Chicago Man, Flowers, and Attraction

So if you read my blog with any regularity, you’ll know I met a man in Chicago when visiting Jenn and Random Esquire.  He is the man that gave me this kiss.  He is Chicago Man.  RE frequently crosses paths with my Chicago Man, and let me know that those paths would be crossing last night.  In a spur of the moment decision, I asked Random Esquire to bring my Chicago Man a flower – sort of a “I’m thinking of you” flower.  I decided on a Sunflower. It’s not mushy and sappy, it’s sort of a MAN flower methinks.  And while RE tried to get that flower for me, it was to no avail.  Chicago florists apparently close at 4pm everywhere in that big city.  <QT Grumbling>  RE was not very happy about this, as bringing a flower to a man is not something RE does.  This kind of made me laugh and I had to push all the harder for it to happen.  “Dude, you’re such a GIRL,” is the comment I received from RE.  Why yes RE, I am, and I have the goods to prove it.    And of course RE wrote about it here, as well.

What is it that attracts you to another person?  I can’t speak for men, although I do believe they are more visual creatures than women are.  I can only speak for myself.  Physical attraction, is course, the first thing that comes to mind.  Yet I must admit, I’ve dated men that became better looking to me after I’ve gotten to know them.  I remember when I first started dating Dick.  I didn’t look at him and think “DAMN“.   But after I got to know him, I realized I was completely attracted to him.  For me, attraction is based on things that don’t really have much to do with the way a man looks.  Nope, it’s about other things.  Their sense of humor, whether they truly have an interest in me, in my daughter, their sense of humor (yes, again), the ability to have a conversation without those awkward pauses (GOD that drives me insane), someone that has a good heart and that is into more than what I look like.  My Chicago Man?  The more I get to know him, the more I want to drive to Chicago to insert myself into his life somehow.  <sigh>

And while this paints me to be this awesome being, I assure you I have my shallow things as well.  A few things that turn me OFF of a man in a snap of a couple of fingers:  Incorrect grammar – in spoken or written word.  I am horrible about this, admittedly.  If a man can’t spell or use a word in a sentence correctly?  I’m completely turned off.  Short men, too.  I hate this about myself but I believe I was traumatized when in 7th grade I grew to my present height of 5′10 and towered over EVERY boy till my senior year in high school.  If a man is shorter than me I have a hard time dating him, although I realize this is utterly stupid.  I also have some QT-isms about other things … but I’ll save those for another time. 

So tell me, what attracts you to a man or a woman?  And what is it that can turn you off of a man or woman?

[Photo Credit: http://www.metaedge.ca]