ALL THINGS SHALL BE FOR EXPERIENCE

So I've been on three dinner/lunch dates in the last 3 weeks with three
different guys. All three were interesting and worth the effort for the
experience. I haven't dated a lot in the 17 years since I turned 16 and the
only experience's I've had to judge things by haven't been all that great.
So I feel like I'm getting a crash course on dating at a rapid speed.

I'm learning about what qualities are most important and which ones
I don't care for, and how important chemistry is even though the
person is a nice good person.

Date with guy #1 was insightful. We had only had a few conversations
before he asked me out so there was little that I knew about him
before going. He was 33, aspiring to be a full time janitor for a
school, shorter than me, little motivation for going to college, and lives
at home with his parents. I felt like we were on very different
levels in life even though we were the same age. We talked for
3 hours and no matter how I tried I was not attracted to him or
excited to go out with him again. I'm the kind of person who can talk
to just about anyone and make friends with someone in line at the DMV,
but he took the fact that we talked for so long as chemistry whereas I did
not, and couldn't wait to get home. I knew instantly that I didn't want to
go out again. I wished I had, had courage right after to say so but I didn't
so I had to let him down in an email later that week.

Date with guy #2 was an eye opener. We had talked for a whole week
practically every night and talked about religion, life, our work, and
everything else under the sun. He was 34, divorced, 2 little girls, has a
good job and was attractive. I really liked talking to him and was excited
to go out with him. I was rudely awakened from the moment we got on
the date til the end by his teasing. Our chemistry in talking was different
than our chemistry in person all because of the kind of teasing he did. It
was very strong and the whole night I felt like he was being critical of
everything I said and was. Half way through the night I asked him if
he was going to be nice to me? And that I felt like I needed to have my
fists up all night ready to defend myself. I tease and like to be teased but
his teasing was more than I expected or could handle. We were going to
go out again and see if things were better if we did something more
interactive rather than just sitting and talking he said he would get
back to me about it but I've yet to hear from him 2 weeks later.
Honestly I'm not too upset that he's gone.

Date with guy #3 nice. We had talked for 2 1/2 weeks over email
and then had phone conversations for a week and then went out
after 3 1/2 weeks of everything combined. He has a house in Syracuse,
is 29 years old, works in Salt Lake, love HGTV as I do and has a dog
named Missy. He was cute but a bit quieter than I had expected but I
had a good time. He said he had a good time as well and would call me
to do it again. I didn't feel like it was the best best date ever but it was
nice and worth the effort to go out again and see how it goes. So the
next day I sent him a text thanking him for the day before and hoped
that he was having a good day. It's been 3 days and he has not
responded...Who knows if he really didn't have as good a
time as he said, but it would be nice to have him just say so. I've
noticed that if a guy is no longer interested they just drop you with no
clue as if they didn't need to say anything to you. I feel it's common
courtesy to tell them right out rather than mysteriously disappearing.
It's very frustrating!!! Who knows he could still call, but I
doubt it very much.

So life goes on and I just keep living and waiting for more
experiences to make me more well rounded.