Cover to cover

Note to self: Don't judge books by their covers, you might actually end up liking one that you would have overlooked.

When I was in the world of dating on the Internets, I created some serious filters for myself. You've got to, there are some creepers out there and you had to weed out some of the most extraordinary ones. While I would have loved to have more stories for you all, I was honestly looking for people with real dating material. And to find those people, I thought I needed to define all of the things that likely made Little Ms. Notetaker's Mr. Right:

• Age 30-36
• Living in Seattle (on the "cool" side of the bridge)
• Never been married
• No kids--especially kids living with him
• College degree

I knew at the time that I was limiting myself, potentially locking out some good catches, but it was a risk I was willing to take. Also at the time, I was tired of dating on the Internets and didn't really believe I would find anyone there. Little did I know, I was right on both accounts.

I met Mr. McMichael while we were in a play together, and had we met on the Internets, well, let's just say, we wouldn't have met. You see, he lies outside of my age range, he lives in the suburbs ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE, what?! As far as I was concerned, that was a long-distance relationship. He has been married and has a son, and while he has college experience, no official degree.

This weekend I met Mr. McMichael's dad, and we got to talking about how we met and how we are seemingly so different. I agreed with him that we do have very different experiences, backgrounds, and even hobbies, there's a lot about us that are similar, and for what's not similar, I think it's complementary. Opposites attract, right?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The filters weren't arbitrary, I can, could, and did justify them. However, had I applied my filters after meeting Mr. McMichael, I would have been so wrong and would be missing out on something so right.