32 going on 16

What do the numbers 42, 21, 59, 36, 48, and 54 have in common?

Well, besides being integers, they are the ages of men who have either asked me out or taken me out or shown some interest in doing so over the last few months. It's strange, if not sick and wrong, that there is almost a 40 year range in the ages of these men. I have to say that my preferred range doesn't span that large of a distance...

Yesterday I went to a family ball after a conference I worked at (sadly, I wasn't able to attend any classes, but it was productive in getting people to attend our upcoming fundraiser). Since it was a semi-formal, I pulled my hair up in a twist and borrowed my sister's black cocktail dress. As I walked into the dance, I noticed a man who I had met the night before and said hello as I walked by. I used his name, so he did a quick double take before he recognized me. I held out my hand to shake his and the following conversation ensued:

Me: "I have my hair pulled up, so you must not have recognized me!"
Him: "Yes-- you've taken 4 years off your age, you look like you are 16!"
Me: "Well, that would be more than 4 years-- I'm 32 so that would be half my age!"
Him: "Whoa! That's a good look for you, you could get away with a lot!"

Yikes. I can't believe I still get mistaken for a teenager, or even someone in her early twenties! People tell me I should be grateful, but honestly it's a liability more than an asset.

I could list time after time in the past 4 years for when I was mistaken for a teenager. The funniest one is when I was at a homeschool conference about 4 years ago. I was talking to my 13 year old niece and a friend of her's who must have been 13 or 14. We were joking about Strongbad and the boy said, "Where have you been this whole conference??!!" I told him I was in classes and he said, "Which ones? Why didn't I ever see you??!!" I looked at him for a minute trying to understand why he was asking me that, when it occured to me that he thought I was young enough to attend the youth conference instead of the adult conference. I replied "I was in the adult classes. I'm an adult." He said, "YOU'RE AN ADULT??? How old are you??!!" I asked how old he thought I was and he said "16." When I responded that I was 28 with two kids, I thought he was going to vomit on the spot. He started to make gagging and gasping sounds and wiped off his arms as if he was contaminated (although we never touched). I think the reason he acted so strongly was that he must have been trying to hit on me. How amusing. I'm not sure I'll ever forget that... I wonder if he has... he was probably scarred for life.

Now I go to single adult dances because of my new calling, and I get asked to dance by men who could be my father. I'm not sure which is worse. Likely both are equally bad. Although I must say that I really enjoyed talking to one man who was close to 60 at the last dance and hope to see him again sometime. But some are quite odd and don't seem to think I can tell that they are close to twice my age... It makes me wonder how some people can think I'm a teenager and yet some man who is clearly over 50 thinks I might be a prospective dating companion. I wonder about men sometimes.

My friend said she came across a formula for an appropriate age range when dating. I wish I could remember it-- it had something to do with taking half your age and adding or subtracting ten, but there was something else to it. Anyway, I think my range was 25 to 45 or there abouts. Of course there are always exceptions, but the fact that I look as young as I do makes me wonder what these older men could be thinking and helps me empathize a little more with the 21 year old. Though, the latter does know my age, so I don't know what his excuse is.

All I can say is that the adult dating scene is an odd, odd world. I'm trying to enjoy it and keep myself amused at the very least....