I've been set up...

It was the one-armed man, I swear.

Actually, I'm referring to the other kind of set-up. The one where someone you know is excited at the prospect of pair bonding you to someone else.

Now I find this type of thing very interesting for several reasons...

1. It happens very, very rarely to me. Usually when someone thinks it is a good idea to set me up, they have been taking long hauls off of a crackstick. I don't say this because any self esteem issues, I say it because it usually is a bad idea. People who know me know that I don't have the kind of personality that can be advertised and then presented. Like so much in modern consumer culture, there is a difference between the advertised product and the way it performs. I cannot really be described in any way that remains consistent with what I actually do. So women expecting to meet "this funny guy" will arrive to find me at a time where I'm not funny, or crazy, or downright belligerent.

2. It is always neat to see exactly what types of women my friends think I should date. More often than not, the women people think I should date are not women I should date. One would think that my friends would suggest I follow along on their set-up because the woman in question is alike in personality, goals, intelligence, hobbies or whatever. Although not all of these are required to make suitable judgment, you would hope that people are factoring at least some of them into the equation. Sadly, no, as it turns out the deciding factor in my past set ups has been that the woman in question has repeatedly asked to be set up with someone and I am suggested simply because I am consistently single. My friends have shown complete lack of judgment by setting me up with emotionally unstable women who often see my unifying theory of life as some callous non-committance to everything they stand for, eventually causing them to break down and declare me some sort of great Satan. So when someone tells me that they want to set me up with someone, I immediately begin to wonder if they have thought it all through, from start to potentially fiery, mangled finish.

3. People seem to think I lack completion. Usually this is because of their own insecurities. Too many people choose relationships from reasoning like "I've been single for (insert number) of (insert time measurement) so I need to do this". Not having done something is never a good reason to do it. If you feel there is some sort of pressing obligation from a societal influence or structure, it is the last thing you should do. Smart actions are based on free choices and choices made by pressing faulty societal memes like the one above only prove that you are not free, having some underlying personal difficulties you may want to address. The worst thing you can ever do is feel someone else will complete you. Then any attempt at completion will fail. Instead, realize that you are complete and then you can face any challenge, including that of sharing most of your life with another person. It's the Existentialist way. People who know me best know that I know this, which brings me back to the first sentence of this point, someone has been smoking those cracksticks again.

Of course in the past I've thought it would be neat to have a girlfriend. The prospect leads me to conclude "that's cool". The possibility that I could continue several years (or the rest of my life) without one also leads me to conclude "that's cool".

I look forward to this opportunity. Regardless of where it takes me, simply because it is an opportunity. The friend in charge of this one knows me better than just about anyone else, so I trust her judgment implicitly. Mind you, the idea was brought to her by way of her roommate, whom she trusts implicitly. It remains to be seen if two degrees of implicitness will translate into success or failure.

You know what, pretend everything I just said is bullshit and fuck everything else, this is going to be fun time.

You can go read another blog now.