In This (Clumsy) Skin

Last night, Bert and I went to see "Hitch" at the dollar movie theatre. Let me first say that's one of the nice things about living in a place bigger than where I grew up...dollar movie theatres! Two people can go see a movie for about the price of a rental. Isn't that great?!

Anyway, the movie is about Will Smith a.k.a. Hitch, the date doctor. As you picked up from commercials and previews, he helps the guy get the girl. The movie made me start wondering, though: at what point do we stop trying to impress our potential significant other and start being our goofy, dorky selves?

Hitch helps guys be really smooth and do all the right things. It's so true that at the beginning of interest in someone, you do have to play it cool. Don't act too interested, appear to have a busy, bustling social life, etc. We've all done that at the beginning, but at some point, you start to do things like spill water on yourself at restaurants, come down with a stomach bug and accidentally snort when you laugh really hard. Now, if we would've done those things at the beginning, we could've sent potential suitors running! However, the more we have invested in a relationship, instead of thinking throw-up is gross, you begin to care about the other person and just want them to get better. Being clumsy could put off someone that is super-athletic, but after a while, it's cute that you don't do everything with perfect grace. And if you snort when laughing too early on, they may get scared that you do that every time. Later on, though, they'll know it was just a fluke and start laughing with (and at) you.

I'm terribly clumsy. I always have a bruise or a cut somewhere. The front of my shirt is often wet after eating or brushing my teeth. My heel gets caught in the crack in sidewalks. I bang my knees on things. Bert just laughs and says, "my clumsy pikita" (pikita meaning "little one" in Spanish). Bert has no sense of direction. Does it bug me? Now I just laugh and am glad that I inherited a great one from my daddy. At the beginning, if he got us lost and had no idea where we were going, I might have been annoyed. Now, I just tell him where to take the next left and laugh.

Is it our idiosyncrasies that endear us to others? Surely it can't be playing it cool. That eventually ends, and beneath that facade, we're all just regular people with our own quirks. When we realize we care for someone and their eccentricities make us care for them even more, I think that's when you know it's the real deal. I am happy to say at this point in my life, I am comfortable in my own bruised skin.