Moving up the Dating Continuum...

I am happy to announce (perhaps) that I have now entered a new level on the "Dating Continuum". I don't think one really exists, but since I am in education, and deal with continuums daily, why not construct a dating one? A 1 (or beginning step) would be Date One, with a 4 (or Advanced) would be when you actually get engaged..or married. Hmmm, this has possibilities.

Ok, back to my current level.

I am now at the level which will now give the acronym of "MWRPW". In case you are wondering what in the world this stands for, I will now elaborate.

It's "Men Who Resemble Psychotic Women".

If you know anything about me at all, I am fond of Lifetime movies.  And in Lifetime movies, there always seems to be a woman who goes psychotic and wrecks havoc everywhere she goes..normally on her husband or boyfriend.

Like Betty Broderick.

Meredith Baxter plays her in a two part (yes, it takes two movies to tell this story) movie in which Betty Broderick loses her husband to his secretary, and she gets mad. When I tell you she gets mad, she does things to them that will not land her in the "Nice Woman Club" and ends with killing both her ex-husband and his new wife. And this is a true story, I might add. She would be one of the founders of the "Psychotic Women" club.  

Now most people are under the belief that it is women that usually go nuts and do things that would make you call the police when a relationship ends..or begins...or when things do not go exactly as they expect them to go. And I am not denying this. I've seen it happen. I've also been the one that would panic when a man didn't contact me 1.2 minutes after I contacted them. ..and to be sure that the world as I knew it had come to an end. Any of my friends can verify  this as well. Poor them. I am not proud of this fact, but that is when I was at the beginning step of the dating continuum. So I should be given some credit that I have learned not to flip out when I wasn't contacted back within an unreasonable amount of time. This fact could help explain one of the reasons I am still single. 

However, I am now encountering men who exhibit this kind of "Betty Broderick" behavior as well. Perfectly normal looking and reasonable looking men, who actually have jobs and teeth.  (Please remember those two traits are part of my criteria for men).  They seem normal, they act like they are reasonable, focused, funny, real..a lot of the things that I find attractive in a man. 

The second facet of this disability is that they think that I am absolutely amazing. They love my voice, my wit,  my laugh. They are drawn and connected to me in a way that they have NEVER been connected and drawn to a woman before in their lives.  Pretty neat, huh?

The only issue is that they haven't met me yet. 

Danger, Danger, Will Robinson. 

The third facet of this disability (and yes, I qualify MWRPW as a disability) is that the reasonableness and normal like behavior switches into someone who resembles....

You know the movie. Remember the poor bunny?

The men with this issue begin to exhibit "Fatal Attraction" characteristics.  It kind of goes like this:

 Man with MWRPW: "Why don't you think I'm amazing like I think you are?" 

Me: " I haven't met you yet."

Man with MWRPW:  "You need to live in the moment, let yourself go, not hold back".

Me: "I just met you". 

Man with MWRPW: "We will be a great couple together. I don't understand why you are not letting yourself feel what I feel is an deep, once in a life time connection".

Me:  "I just met you".

Man with MWRPW:  "Well, something is obviously wrong with you since you (You can pick from the following choices) :

                                      1.  Don't think I'm amazing.

                                      2.  Won't have sex with me on the first date.

                                      3.  Act normal. 

Me:  (in my inside voice) " Are you kidding me"?

I guess it is reasonable to make the connection between men and women in their 40s and 50s that are thrust into a dating world in which all the rules are different, and the ground that you are are is a slippery slope leading to psychotic disaster. So I will continue on the path of my dating continuum world, and pray that somewhere between the second step (approaching dating proficiency) and the fourth step (a relationship) is that out there somewhere there is a normal man who is...well, as normal as you can expect someone to be without whipping out a knife and trying to slash me because I won't conform to their ideal of what ideal is.

I don't think that's too much to ask. Is it?