DUDE LOOKS LIKE MY UNCLE.

Nothing opens a new blog like a sad story.  It is very sad, and very true.

I've been talking to this rather nice gentleman on a certain unnamed website for a while.  Nice guy, has good ideas.  So I subscribed to his newsletter, by which I mean I agreed to a sort-of date with the guy.  I tried not to get nervous, but hey.  Nervous is what we do when we meet new people we've been flirting outrageously with online and we haven't even managed to get a photograph from the person, right?

Now, I will admit that from the start I had my reservations about compatablility with this guy.  He's well off (I'm definitely not), he's almost the same age as my mother (not as important -- my mom had me while she was still quite young), and he ... didn't seem to catch on to a lot of my quirks.  Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot.

When he pulled up in a Jag, I sighed.  I can excuse well-off, and could learn to live with someone who is wealthier, but dammit English engineering was bad enough before Ford took over with their plastic parts and ... ugh.  (Don't argue with me on this.  I am a huge fan of German engineering, I worked for Ford, and I freakin' don't trust British engineering, and I don't care what you have to say about it, you're not going to change my mind.  I'm... I'm like a Fundie German Engineering Fangirl.  Deal.)  I waved, recognizing immediately that this person was who I was to meet, and he waved back.  No problem.

Watched him pay for parking.  Watched the streetcar go by, and several interesting-looking people.  ... He was still paying for parking.  OK.

He walked up.

NOT OK.

He... he looks like my uncle.  He spoke, and he sounded like my uncle.  Disaster had struck.

I am a pretty kink-friendly person, but incest just doesn't do it for me.  Even implied incest.

We had a very nice dinner, though.  Once the OMG NEW PERSON and OMG MY UNCLE WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE MY UNCLE had passed, it was a really pleasant dinner.  I introduced him to sushi, even remembering to use English words for my favorites, explained the difference between sushi and sashimi, explained why I love takoyaki (but only on occasion), and demonstrated the fun of eating edamame.  I even tried to teach him how to use chopsticks, but he gave up pretty quickly and resorted to using his fingers.

He looks like my uncle.

I could go on some huge soapbox about how important it is to put up pics on dating profiles, no matter how ugly you think you are, but the truth is... I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the world who has ended up trying to date their uncle's doppelganger.

Still, people.  Pix.  If I can do it, so can you.  

And maybe, just maybe, I will have saved someone from the shock of discovering they're on a date with their uncle's body double.