my recent whereabouts + cruising eharmony

I think that I have emerged from the worst of my post-Ghana malaise, and I feel like communicating again. Yay.

The last two weeks have not been terribly exciting, but here are the highlights anyway. I got a new driver license (I don't know if you've noticed, but in California at least, it's actually called a "driver license" rather than a "driver's license") with a new picture on it (thank God, since the old picture was from 1997). Amazingly, the new picture is actually really good. I dare say I look slightly glamorous. Monday of last week I took Amtrak down to San Diego to visit DWE, then stopped in L.A. to visit Muffin on my way back. This past Monday my mom had a minor-ish medical procedure, so I tended to her for a bit. Last night I took the train up to San Francisco, and this morning I had an interview in Richmond (which is in East Bay sort of near Berkeley) for a position with a non-profit teaching math to disadvantaged high school students. I think the interview (and the math test I had to take afterwards) went well, and I will find out by the end of the week if I get to continue to the second round of interviews. I would be ecstatic if I got this job, partly because I really want it, and partly because I would love it if I didn't have to look for a job anymore (not that I'm looking that hard right now...I should be but I'm not).

Other than my flitting around the state and sort of job hunting, I've been reading a little, watching TV a lot, and trying to find novel ways to entertain myself. For example, I'm currently conducting an experiment to see if DWE and I are "scientifically" compatible. The website eharmony.com will now let you complete your profile AND see your matches without having to pay (I know this because I've seen the commercial a zillion times), so I signed myself up and took their exhaustive personality test. I also forced DWE--under more than a little duress--to also sign up and fill out the personality profile (basically I commandeered his laptop and refused to do anything else until he answered all of the questions). We've been getting matched up with people for a week now, but have still not been matched up with each other. As far as I can tell, there's no technical reason that we shouldn't get matched up: we both said we live in SF, we're both in each other's acceptable age-ranges, etc. Apparently we just aren't compatible on Dr. Neil Clark Warren's 29 Key Dimensions of Compatibility. So I broke up with him. Dude, it's science. You can't argue with science.

Just kidding, of course. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that we haven't been matched, but I sort of am, because I think of him and I as being very compatible. I sort of wonder how much of the matching is based on similarities vs. opposite-but-complementary traits; for example, DWE and I are polar opposites when it comes to expressing our feelings (I do it compulsively, he avoids it almost entirely), but it works out: he's a tireless listener, and I can usually intuit what he's feeling without him having to verbalize it.

Perhaps their whole matching system is bullshit. Or, more likely, perhaps it works for some people and not for others (my sister-in-law observed rather keenly, after I explained the site's exhaustive process, that perhaps it brings together people who love answering questions). I can see the appeal of "deep compatibility", but I also think it might be a bit overrated. Yeah, I want DWE to "understand" me, and in some ways he does (in other ways he doesn't, but there are generally other people in my life that understand me in those ways). But I think there's a lot to be said for practicality, too. We may not be "scientifically" compatible, but check this out: he has hereditary hearing loss, so while the rest of the world finds me loud and obnoxious, he thinks that I speak at a reasonable volume. It's like we were made for each other. (Because love means never having to say "You don't have to yell, I'm standing right here").

On the plus side, there seem to be a lot of nice, intelligent, single men in their early thirties in the Bay Area, so maybe if DWE ever dumps me I'll try it out for real.