or “If I had a Million Dollars…” or “What’s Your Dream Job?” I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add this question following the whole “she’s not your type” afternoon: What is Ryan’s “type”? A number of answers followed including: alive, breathing, single, straight, a good laugh, girl, etc. It was fun for a couple of hours, but then we had to move on to “Who’s Your Favorite Super-hero?” (The Thunder, of course!)
This afternoon, another young lady came in that showed some promise! After the aforementioned coworker and I finished talking to the girl, I asked her for a verdict. She knew what I meant and pretty much immediately shot that poor girl down as not being my type (mostly due to the fact that this customer was wearing a ridiculously pink shirt and supposedly did not annunciate very well). So naturally, this got me to thinking…
Do we all really have a type? Seriously though, do we? I mean if I were to build my perfect girl she would be a tall, curly-headed brunette, smart and funny (duh), loves music, digs me, likes to read, warcraft, etc. Now, I know what I think I like, but I’ve never dated or “gone out” (to borrow the parlance of our yesteryears) with a girl that meets all of these criteria as well as a few unmentioned criterion. I’ve known a few to have some of these qualities and have been with one or two that had most of these qualities, but never all of them. In fact, as far as physical features go, I’ve never dated a girl that closely resembled my “ideal” girl, and that’s ok, because most of these girls have been really great anyway!
I think we are more interested in finding somebody that really clicks with us as opposed to someone that fits a specific type. For instance, my friend Sally, has always mentioned that she liked nerdy guys. She is engaged to my friend The Duke. Although at one point he was affectionately referred to as “Square Steve”, I would not necessarily classify The Duke as nerdy (for the record The Duke was president of his fraternity for two years, which still blows my mind, but generally speaking, fraternity presidents are usually not considered nerdy). I wouldn’t have thought that my little sister would have been my brother-in-law’s type being that he’s pretty laid back and likes sports and she can be a bit uptight and could care less about sports (for the most part that is…even though she’s a badass and runs marathons!!!), but they seem to be peas in a pod.
In closing, we probably do all have types in some fashion or another. I’m sure we all know someone that always seems to hangout with the “bad seeds” or someone that will only surround themselves with “uppity bitches”, but deep down I think we’re generally open to “suggestions”. (In a related note, this “openness” usually coincides with that time in our life when we fully realize we are not as perfect as we once thought we were) And for those of you not so open to “suggestions”, may you forever be a humble monkey.
Ry
ps…anyone between the ages of 25 and 35 should read Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs