Rule 1: There is Someone Looking for You

1. I figured out that the next installment of D&D will be this Saturday.
2. I tasted my first Nehi.
3. When we came to my parents' house for the first time after our vacation, my sister's dog went nuts because she was so excited to see us.

Here it is, the first installment of dating tips from Paul.  Well, this one isn't so much a tip, as an observation.  But first, we need to have a statistics lesson.  WAIT!  Don't leave, it will be quick, I promise.

Whenever things in nature are measured (including humans), the measurements usually make a bell curve that looks like this:

There it is folks, in all its glory.   To put it in easy to understand terms, let's say we took all the men in America and lined them up from shortest to tallest.  Chances are, we'd get lots of guys around 5'10", and very few around 3' or 8'.  Now look at the curve above.  Do you see how the measurements would eventually make this curve, with guys who are between 5'9" and 5'11" making the blue part, and guys 3' or 8' making the orange parts?  Okay, you now understand the basics of the normal curve and know enough to read the rest of my post.

What people are, and what they want in a spouse also follow the normal curve.  Meaning that if you are mostly normal in most things, there's a better chance that you'll find someone who will want to marry you... unless you are normal in every way, in which case, your overall normalness will make you abnormal, and you'll have a hard time finding a spouse, because you are boring... there, I said it. 

Let's take me for example (because I've found that people get offended when I use them as examples for the normal curve).  I am a dork.  The fact that I'm a DM makes me abnormal.  The fact that I want to be a writer makes me abnormal.  The fact that I am LDS, chew my fingernails, cry when I read certain Dr. Seuss stories, play video games that have no multi-player options, sleep a lot, blog, and love to critique movies, makes me abnormal.  This is why my mom says that I march to my own drummer, and my best man said that I dated a lot of girls, but none of them were really right for me, at my wedding.  I AM WEIRD.  Because I am weird, there were few girls who would have been happy being married to me.  I know this.  I'm cool with it.

Now, some of you may be saying to yourself, "Self, you're screwed.  Paul just said that you are on one of the outlying parts of the normal curve, which means few people will be happy marrying you."  Here's the deal guy (or girl, this post goes for you too), there is someone looking for you. I'm super weird, and I still found someone who adores me.  And truth be told, my wife doesn't hit dead center on the normal curve on many attributes either, but guess what?  I was looking for what my wife is.  I didn't want someone super normal, I knew many of those normal people wouldn't be right for me.  The fact that my wife was on the orange part of the curve on so many things, made me love her.

So, here's the big advice for today:  The normal curve exists.  There's a good chance that you are an outlier in some way.  That's good though, because there is someone looking for an outlier like you.  So don't get discouraged, it just might take you a little more time than your cousin who is 5'11" and has no idea what Wolverine's actual powers are.  There are more girls looking for him than are looking for you, but some are still looking for someone just like you, so keep your head up.

Have a nice day.