Build Your Own Dream Date

When I was a child, I had a picture book of animals. The pages were divided in 3 so each critters body was split between head, toros and feet.

Look! An elephant with the legs of a giraffe! A hippo's middle with a ostrich's head! A kitty with a dog's bottom! What fun it was to dream up my own special creatures.

Upon recent reflection, I realized I still need that book as a woman dating in her 40s. So many men ... so many good traits and so many flaws. If only I could build my own dream date!

After a recent call with girlfriend MM, complaining about the recent needy weirdness from Lonnie Ray, she suggested I put together the opposite of my list of deal breakers, namely, deal makers.

And now, for a listing of what good parts I would take from each of my last several year's worth of dates:

Lonnie's taste in music. Spaceman's smart-allecky sense of humor. Jesus' intellect. PAL's humanity. Erik's love of family. Wild Thing's bank account. And how can I leave out - Machine Gun Man's, um, singular physical attribute. Oh, to combine them all into one wonderful person!

But I know it is unrealistic to think I could get all of the above in one single person. I would be happy to settle for one with even just two or three. Or at least a personality transplant for Machine Gun Man. Now that would be an animal worth creating.