my life as a single...

I work in a predominantly married environment. there is one other girl who is a couple of weeks older than me who works as the receptionist who is also not married. There is one single lady who works in our building in her early forties and another single lady who is about to retire. other than that - everyone is married. i think everyone is in their 40's and older. there may be a few that are in their late 30's. anyway - you get the point. many of my coworkers are old enough to be my parents. they have kids my age and older and many have grandkids... so picture painted...

every few months we have a "new challenge seminar" in the building. it's a time for church pastors and staff who are new to the area or have moved to a new church (or any that have "new challenges") to come to the building and get some encouragement. they also find out a lot of information about what we do here, what services are available, etc... for me, i get to promote our print shop to try and get some business...

well, yesterday and today was the first "new challenge seminar" that i got to be a part of... and, from what i gather... they're usually filled with couples, some young, some not-so-young... but generally, it's married people. well, this time... there were 11 individuals/couples - and 3 of them happened to be single guys - all about my age... now my co-workers had a "new challenge."

during the first session, everyone gets to share a piece of their story... (the participants, anyway) so during this time i got to find out about bachelors #1, #2, and #3 (as my co-workers named them from the order that they shared their story)

enter "bachelor #1." he was a nice-looking guy who is a youth minister in southern oregon. he shared a little bit of his story and he was definitely a youth minister (i mean that in a good way) - he was pretty goofy... but seemed really nice...

enter "bachelor #2." also, a nice looking guy who lives on the coast. he had an incredible testimony - it was cool to hear what he had gone through to see where he is now. he's involved with ministry at his church - related to addiction ministries. (i think - something like that)

enter "bachelor #3." ahhh... the best for last... this guy wasn't unattractive... and he was really goofy... and talked with a very heavy texas accent... wow... he kind of went on and on about his story... and i got distracted (easy to do) and stopped paying a lot of attention. one of the ladies i work with wrote... "he's single." on a piece of paper... and i started to laugh... a lot... i was doing the quiet-shaking-trying-not-to-make-a-noise-kind of laughing... i even put my head down... luckily we were sitting in the back.

shortly after this, they took a break and i quickly exited through the back door... one of my other co-workers named the 3 guys at this point... and another told me he was going to make me a nametag that said, "i'm single, too." forget the no-noise kind of laughter at this point... i think i snorted about 5 times...

here's the sad/funny part - all of them were voting #3... do they know me? i think it was just the funniest choice because i was so anti-#3...

a nametag was made for me that said "single" and then it had yes/no boxes and the yes box was marked out. i opted not to wear it for obvious reasons.

when they got to our department, we shared about what we do - and my boss started off and he mentioned his personal life after he said his little bit about his job and our paper... then another one went, then it was my turn... i went through the whole thing and on the personal part, i said, "i'm not married." someone asked me if, when i said that, i winked at the single guys... what?? what kind of girl do you think i am??

so that was kind of the end of the day... the office was a-flutter with talk of singles all day yesterday... the seminar went through today, but i wasn't a part of it today... i thought the subject would drop... until...

the same lady, the "he's single." one came back and handed me a card... it was bachelor #3's card from something... and in the "spouse's name" blank, he had written... "i don't know, but if you find out, tell me." - weird... so they asked me if i wanted them to put my name... eww...

i there are very few things that are more repulsive to me than a "wife-hunter..." i'm not saying that if a guy wants to be married that it automatically makes him repulsive... but when a guy is so overly-upfront about it that he can't just be normal, it's just gross to me... like he's trying way too hard... i'd much rather be able to make a decision about whether or not i like someone based on their actual personality and not the fake one they put out there trying to win a spouse...

and it totally goes both ways... i am repulsed by "husband-hunters" too... don't get me wrong - i've been there... i've not been friends with girls who i thought were a threat... i've ignored guys that i wasn't romantically interested in... and i've tried way too hard on several occasions...

and i'm not saying i'm better than anyone who is a "hunter." it's part of life... at this point in my life it makes me feel a bit disgusted... i just wish i didn't feel like the christian singles realm was a dating service, whether provoked or unprovoked...

but it always provides laughs... from everyone... except maybe bachelor #3...