The last two weeks at work have been what I lovingly call – Dead weeks.  It’s the time of year when just about everyone in the office takes vacation and no one is around.  I like working at this time of year, I get so much more done.  BUT… there’s a lot more down time.  So in my boredom, I decided to try a little experiment.  I created an ad on craigslist, within the platonic section of the personals.  “Bored, chat?”.  I wrote a brief very general description of who I am, and stated that I’m not looking for absolutely anything other than some lively banter or witty chat.  Strictly platonic.  And then I waited.

What I expected to get versus what I actually got was quite surprising.  🙂  I’ve taken the ad down now, my work week is back in full swing and I didn’t want to be bothered with pinging from craigslist emails anymore.  But here’s a rundown of the note-worthy people I’ve chatted with in the last two weeks.

The Lawyer.
He’s in his 40’s and living here in my town.  We had a very interesting conversation around what it’s like for a relatively successful man to date in today’s age.  The expectation that women have and don’t necessarily vocalize.  Honestly, this conversation was truly interesting.  I didn’t realize how prevalent it was (at least in his world) for women to have height and wage restrictions on potential mates.  It seemed to me that he’s run into a lot of people who look at what he does and immediately have a stereotype.

The Cat Lady
I swear, I’m not making this one up.  This woman, in her late 40’s has 10 cats.  No relationships, no children, never been married.  Sweet woman, but I do believe the love she has for her kitties might be causing some strain there.  Heck, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d admitted to being a virgin still.  It was every stereotype of a cat lady rolled into one person.  She shared pics of her newest kittens and we talked about the holidays and the weather.

The Undertaker
Ok, so when this older man sent me a message telling me he was an undertaker, I couldn’t resist writing back and asking him how on earth he landed on that career path.  He shared his story with me, and what he likes and doesn’t like about his job.  Said how his job is very repetitive… but it’s the people he meets.  The families and their stories that keep him doing it.  I probably would have continued to chat with him, had his emails not gone down a bit of a creepy vibe.  He shared pics of his “workplace” – it was a grave they were hand digging.  And while I can share my respect for what he does – someone has to do it – I got a little creeped out and stopped responding.  🙂

The Gay man-whore
First, it should be noted that some of my very best friends are gay and bi-sexual.  So I recognize that that title is not the best.  But it’s what I could come up with.  This man cracked me up.  At first, he only gave very general answers, stories, and sharing lightly, but after a day or so, he started sharing in more detail than my innocent eyes and mind could take in.  He has a passion for art, so our conversation was a bit all over the place.

The Marine badass
She’d just come home for leave.  Yes, you read that right.  She.  And holy cow, the stories she shared with me.  I have mad respect for anyone who is willing to give their life to serve our country – but this woman truly kicked that respect level up a notch.  She doesn’t have family here so it was nice to spread a little holiday cheer to someone who not only deserved it, but kind of needed it.

The foreigner
Google translate is a magical thing.  🙂  It allowed me to have a semi-intelligent conversation with someone in another language.  Granted, it was mostly about food and recipes… but I’m looking forward to trying my hand at some authentic recipes!  🙂

Of course, there were a few of the sleezy folks who obviously needed schooling on what the word platonic meant… but out of maybe 150 different emails, they accounted for maybe 7 of them.  The rest of the folks who responded were normal, every day joes.  I certainly didn’t respond to all of them, but the few that I picked out to chat to definitely helped open my eyes to who’s sharing the world with me.  I was glad to see that my own stereotypes about who I’d find on craigslist were wrong.  It gives me a bit more hope for humanity. 🙂

Happy Monday!  Goodnight Neverland.