Personals

It's that time again, fans. Time to peruse craigslist for interesting personal ads and reply. It's a good writing exercise and I hope some fun for the women to whom I reply. Perhaps I'll meet one of them someday. The one below I particularly enjoyed reading and responding to.

seeking eclectic, erudite, soul-stirring guy for adventures in life - 41

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Reply to: pers-192620995@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-08-10, 7:38PM EDT


I am: feminine but not fake, cerebral but not stuffy, petite but not bone thin, adventurous but not reckless, open-minded but not psychotic, independent but not aloof, introverted but not shy. I like moonlit road trips to nowhere, meandering in the book store, coffee and sunrises, Coke Slurpees, frayed jeans, lacy lingere, Bonham's bashing drums in When The Levee Breaks, and Bukowski's gritty romantic poetry.

I also like men -- as people, as friends, as a species. I'd like to find a single, laid-back, intelligent, kind-hearted, free-thinking, unafraid, solid guy to stir my soul...to laugh with me...to together create various life-intensifying escapades. And if you happen to look sweetly, hopelessly sexy in faded flannel shirts or overwashed jammie bottoms, well that'd be great, too!

I don't think there's such a thing as a "perfect" man or an "ideal" woman -- rather, it's more about how a man and a woman and all the parts of their respective psyches intertwine in zany beautiful intriguing passionate ways. Do you agree?

I'm not real comfortable posting a picture here (of course I have one), but I sincerely appreciate you guys who will nevertheless trouble yourselves to include a photo with your thoughtful personal response. Thanks for understanding!

I reply:

Call me Ishmael. It's not my name but if it was a good enough opening line for Melville, it should work for me. I don't mean to imply that I'm that literate. People who know me credit me with far more intelligence than I have. I credit myself not enough.

Your ad was terrific. I confess that I have never read any of Bukowski's gritty romantic poetry. Will you settle for Vonnegut's bare bones prose? I'm re-reading his last novel "Timequake." It's his last as in both his most recent and his final one. He said he retired from writing novels after that one and I'll take him at his word. Sure he made his living making up stories but I've never known the man to lie.

I recently unpacked "Timequake" and the rest of my books after moving to a new town, where the county tax collector claims I own a new townhome and where the cat that lives with me claims that she does. The cat is my only dependent and I am hers.

Other than that, I don't have the "I am" list that you offered. I tend to think in terms of what people do rather than what they are. You are what you eat. And what you play and what you think and you create. My new piano arrives next week. I do not read music but I write and play it. One of the attached pictures, if I remembered to attach it, shows me with a video camera. I've made short (5-10 minutes) documentary films on things ranging from a small rural town to a musical group to insects. And I write long letters.

I have no idea what impression, if any, these things make on the people to whom I send them. If I never meet anyone out of them, the exercise my brain gets from creating them makes it worth the effort.