househunting on a first date

I have an aunt who thinks I should really be her daughter, and it frustrates her to no end that I'm still single.  Occasionally, she thinks this means she should try to fix it.  This same aunt is the type who "summers" in a wonderful place every year, and hangs around with interesting intellectuals and people who care about the environment and spend a lot of time hiking and enjoying nature.  I hope I get to do that when I grow up.

Every few years, I spend a few days visiting her at this place I call the Fountain of Youth.  This last time I went on a bike ride with a man 40 years older than me, and could barely keep up.  I love these people, I want to be them if I ever grow up.

And as much as my aunt loves me, the folks there love her even more and decided to join in on the efforts to find me a husband.  A nice Jewish man.  This same year I was in town for the bike ride, I was also around for High Holy day services.  The couple with whom we sat has a son.  My age-ish.  In my neck of the woods-ish.  Shidduch, reform Jewish style.

This lovely gentleman, the House-Hunter, promptly called to ask me out upon my return from the Fountain of Youth.  And as we try to arrange a date, he mentions he is house hunting.  I start to share stories of my two successful attempts at house hunting and somehow we end up agreeing to spend our first date going to open houses.

At first blush, this might seem a little... um... wrong.  And somehow, it seemed so right.  You want to know a lot about a person?  Find out what they say they need in a home.  Is he interested in a family?  Not if he is focusing on one bedrooms.  House-Hunter was clearly focused on a family friendly house.  What if he's that guy in SATC with the mobile for his baby's crib - if only he could find the wife!  

As it turns out, it was kind of fun!  House-Hunter was geeky-funny-witty, a little bit of self-deprecating Woody Allan stuff going on, but overall he rated well for the second date.

And he did call, and he did ask me out again.

To go to more open houses.

The third date he took me to see a play about Golda Meir.  And then asked me out again.  To go to open houses with him.  Again. 

I turned him down... both the house-hunting and the house-hunter.  Maybe part of it was the house-hunting - once was cute, but three times wasn't.  Maybe it was the collection of small glass objets d'art at his place that I found a little too quirky for a guy.  Or maybe it was that his geekiness belied a meekness that I couldn't see past.  Or maybe it just wasn't there.  

My aunt was sad.  She really wanted to bring the families together.  

And I was actually a little disappointed in myself for not being crazy about him.    He was going to let me re-do that kitchen in our dream house exactly like I wanted!