I used to pass judgement on dates based on their apartments. An admission of my shallow youth. Meet a girl, have a date or two... get invited back to her apartment. Beyond the obvious: neat vs sloppy, religious vs artist, much was based on their possessions. A collection of "Precious Moments" figurines was reason for immediate flight. Same with Unicorn snow globes. At the other extreme was the gal who showed me four shotguns in her closet. I've discussed my theory before about dating women who own firearms. Don't.
There were the more subtle cases. A lack of character seen through rental furniture, empty book shelves and a small fortune of make up in the bathroom. I mentioned all this one night to Foster on the phone. Shortly afterwards he told me his idea for a blog about what folks would take with them if their house caught on fire. Foster claims the idea came to him at a dinner party where friends discussed on-line dating profiles. Pride of authorship aside, I poo-pooed the idea thinking the 'hip' would use it to tell how hip they were rather than telling their real story.
I was wrong and Foster's book, The Burning House, has been published and his life has changed dramatically. So much for my advice but I still think there's some of my dating experiences in this book. In fact, I find myself oddly attracted to women whose stuff I like while making all kinds of assumptions about the women I don't. Tree huggers. Granola chewers. Small fortunes in make up... My shallowness has been hard to shake. Anyway, it makes for a great Christmas gift at just over ten bucks (here). Absorbing as the web site but easier to browse around in that way you can with a book. Buy a copy for your date.
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