FemmeJolie - Discussing the Differences of the Sexes and Blind Date Blunders

12.14.00

Dear Readers:
My coworkers (male and female) and I were talking about some of the things that drive us nuts about living with members of the opposite sex. Of course, the women had more to complain about than the men.

My personal mystery/pet peeve: Cleaning a toilet used by a boy. How does that yellow streak get on the FRONT of the OUTSIDE of the toilet? The yellow stuff on the back, by the lid-hinges? How does that GET there? I mean, it's not like I've got a toddler here, just learning the basics of toilet use. I know he knows HOW--I never find any on the floor, for example. But I know what that yellow stuff is, and I can't figure out how my fully-grown sweetie manages to do this. I've resolved (he hasn't actually agreed yet) that when we start living together, the toilet will be his responsibility to clean. That's that.

So how about it? What are some of the differences between the sexes that things that make you crazy, folks? I know there's got to be a lot of other things out there. How do you deal with them? Write us and let us know...we'd love to hear from you. (Please, keep it clean!)

Thanks for reading,

Betsy Boyd and Amy Taylor,
Co-Editors, Femme Jolie

I think everyone has at least one hilarious first-date disaster story. A friend of mine talked to her date a couple of days before, and they agreed to dinner and a movie. The conversation moved on, and then the young man asked a seemingly random question: "Do you like Hardee's?" My friend replied, cautiously, that she did. "Good, because I have a coupon, and we can go there for dinner." Now, my friend is not a gold-digger, but really, Hardee's isn't exactly the place to take your date to impress her. And a coupon isn't exactly a great way to round out the experience. Fellas, take note.

It doesn't even have to be behavior that makes a date go south. Sometimes the person is just so dramatically wrong from the outset that it's clear when it begins that it ought to end--and quickly. My friend got set up on a blind date once, and not only was he way more --er, heavy, than the description she'd gotten, but all of the things he'd been described as liking (travel, These Boots re Made for Walking

world music, etc.), he didn't. He'd never even left the state, and his music tastes were confined to two types--country, and western.

The last straw was his shoe-choice. My friend has a phobia about cowboy boots, and her evening was capped when the guy showed up "in a big ol' pair of cowboy boots." Though he sent her flowers every day for weeks after that, it just couldn't go anywhere.

Of course, men aren't the only ones who make huge mistakes on first dates. One young man I know was walking through a mall with a young woman on the first date, on the way to the movie theater. The woman grabbed his arm and steered him over to the jewelry case to look at engagement rings.

On the first date.

Needless to say, in both of these cases, there wasn't a second date.

Been having a lot of first dates lately? Maybe there's a reason you never move on to second and third dates. Take the First-Date Disaster Test to see if you are scaring your dates away before they really get to know you. --B.B. & A.T.
Are You a First-Date Disaster?