Alas, my recent twitter post on making watching Hitch a requirement for all males made me think a little bit. What other movies should they all watch if they are interested in dating women? Yep… there are some. Stop thinking with the brain below your belt and you might be good to go.

Hitch: This movie has one of the best opening monologues.

“Basic principles – no woman wakes up saying ‘God, I hope I don’t get swept off my feet today!’ Now, she might say ‘This is a really bad time for me,’ or something like ‘I just need some space,’ or my personal favorite ‘I’m really into my career right now.’ You believe that? Neither does she. You know why? ‘Cause she’s lying to you, that’s why. You understand me? Lying! It’s not a bad time for her. She doesn’t need any space. And she may be into her career, but what she’s really saying is ‘Uh, get away from me now,’ or possibly ‘Try harder, stupid,’ but which one is it?”

Get the picture? Don’t just expect to show off your insane manliness or how much you are turned on by us. That may work for lust, but in the end, lust isn’t enough.

The Bachelor: One of the most classic scenarios I’ve seen during all the time I’ve spent dating. Finding a great relationshp and truly enjoying life and then being scared shitless when the woman “all of a sudden” wants more than that. WTF? Really? You really thought she wanted to be single forever? She may not be the typical woman. She’s probably better than that. However, it’s not all that uncommon to think that she may want to spend the rest of her life with you. Especially after a few years. The moment where Jimmy is in the row boat with the priest and discovers that he does truly love her is one of the best scenes ever. Don’t lead women on. If you aren’t in it for the long hall, get the fuck out. If you are, step up and prove it!

Fever Pitch: We all have our hobbies. The trick is to not let your hobby turn into an obsession. If it does, and you are focusing more time on that obsession than your girlfriend, you are an idiot. Everyone does activities for fun and are able to also manage their work and social and romantic lives. You’ll be able to too. If you really think that the activity is the most important thing in the world, fess up, stop dating, and live in your mom’s basement.

Can you think of more? Submit a comment and let me know what movie you suggest and why. Let’s build a library for men!

So, let’s talk about dating, but from a different aspect.

Names.

Have you ever been in a serious relationship with more than one guy (or woman I supposed) that had the same name? I haven’t been in very many, but I started thinking yesterday how everyone had a different name. Now that I think of it too, most of their names were lackluster in comparison to mine

Thinking about dating someone with the same name of someone I’ve dated before might weird me out a little. Though that could be strictly a figure of my imagination.

Any thoughts anyone?

I’m pretty sure singleness isn’t a word at all (even though spell check seems to think it’s fine), but I think it fits just fine in the title so I’m leaving it

One of my favorite parts of reading CNN for a few in the mornings is seeing the articles from other sites that come up. Yesterday, one titled, Dads Always Ruin Men for Women appeared.

The article discusses how no matter what type of relationship women have with their fathers and with their families overall growing up, it can have an impact on how they see men and what they look for in a serious relationship with a man. Several situations are discussed such as the spoiled princess who always gets what she wants and expects the man in her life to do the same, the girl who receives no interaction with her father and as a woman who strives to be accepted by any man, and the girl who goes through divorce and in the end despises men.

Then there was a persona of a woman similar to myself and the relationship I had and still have with my father. I love my father to death and completely trust and respect him. I am always in awe of how much he has accomplished and been through in his life, and most of all, how until I grew up and started to really think about it as I had similar experiences of my own, I never truly realized how any problem or road block that might have been encountered was never shared with us. My parents truly did everything they could to make sure that myself along with my five other siblings had (and still have) the best life experiences we can. I was given the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities; in fact it was encouraged. I tried dance classes, gymnastics, baton, piano, soccer, volleyball, cheerleading, track, and countless other activities. As long as I was enriching my life with those activities and keeping my grades up in school, I was not required to have a job. I didn’t get everything that I wanted as the spoiled princess would, but we definitely were not on the short end of the stick. I was given a car to use when I turned 16.

According to this article, this should make it hard for me to find a man to keep in my life because it will be hard for me to find a man that has similar skills in negotiation and compromise because of my upbringing. The end result is me compromising more than I should in the relationship.

So oddly enough I would say that in my longest relationship (almost 5 years), this was the situation. However, in the three serious relationships I’ve had over the years, two of them did not share this theme.

I don’t really agree with the title of the article that a girl’s relationship with her father ruins her chance at love as a woman. There is definitely truth to the fact that life experiences shape who we are and our perceptions of the world, but I don’t think it ruins us. Not everyone has the same personality, and that is what makes us unique and why we don’t pick men out of catalogs (well, we typically don’t if we want it to last). I wouldn’t trade my relationship with my parents for anything. I might find someone that accepts what I need in my life, and I might not. At least I won’t be the cat lady. I don’t much care for cats.