A religious experience

The post mortem with J-Dogg was over a week ago now, and I did manage to reschedule my date with Colorado - we went out for ice cream late last week. Overall, Colorado is great. He is an engineer (I must look like a calculus problem or something because engineers seem to flock to me), a health nut and a little bit of an adrenaline junkie (base jumping, motorcycles, etc.). We had a lot to talk about, and in general I was glad I went out with him (although I'd been looking forward to it about as much as a visit to my Gynecologist...but maybe you always dread the first date after a relationship).

Having dated what seems like pretty much every guy in New York and LA, there is very little that can surprise me or throw me off. However, I was sitting there, picking at my ice cream (I was so in love with the cute, 1940s-style idea of an ice cream date, I just couldn't bring myself to tell him that I'm allergic), and suddenly Colorado is telling me that religion is a big part of his life, that he is a devote Christian, but that he is also a scientist and often finds himself looking for solid proof that god exists. This was followed up by a few examples of recent challenges along his journey of faith.

On the basis of content alone, no big deal. I grew up in a religious home and I have complete respect for a person's individual beliefs. In fact, if I really wanted to, I could talk for hours about how the whoas of Sunday school, the innocent, but tangible corruption I experienced at church camp, and my traumatizing tenure as a eight-years-past-her-prime-acolyte because my mom wouldn't let me quit when I reached puberty like other, normal acolytes, shaped my own religious views. But instead, I found myself squirming in my chair - isn't the first date when we talk about how many siblings we have and how Dwight is our favorite character on The Office? Why was I so uncomfortable with this discussion? It wasn't like he was telling me that he likes to surf the Internet for underage boys. After the religion discussion died down, and the conversation found it's way back to the other, more superficial topics, I once again found myself laughing and having a good time.

Later, I wondered what exactly had put me off - was it just too much personal, private information for a first date? Was it because religion has become a taboo date topic amongst our generation...almost a backlash from the trendiness of Christianity when the contemporary-style churches popped up everywhere during the 90s? Or, was I putting people in boxes (for example, "over-the-top Christian guy") in order to weed out prospective guys and protect myself from getting hurt? I don't have an answer to any of these questions, but the bottom line is that Colorado seems like a pretty normal, down-to-earth guy, and he was probably telling me about his religion because it's part of his life - like his job or his enthusiasm for mountain biking. So, in the end, I agreed to go out with Colorado again because 1) this seems to be my issue, not his, 2)it takes more than one interview to know what you're getting yourself into and 3) he has really great arms.