Shuffled

What an ... interesting ... way to end the evening. So I go grab some coffee alternative (I don't drink coffee, except on extremely rare occassion) with Friday night's pleasure at a Starbucks on Capitol Hill just before it closes. We sit and talk for a good while, pondering politics, business, and people - including ourselves. It turns out that he's an "independent business owner" with Quixtar.com - a name I had hoped to forget after the last five years. Quixtar is the next generation of Amway. If I could describe the kind of people that it takes to be a part of that "organization" succinctly, I'd have to say... focused, driven, and somewhat judgmental. I won't call them a cult as others are prone to, but they will associate among themselves and are encouraged to leave naysayers by the wayside. From the tone of my intro to this paragraph, you can guess where I fall. If Friday's pleasure is as I suspect he is, I don't really expect to hear from him ever again because I don't buy into his "business." I have a bad taste in my mouth from Quixtar's launch five years ago. A lot of puffery and underwhelming product left me feeling pretty pissed off and I was decidedly cool toward his pitches. We also talked politics, and he is buying President Bush hook, line, and sinker. I'm not as convinced by our president. Yet another area where we agree to disagree. I think he should read Just and Unjust Wars by Michael Walzer to understand why I don't think that the threat that Iraq posed rose to the level of justifying an invasion. Overall, I learned a lot about him. He's a decent guy at heart, and he's driven to be financially independent. We will respectfully agree to disagree on several things, but I think we both see the writing on the wall when it comes to potential for something more. And the writing is a big goose egg. No soft kisses good night tonight... and not because I didn't want one. It just didn't feel right, I think, and he was trying to be a businessman instead of just being himself. No screwing the clients...I wish some other people would learn that basic rule. He will need someone that is 100% supportive of his business if he's going to be with anyone in the long term. I know that right now, that isn't me. And it's not likely to ever be me. So I will be shuffled off into the group of folks that are not open to the business... and I guesstimate that it'll be "I'll see you when I see you," which equals ooooh, never. But it's just a guess... he could prove me wrong. So the jury will stay out. Here is one profound thing that I learned tonight, from a book that he had read. Women want to be loved, and men want to be respected. These are the two most basic "love languages." Interesting perspective; I hadn't thought of it like that. Now the trick is finding how to communicate that to the opposite gender. So all in all... it's a funny way to end an evening. But at least I have a nice memory.