My date with number 7

I’ve been spending way too much time sleeping, catching up on some much needed Facestalking, browsing too many cat pictures and finally watching the naked Miley Cyrus video on the internet. In short: I’ve been having the best time ever.

I suppose you want to hear about my date…almost two weeks ago…

Let’s do it!

I was quite excited to hear from my dating service when she explained that my new date was a 28 year old accountant, who really values his Christianity, has never been married and doesn’t have any kids. I was very excited that I would be dating someone “young”.

Now, usually I receive a text message from the guys asking for an appropriate time to call me. Number 7 skipped the call altogether and in 3 WhatsApp messages we had introduced ourselves and set a time and date for our first meeting.

His photo on WhatsApp made me cringe. It was horrible. This guy had a proper beer boep and he was carrying an umbrella… and it wasn’t raining… My mom joked and said that I would probably be safe just taking my pepper spray with.

Oh behave!

Please don’t ever subject yourself to a “behavioural specialist” or "life coach". Or for that matter anyone who tells you that they speak three languages: English, Afrikaans and Subconscious…

Last Thursday I met up with a ‘life coach’ as part of my complimentary, obligation free session I was offered at our previous social. I use the inverted commas because basically you can ‘qualify’ yourself in this field. There is no supervisory body or universal standard of practice or training, so, in reality, anyone can call themselves a life coach.

After my ‘life coach’ explained that a life coach is someone who helps people help themselves we began our session with her explaining that her office was to be thought of as a “safe space” and a “neutral area where there are no wrongs and rights”. Oh, what had I agreed to?

Next she started asking me some basic questions regarding my view of success, balance and obstacles. When she asked me what I thought my biggest problem or obstacle was regarding my interaction with others and I told her that I thought it was my inability to properly deal with criticism. I really suck with criticism. Generally, if people say something negative about me, I want to stab them. I generally think that I am right most of the time… As you can see, I have a major ego problem as well. Anyway, biggest problem: criticism. And then we got started...

Finding something like a wolfsheep or sheepwolf...

I hate quotes like this one. It places me into a box. You are either a sheep or a wolf. My brain starts running at inappropriate speeds when faced with quotes like this. I start to ask the weirdest questions…

What is the context this quote speaks to? Is the Christian ideal to be a sheep? I love the idea of being shepherded and often dream of heaven where the clouds are actually…cute, fluffy sheep. Where is my Clarissa Pinkola Estes book Women Who Run with the Wolves? I need to finish that book. Could it be genetically possible to create a sheepwolf? Or a wolfsheep? What if you were a sheep, but chose to show some teeth now and again? What exactly does it mean to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Okay, so you might think I have some weird unexplainable adoration for sheep (you are right) and that I think too much (probably right again). However, I was so confused after our little event my dating service hosted this past Wednesday that all these questions seem quite reasonable.

This quote was used to end our event. Our event, meaning the “life-changing talk” on balance my dating service hosted where after we would have the opportunity to socialise with the stunning singles who are members of our dating service.