Deal breaker Love maker

What am supremely cheesy title! I love it, and I know you do too. Lately I've been having a few discussions about dating standards and, more specifically, deal breakers. Everyone has their own little stipulation that if they see that annoyance in a potential partner, everything will be off. Most times it's just shallow provisos that we get caught up with - sad, but true. As my co-worker said to me today, "We're animals." And hey it's true! But at the same time, our ability to think makes us over-think too often.

I don't generally consider myself to be a shallow person, but sometimes you are more shallow that you really think you are. Oops, my bad! I have standards, as do most people. It can't be helped and most times you can't turn it off, especially when you are just jumping back into the dating scene (hey that's me!).

Turns out, I had a date the other night through my trusty crazy blind date site, go me! So, before you meet up with the person, you get to read a little bit about them (get out your witty commentary people). This preview gives you the chance to decide if you actually want to go out with them or not. And honestly, you really shouldn't be able to turn anyone down from a brief description of themselves and no picture. Oh, but I almost did.

The guy I met up with the other night wrote in a description of himself that he had a goatee, and my immediate reaction was "Ewwwww." For some reason the thought of meeting up with someone who sports a goatee really struck me as being a turn off. But why?? It really made no sense. I literally sat there for 10 minutes debating whether or not I should go out with goatee man. I mean, what? Why!? Why would I want to turn down a date because of facial hair? It seemed like the dumbest rejection ever.

I started thinking about guys who had goatees. Colin Farrell - he's hot and he has a goatee, but he's also kinda dirty. Edward Norton had a goatee! He's adorable. You may say, "But wait, Anne, didn't he have a goatee in the movie, American History X, where he played a scary neo-nazi?" To which I reply, "Yes, he played a sexy, scary neo-nazi who was reformed!"

I ended up biting the goateed bullet and met up with the dude. He had, in fact, shaved his goatee by the time of our meeting, so it wasn't even an issue. I'm glad I went too! He ended up being a pretty cool guy. I might even grace him with my presence again, but who knows! Lucky guy.

After I told my bff about considering not meeting up with the dude because of his facial hair disability, she told me that with her current girlfriend she gave up a lot of her former deal breaking stipulations. For as long as I have known her she has been somewhat of a music snob. Not at all in a bad way. She just knows what she likes. We are both music snobs actually, which gives us license to make fun of people who have crappy taste in music. Kidding! Not really. We bonded over the fact that we had very similar tastes in music and went to (and still do go to) numerous rockin' shows at Southpaw, Webster Hall, Bowery Ballroom, etc. The "cool" venues. We most definitely do not go see shows at Madison Square Garden, thank you very much. (Ok, except for that one time that we went to go see the Scissor Sisters and it was in the theater arena, not the main stage. That show was my pick, because I love them.)

Anyway, my bff has been very nitpicky about the people she dates and their musical tastes in the past, but currently, she is dating someone who is not at all on the same level of musical taste, and for some reason it just doesn't bother her. I didn't understand at first, especially when she told me she bought tickets for Stevie Wonder and Dolly Parton - don't get me wrong, they are both amazing musicians, but they are not the people we go to see live. She just likes her girlfriend so much that she will go see artists that she would normally scoff at people for going to see. I think that's adorable.

I may not be ready to settle on some things when I'm dating around, and I'm ok with that. I think that eventually I will let it all go and be ok with someone who has a little facial hair or possibly wears ugly sneakers (that one will be hard)! You never know what can happen when people fall in love. They get all crazy-like.