...believe it or not I found a very nice and smart actress/model (authentic one... I checked the pics - this time
) and we had a very pleasant dinner date and... well, we'll see.. wish me luck!
I wish you
bon chance, monsieur with your actress/model!
I had an actress/model girlfriend briefly when I was much younger, and in spite of the ultimate result, I still am glad for the experience points I accrued. Care to hear about it? Spoiler alert: I get murdered at the end.
In 1987, I was playing synthesizer in a pop band, living the rock star dream in Las Vegas. The rock star dream, in this case, being working at a mortgage company during the day, playing until 2 a.m. at dives for an average of $9 a night, and being recently divorced from my high school sweetheart, who was on a one-woman mission to reduce Earth's population of male virgins to zero while I was out playing gigs.
The only thing I had going for me in 1987, if you don’t include being young and having all my hair, is that I was dating a first runner-up Miss USA. And believe me, even that was no picnic. "Mayday" as I have since nicknamed her, was a stunner, the kind of girl you would pick out of a room the instant you entered. The kind of girl who, when we walked together through restaurants I couldn't afford, I knew there was a chance I could lose her to someone else before we even got to the table. Even the violinist would stop playing to hit on her. If you search "OUT OF NED'S LEAGUE" on Wikipedia, you'll find a whole section devoted to her (but don't do it, the page is huge and takes forever to load). I actually liked waiting for her outside the ladies' room; it was like waiting at the valet parking for your Ferrari.
Mayday was emotional chaos in beautiful human form. Even for guys fighting in her weight class, Mayday was a challenging opponent. For a hopeless, skinny, wanna-be poet / musician like me, dating her was like getting my foot hung in the stirrup of a rodeo bronco. It was one heck of a ride, but it literally almost killed me. Well, to be completely accurate,
I almost killed me, but it was because of the relationship.
After a lifetime of being emotionally risk averse, Mayday represented the first time I ever said, “I don’t care if I get hurt. I don’t care the risks. I have to try.” And to my complete surprise, we dated for almost nine months. Mayday and I actually had a lot in common, if you looked past the physical aspect and the fact that she came from a family of B-list Hollywood and music stars. We were similarly neurotic, insecure, and uncomfortable around other people. We both had a sense of waiting for the saucer to come find us and take us back to our home planet -- we had our towels and a packet of peanuts at the ready. I guess I made her laugh, and I guess I put in more effort than any other guy she had dated, since they were people like a tennis pro's brother, and the only professional racquetball player to ever have his own Sports Illustrated poster, and some senior executive at a casino who probably had mob ties. Guys like that didn't need Mayday as arm candy, so the minute she got quirky on them, they'd leave her on a corner without cab money to walk home.
Me? I threw myself into dating Mayday like it was a career choice. I was just plain nicer to her than these other hot shots, and I put tremendous effort into every date -- partially to make up for my lack of financial resources back in those days but also because time spent preparing handmade cards or paper roses and such for her before a date felt a bit like time being with her in a sad, sad, desperate way.
But here’s a pro tip from a guy who has spent a lifetime typecast as the hopeless fool: if a girl tells you you’re unlike any other guy she’s ever dated, that means you aren’t going to last. Women, especially neurotic ones, don't break routine easily or for long. I was an experiment. If I could give myself advice backwards through time, in addition to all the Superbowl results for the next 30 years, I'd tell myself this about Mayday: enjoy your time, take a lot of selfies with her, but don’t get her name tattooed anywhere too visible. Mayday tried to break up with me repeatedly over the course of nine months, but somehow I always managed to get one more quarter in the slot before the GAME OVER: CONTINUE? countdown reached zero. Finally she made it stick. She was acting in some local play with a bunch of kids, and on opening night, I brought flowers early to the theater. I handed them to one of the kids in the production and asked if she could take them backstage to Mayday. The little girl didn't seem to know the name, so one of the adult's told her, "Mayday is playing Miss Lettie in the play." The light came on behind the little girl's eyes. "Oh!" She said, "Joe's girlfriend."
"Yes," the kind lady agreed. "Joe's girlfriend, Mayday."
That's how the knife came down and cut that stirrup loose for good and I was free of the bronco ride, face down in the arena dust, surrounded by clowns who were unsure what to do with me. I turned and dragged myself out of there, didn't stay for the play, and listened zombie-like to her apologies the next day for not telling me she had met someone and apparently had been carrying on with him at the theater to the point even the little kids knew they were a couple. The kids knew. I did not.
I found a big old turtle shell to crawl into while waiting to heal. And once I got over it -- assuming I ever did -- I guess I just plumb forgot to take that shell off.