Single And Reasonably Well-Adjusted Too!

about two months ago at the gym where i work out, while filling up my water bottle, i glanced up at the facility's "buddy board" (bulletin board) & saw this posting for a woman named Julie, looking for a buddy to work out with. she was looking for someone with intermediate workout experience, age 40-50 and someone that was reasonably well-adjusted & a high energy level. well, that sounded like me, but i didn't respond until two weeks later & received an email from Julie the next week with the following message: "let's meet and workout next Thursday, at 4:30. How about we meet by the treadmills? I am interested in kicking my social life up a notch by meeting single, reasonably well-adjusted, high energy men. Does this sound like you?Excellent!"
a date! i thought, okay great! wasn't sure what to expect from her & wrote her back once more as i didn't know what she looked like, so she wrote me back and told me what she would wear. so i waited. yes, i was anxious, nervous, excited, not knowing what to expect. well, thursday finally rolled around & i got there on time & waited & waited & waited, until 10 minutes after the fact she showed up and went immediately to the wall to start stretching! i walked up to her, and called her name, which seemed to startle her! funny, huh? so we started talking & she showed me a few stretching exercises too & was critical of my worn out shoes. she didn't apologize for being late, and i thought, alright, so be it. finally we got to the machines, set up the proper timings and off we went. she ran, i walked & ironically, i ended up doing most of the talking, telling her about my outside career of acting & throatsinging & my ufo sighting stories, even demonstrated a few tones for her too! yes all this on the treadmill in a public gym, imagine that!

she told she worked in a public school in the city, not much about herself or her family, although she mentioned her sister a number of times, which made me wonder if there was something more to her, then she was letting on. by the end of our run, i asked her what's next & she said, "well, see you around," which was a nice way of saying no, i guess. i often wondered in the weeks after that, what in the world was she really looking for, because it seemed to me that she herself seemed a little scared & the total opposite of what she was looking for.

my suspicions were confirmed & i probably should have listened to my inner conscious when i read her teaching philosophy on the website where she works..."The goal of education must be the fullest development of a student's gifts and capabilities. To meet a student where s/he is, challenge him/her and facilitate his/her growth as a human being -- that is successful teaching. For, ultimately, it is not what I do as an educator that will make a student a success or failure in school and in life; it is what the student does. It is this belief in my individual student's capabilities that informs all my teaching choices. With each choice I make, I ask myself: does this choice facilitate optimal learning for this student? Facilitator, model, creator of optimal learning environments... these are the roles I play as teacher." in my humble opinion, this doesn't tell me anything other than total confusion & chaos, in other words, she doesn't know what she wants & perhaps is placing her fears into a potential date, only to reject them. it's a old familar pattern that never seems to go away, kind of like blocking out an physical assault or rape, thinking it won't affect your future. how wrong that philosophy is!

but hey, julie & i were not meant to be & that's fine with me. last night, i saw her new posting up on the buddy board & i guess that means she's looking again, so if there are any of you single & available bachelor-types (male or female) out there reading this & are looking for a date, i know julie's looking, give her a buzz @ 773-485-4160 (Julie's number was listed in her posting) & be sure to tell that the mishegas master sent you!