Is your love life like a Sesame Street - episode with grouches, monsters and frogs?
Our salon, a group of kindred spirits, gets together to discuss love, life and the wide wonderful world of dating. At the last gathering, it dawned on us that the men we were dating were straight out of Central Casting from: Sesame Street.
Cindy, who is sunny and sweet, was dating Charlie, who we all called ‘Oscar the Grouch’ because of his frequent dour moods. Despite his wonderful season tickets to the opera and the ballet, Cindy finally admitted they were not a match. His gloomy moods and lack of interest and energy were an obvious dead end. She was going to break up with him. On Easter morning, he presented her with a sleek new iPad. For months, Cindy had been seduced by all the iPad hype. Her mantra had been “iWant – iPad.” Realistically, it didn’t take strength of character to return the slim, sexy, little the mouse free machine and cease-and-desist with Oscar. She can buy her own iPad. Happily.
Elmo
For two weeks, Mindy, the paralegal, was exuberant about the cute new guy in her life, Peter, a gregarious redhead. We called him “Elmo” because he was so sweet and uncomplicated. What Mindy neglected to mention was Elmo didn’t have an ambitious bone in his body and had been unemployed for over three years.
His idea of a good time was collecting his Unemployment check and food stamps and concocting a fabulous dinner party and then being out of money for a month. Evidently, with all his charm and connections, he camped, a lot, at ‘friends’ homes. Our little Elmo was charming and fun to be with, but rootless. Unbeknownst to most of us, he was hovering on the precipice of homelessness. When Mindy put two and two together, she extricated herself from Elmo- realizing it was also a dead end unless she wanted to support him. She didn’t.
Dueling Dates: Bert and Ernie
Bert and Ernie were the affectionate names we gave to Sherry’s dueling dates. We all marveled that Sherry dated two men concurrently- both guys were sweet and sometimes available. The Bert guy was opinionated, not great around people, but dedicated, and very good to Sherry. He was generous, bright, and organized wonderful parties. He was a very distant and aloof host. He was a world traveler, but had the black side of a depressive. The two evaporated from one another’s lives easily.
The Ernie character was like a puppy. He was outgoing, optimistic, convivial and always up for new experiences. At first, Sherry was on Cloud Nine. Ernie was newly separated after a lengthy marriage and was exploring his new freedom and being suddenly single again.
Sherry began to observe the “kid in a candy store” mentality Ernie displayed. He wanted to date around and date a lot. Sherry saw all the signs and bid Ernie happy trails.
Luis is the “the man”.jpg)
Realistically? Everywoman wants to date Luis – the first human to move on to Sesame Street – he is a dreamy dreamer – a handy man – who serenades with a guitar and can fix anything. And, he specializes in toaster repair. That’s hot. His bio says “He is a dreamer who follows his heart, and is also an aspiring writer. He sings, plays the guitar, and teaches people about Hispanic culture and language”. That’s cool.
The Salon agreed we had met princes, monsters, gentlemen and grouches- it takes a village. So far: life is sweet and it was unanimous: no one wanted to live on Sesame Street... or Wisteria Lane.
"Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love. I'd stepped in it a few times" Rita Rudner
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