Speed dating

I attended a speed dating event last week. The premise of the event is that an equal number of men and women attend, all pre-screened by age bracket. Each man has three minutes to talk to each woman. At the end of three minutes a bell rings and the man and woman each rate each other on the basis of would they like to see each other again. They rate each other on a scorecard that they turn in to the event organizers at the end of the evening. Where a man and a woman both ranked each other as Yes then the organizers send them each others contact information.

I was apprehensive about going to the event and was not in a great space about it. I even considered not going, but I had already committed to it last month so it wouldn't do to not go. Ninety percent of success is just showing up, right? The eleventh tenet of the leadership covenant - As a leader I never take myself out of the game. If you want to be a champion, fight one more round.

So I went. Three minutes go by very quickly. The premise is that most people know in less than three minutes if there is chemistry. That may be so, but I think that three minutes is not enough to get to know someone.

I did come away from the event feeling good and I enjoyed myself. Time went by so fast that I didn't have time to not enjoy myself.

A couple of days later I got the results back from the organizers and I had no matches. That left me feeling discouraged and wondering if dating is really all about superficialities. Will I do this venue again? I don't know; right now it's a toss up between not wanting to set myself up for disappointment or deciding that it's just a numbers game and keep playing it that way.

Which side of the bed

“Do you still sleep on your side of the bed?” That's a question that Harry Burns asks Sally Albright, in When Harry Met Sally. Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) meet again after another five years have passed since they last saw each other when they were both involved with other partners. They meet again and their past relationships have since dissolved. “Do you still sleep on your side of the bed?” asks Harry.

It is almost a year since I broke up with J. I still sleep on my side of the bed, the left side. Part of my reason for that is practical. The way my bed is positioned in my room it is natural that I would get in on the left side. Munchkin the cat often sleeps at the foot of my bed, on the right side. I don't know why he likes that side; perhaps because it is close to the window and therefore warmer. Or maybe he just likes the view better. Sometimes when I start to roll over towards the middle and stretch out my legs I end up kicking him.

It's colder on the right side of the bed. When I climb into my bed on the left side and warm it up, I don't usually roll over to the right side, especially this time of year, because that side is cold.

Perhaps another reason I stay on one side of my queen size bed is that I don't want to get used to sleeping on the entire bed and then have to get used to sleeping on only one side when I meet my next partner. I figure it's better to stay used to sleeping on one side only.

My MRI adventure

I had my head examined this morning.

This story goes back to a weekend in the late summer of 2008, maybe early fall, when I was walking in a park and I had a brief spell of double vision. It cleared itself within a few minutes but still, that's one of the symptoms of stroke. I mentioned the episode to a doctor and he suggested I have an MRI done. There must have been a waiting list because my date for the examination finally came up today.

My appointment was for 7:45 this morning. So up I got, dark and early this morning, and away I went to the hospital. The morning drive was easy; the roads were clear, traffic was light, and there was nothing falling out of the sky. No precipitation I mean. Though as far as I know the planes were landing safely.

I had an MRI done once before, on my abdominal area. (No, I wasn't pregnant).

This time it was a bit different. The last time they gave me a couple of glasses of water to drink before the exam. I wondered if this time they would give me a plate of fish to eat (brain food) but they didn't.

The last time they injected a fluid into my body and when it went in I felt this awful warm feeling that felt like I had peed my pants. I hadn't. This time there was no injection, no fluid, and no icky warm sensation.

This time they gave me a grey bulb to squeeze in case of emergency. I had no emergency and I didn't squeeze it. They gave me headphones to block out the sound of the machine and also played music through it.

This time I went head first into the machine. Let me tell you about the machine. At first glance it looks like the Guardian of Forever from the City on the Edge of Forever episode of Star Trek. On second and third glances it still looked like the Guardian of Forever. By fourth glance it looked like a Stargate SG-1.

While the machine was operating I thought it sounded like a washing machine. Maybe I was having my brain washed. Or at least wrung out - it sounded like it was on the spin cycle.

The procedure itself was fairly uneventful. Being how early it still was in the morning and that I was supposed to not move during the process, I closed my eyes and slept through most of it. Once it was done the operator told me that I could go. That was it!

It will be some time before I hear the results, but at least no one can tell me now that I should get my head examined.