that's a deal breaker ladies

It's December 1.

Other than being the magical day that my insurance coverage begins (my appendix thanks you, kind sirs), this day also marks the beginning of the month of December. Duh. But stay with me.

If it's December, that means it's no longer November, which means that guy that I've been seeing? Mr. November? He's outgrown his nickname. He has, in fact, lasted into a new calendar month. This shows clear growth in the "try not to totally repel the opposite sex" category.

Mr. November and I have been out quite a few times that I have failed to chronicle for you here, but rather than go back and give you a play by play of every second we've spent together (many of which involve me saying horrifyingly embarrassing things while drunk and if ANY of you don't know what THAT sounds like by now, what blog exactly HAVE you been reading?) I wanted to discuss a topic that's been on my mind since Mr. November arrived on the scene.

Deal breakers.

What exactly IS a deal breaker? By definition alone it's some thing, some quality or trait or personal belief, that is an absolute NO in a significant other. For example, my best friend Stefanie says that smoking crack is a deal breaker. Clearly. But it's more than just drugs and crime and general craziness. Deal breakers trickle down to even the very teeniest of behaviors. For each person these deal breakers are vastly different; one woman's white trash is another woman's second husband. Different strokes.

So, remember when I first introduced you to Mr. November? And I told you about how we used to debate politics? And how we pretty much disagreed on everything? Turns out, most of that is still, well, um, true. Whoops. We don't agree on politics. At all. And y'all, if ever there was a deal breaker in this girl's book, it's politics.

I wouldn't say that we argue. Because really, we don't. Because really, he's not the arguing type, as far as I can tell. Which is kind of a nice foil for me, as hard as it is for me to admit that. Mostly, he says things because he knows they'll get me riled up. And it pretty much always works. I'm extremely predictable.

Besides politics, I'd say there are a handful of other things on which we don't see eye to eye, and in the past a handful would've been more than enough to make me put the nix on just about any guy, even if he was a British male model who played the piano, sang soul ballads and had a swimming pool full of money. But for some reason this time around I'm feeling a bit more relaxed. A bit less black and white. I don't really know why, but every time we disagree I want him more than I did the second before. It's weirdly invigorating.

Regardless of whether these deal breakers eventually come back to bite me in the ass, figuring out how to chill a little bit never hurt any body. And it does have me asking -- is there truly any such thing as a deal breaker? Or are we willing to overlook just about anything for the right person? What do you think?


cheers,
elizabeth