The Joys of Being Single:Your Old Enough to Be My Dad

I thought I would share an experience from last weekend to make all of you, my friends and family, laugh. While it was quite annoying at the time this has provided some great comic relief since then.

So from the title you should be able to tell this experience is about old men hitting on younger women. Last weekend I went to Anchorage to go to the cannery, temple and Single Adult Conference. I had an obligation to go to the conference since one of my church callings is stake single adult rep. Needless to say single adult conferences are not my idea of a great time, especially when the average age is going to be 50+. So I went with the attitude that I was going to #1 have a great time, #2 have a spiritual experience and #3 get out of Fairbanks. This was the right attitude and it accomplished all three. Many of you have asked how the weekend went so here is a glimpse of some of the events.

Well 7 singles from Fairbanks ended up going down to the conference. And some of us ended up bringing life to the party. New Blood and Energy. Everyone told us we needed to come back to their activities more often - boy, they must be a pretty boring group if they think that we brought life.

I did not even make it 30 minutes into the conference when an older man (65+) started flirting with me. Others were getting many laughs at my expense. Can I just say that asking the same question or statement over and over again is really boring. I cannot count how many times he said "So tell me about yourself." (It has to be at least 50 plus, believe me I have a few witnesses.) So old dude follows me to play volleyball, one of the opening night activities. ARGHHH! I finally get rid of him and go to call a girlfriend who had not shown up but should be there.......she actually just got to the conference and can tell me what I am wearing and that I am there because Old Dude has just told her. Of course old dude locates me again. Then he proceeds to say "So tell me about yourself." Go Away!!!! is what I want to scream. Leave me alone. My girlfriends are getting a kick out of this at this point.

So we will fast forward to day 2. Much more of the same and trying to pick classes that old dude is not attending. But I cannot avoid him all day, much to my disappointment. We show up a little late for dinner so that everyone will already be seated and we can pick our own place. But old dude shows up to bring me, just me, dessert. ARGHHH!!!!!!

Of course, what is a single adult conference without a dance. Yep, you guessed it....old dude had his radar on the look out for me. My girl friends are trying to shelter me by this point because they think he is annoying but he is one persistent and pushy old dude. Of course the famous line of "So tell me about yourself" is again said. Then the music changes and it is a swing dance. He asks if I swing. I think to myself if I am dancing at least he cannot talk to me so I agree, besides it would be rude to say No. And then I can say I have to get a drink and lose him after the swing dance. Well he actually turned out to really know how to swing. At the end of the dance everyone is clapping. Well lets just say there were very few people out there actually swinging and we were of course the best. Come to find out it was a swing dance competition so the conference organizers make us come to the front to get a photo taken for the conference scrapbook. Just what I want a photo with old dude - NOT! But I get some yummy chocolate. So I go to put my chocolate down and of course a slow song comes on. Yep you guessed it old dude. ARGHHH! So when it is over I finally bail for the water fountain and hook up with a girlfriend. We scope out the gym and see the few people under the age of 50 hanging out together so we go over there. I tell them that we don't have dances in Fairbanks and that us Fairbanks girls want to dance. So they take pity on us and dance with us. I think a few figured out that I was trying to avoid old dude so I was kept busy dancing all night. But then again they might have been asking me to avoid those older women too. Younger single people just have to stick together to avoid the oldies.

Now some of you are saying that 65+ is not old. I am not trying to say that 65+ is old or offend you - but that is way too old for people my age to date or flirt with. Why is it that 65+ year old men try to go for women who are young enough to be their daughters or granddaughters? Of course, the gossip was all over about old dude trying to hit on me. But at least it was comical for those watching....and some of us from Fairbanks are still getting a kick out of this. I have to admit that while it is annoying I got a good laugh on the way home with the others in the car talking about it. And it is making me chuckle as I write this.