So I’m emailing “Cute Girl” back and forth for a few days and she suggest we chat on the phone tonight. Email exchange goes like this:
CG: *“I’ll call sometime after 9.00 pm I may work out tonight not sure yet but will call you. Shirley.” * <name changed> QS: "*Sounds good. I’ll be home this evening. Looking forward to it. …But don’t call me Shirley! " * CG: “…does this mean you do not want me to call you! I guess I don’t get it…”
:smack:
I don’t know if I can speak to this woman on the phone now, let alone go out on a date with her.
OK, let’s say her name is “June” instead, for example. Did you answer with “But don’t call me Shirley” or “But don’t call me June”? The first would make sense as an Airplane! reference, but not in the context of this conversation, while the second could reasonably be construed as sending a “mixed signal” (i.e., it could have been a poorly punctuated “But don’t call me, June!”).
Not trying to snipe, I’m just not clear on what was actually said here.
I’m with jackelope here. Your joke was sufficiently vague that someone who doesn’t know you very well could easily miss it. She’s probably nervous and having an anxiety attack about the call anyway; very alert for any sign of rejection.
I’d cut her some slack. Not that some of the other suggestions lack merit.
Okay… just got off the phone with the girl. We talked for an hour and a quarter and she sounds like a real sweety. I mean it’s clear she doesn’t split atoms for a living but she’s not nearly as dim as she first seemed on email. Poor thing didn’t even know what “LOL” meant until a few days ago. Though it meant “lots of luck”. So not really an internet geek. How cute is that?
We’ve got a date for next week. Suddenly the world is a little brighter place.
You should probably just cancel the date. I can’t imagine any grown woman wanting to spend time with someone who thinks the way you do about her. Plus, I thought the joke was kind of dumb, too - it wasn’t even the way the joke really goes. I mean, if she had said, “Surely,…” and you produced the punchline - fine, if a little groan-worthy. Maybe you could have stretched the joke if her name actually was Shirley. But, if I’m getting this right, she just signed her name at the bottom of a note (let’s say it’s Lisa) and you said, “And don’t call me Lisa.” If it had been me, I’d have thought, “What a dork” and made other plans. You should just start over with someone else.
QS, funny guy, interesting guy, the kind of guy I’d love to meet - when I see something from you I always, always read it but … I found myself kinda agreeing with C3 on this one. Thanks for the little chuckle guys
I didn’t mean to come across as pissy - sorry about that, but I can see how you read it that way. All I’m saying is, you clearly don’t think she’s very intelligent. You describe her as “not nearly as dim as she first seemed” - meaning, still a little dim. The phrases you use (girl, sweety, cute) seem condescending to me. They wouldn’t seem that way taken out of context of this whole thread, but put together with the fact that you’re already making fun of her intelligence, you sound very disrespectful of her.
If I were her, and I had an inkling that this is what you were thinking, I wouldn’t want to waste my time going on a date. Even a woman of below average intelligence doesn’t want her date to think she’s dumber than him. And why would you want to waste your time with someone you’re not going to be able to fully respect?
C3: In rereading my post I can see how you’d interpret that as well. In my defense I was trying to be clever while also tempering my expectations. She seemed very nice and pretty down to earth on the phone. I think admiting the fact that she didn’t know all the shorthand of the internet/email conventions took some guts. So more credit there. That “splitting atoms” comment was only used for comedic purposes and wasn’t called for. I could have chosen something far more witty and less condescending - or said nothing at all.
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