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February 7, 2010
Another Weird Thing About Me That You Didn't Know
Back in 2000 I ran an organizing campaign at Bayonne Hospital in Bayonne, NJ. One of my favorite workers was nuclear med tech who was absolutely brilliant, funny, and among other things sang in the New York Gay Men's Chorus. At night after I'd finished my work calls I'd call him to check in on how his co-workers were doing (in a union campaign things move really, really fast so nightly check-ins with key leaders are normal) but after that we'd stay on the phone talking about everything in the world, sometimes until late at night.
One of the bizarre tangents we got on once was strange things that turn us on. His strangest, and you'd think it would be mine with how much I adore vegetables, was that he found it really sexy if he saw a cute guy carefully checking out the produce at the grocery store. Like tapping the cantaloupe, squeezing the eggplant, etc. That's weird, but you can totally see the appeal.
Mine were pretty weird too, some more predictable than others. For instance, everybody knows that I am rarely in the slightest bit attracted to a man who *doesn't* wear glasses. Over time I've come to associate glasses with brains, and we CR girls like our boys smart. So that one's not too weird.
Second: typing. The one boy who really broke my heart in college, whose name I will not mention for fear of invoking him, was the best typist I'd ever met. I used to lie in his bed and close my eyes and listen to him type... one straight line, no stops. Amazing. Never got over it really. Until I met MR, I always knew that if he who shall not be named were to turn up, I'd probably leave anyone I was dating for him. I knew it was serious with MR when I told him that he was the first man I would not leave for HWSNBN.
Third parallel parking: I am so terrified of parallel parking that I have a mental block on how to spell parallel. I can do it, and I do have to do it sometimes, but I will do almost anything to avoid it, including calling MR from up the block and telling him to come out and park the car if there are no easily accessible spaces on the street. I find it almost unbearably sexy when a man can parallel park really well. My ex was the best ever: I would look at a space and say, "You can not possibly get into that space!" and he'd do it in seconds, without really even having to adjust. I, on the other hand, am the queen of the 64 point turn.
Then this morning a new one occurred to me, and it's really weird, but highly adaptive. I find it exstremely sexy when men shovel snow. I didn't realize it until today, but I just think that's really hot.
Of course we are having a giant snow storm in the Northeast, so attracting a mate who shovels snow is a highly adaptive behavior. Sorta like how MR was attracted to me in large part when he read all my blog postings of my delicious recipes... just waiting for someone to cook for... about a year later he realized the degree to which he fell into a carefully constructed trap, but by that time he was too hooked to mind.
In any event, ladies, I suggest that even if you do not genuinely find the concept of men shoveling snow inherently sexy, you should put out press releases that you do, as you may find that your husband/boyfriend/partner is more likely to clear the sidewalk without complaint.
But to be fair, you might want to make a nice stuffed eggplant afterward!
Posted by april at February 7, 2010 8:16 AM
Comments
Hilarious post! Glad we taught him well, although while he was a teenager living at home, we couldn't even get him to rake leaves without a big hoopla. Remember those days, MR? Love, MoMR
Posted by: Judith at February 7, 2010 9:55 AM
I use this technique to get Matt to weedeat. It's true, of course. The combination of seeing the grass neatly trimmed and watching him load new string onto the weedeater is S-E-X-Y!
Posted by: Paige at February 8, 2010 12:41 AM
That is _funny_ - also a nice complement to your post about the Marie Claire article and the big libido question (which I can't seem to see on your page now, btw).
We had a big snowstorm up here in Homer too over the w/e! Pretty much everyone has to shovel, but my husband _loves_ to do it, like anything else involving shovels...
The libido/turnon thing got me thinking too, especially having been around a lot of rawfoodists who had the same dichotomy (some got hornier, some became asexual) that people seem to attribute (at the latter pole especially) to CRON-ers. My thinking is that it must be partly a person's predisposition. April, you said you were born boy-crazy and I loved your description of the thrill of flirting. I've been able to see it in my husband and past partners, but I wasn't 'born' that way, had an upbringing that definitely tended to repress any of those interests and then had all kinds of nutritional imbalances - and struggle to this day!
My own experience and observation of the people I've been around suggests to me that maybe if CRONers have the 'ON' part of CRON down, they'll have a better libido if anything, and if they're malnourished in any way, obviously that is something that will suffer. Does that accord with your experience?
Thanks,
Ela
Posted by: Ela at February 8, 2010 6:12 PM
thanks for reminding me of vinnie! hope you're enjoying the snow as much as we are!
Posted by: emma at February 8, 2010 6:30 PM
Hi April-
I just want to tell you how much I enjoy reading your blog! I first read "The Longevity Diet" in 2007 and practiced very moderate CR for a year and a half afterward (then allowed the food/beverage seduction that is graduate school to pull me away from any kind of CR). Recently though, I've wanted to really start practicing CRON and your blog has inspired me greatly! Although it's only been 9 days of my more strict version of CR, I am enjoying every moment of it. Your blog speaks to me through this journey - I think it's truly wonderful that you've kept up this blog for so long. Please keep it up! I look foward to every one of your posts!
Jen
PS - Your soup recipes are AMAZING!!!
Posted by: Jen at February 9, 2010 11:33 AM
Forgot: I wanted to share a funny story about snow shoveling.
My husband's youngest brother lives in Baltimore - pretty close to where you are, I guess, and similarly snow-smitten at the moment. My mil was on the phone and told that he had hurt his back shoveling snow. The rest of the story was that he shoveled not only his driveway but his neighbors' also, and that he hadn't been able to lay hands on his snow shovel, so instead he used... a chair!!!
Posted by: Ela at February 10, 2010 4:01 PM