only 4 things.

A little #tbt before we jump into the snark...

{me, mission, married and pregnant, mission, married.}

{hannah, mission, mission, married, ashley, mission, married, me, mission, jaimei}

{me, mission, RM, RM, RM, mission, mission, mission, RM, mission, RM}

This is my favorite game.  I could go all day.
Ahem.

Why hello, children of the internet.  In honor of hitting a major blog view milestone today (and this guest post contest over at the Anti-Austen blog) I decided to grace you all with my presence and my dating advice tonight.  Lucky you, huh?  (Proper capitalization and sentence spacing on this blog post as a gift to Tall Jared.)

I'll be the first person to admit that I'm a picky dater.  Not eater--I'll eat almost anything.  But when it comes to dating a person, I am not the girl who will date just anyone.  However, I also happen to think I'm pretty reasonable about my limitations, and so far they haven't caused me too much grief, so I'm saying that makes me an expert and here I go sharing my maybe-not-so-humble opinion with you all.

Despite the extensive list of traits I wrote for my future husband circa 2005 in my beehive days, I only have 4 real qualifications for a man whom I will date.  (Who? Whom? Idk, moving past it.)  Though I don't really use the term 'deal-breaker', I suppose you could say that not fitting one of these qualifications would be a deal-breaker for me.  

1. He has to put God before everyone and everything else.

     Yeah, yeah, this is the typical, Mormony qualification for a spouse, right?  But before you quit reading so fast, don't.  It probably goes unsaid for most of us, but the fact remains--I don't want to marry a man who doesn't value his relationship with God higher than all other relationships.  So why would I date that kind of man? Lack of commitment to his testimony is a deal-breaker.  Peter Priesthoods, pls apply here, I get off at 9.

2. He has to make me laugh and think I'm funny, too. 

     Ahem, do I think I'm funny?  Like, why else would I become a blogger but to grace the world with my hilarity?  Well I once dated a guy (and probably would have married him, tbh) who never laughed at any of my jokes.  And I never laughed at his either.  Why I didn't see that as a red flag from the beginning still confuses me, but looking back, it was a pretty boring relationship.  Now, I'm not saying that I'm a queen comedian and everyone should pee their pants with laughter at my jokes, but I sure as heck think my significant other (SO, if you're into abbreviating love and that kind of thing) should be laughing when I pull out my infamous snarky commentary.  And I should be laughing at his as well, or else things are gonna get real lame, real fast.

3. He has to be within my same realm of intelligence. 

     Just now realizing that this one makes me sound like a snob, but there's no turning back now #noregrets.  Again, I'm not claiming to be a rocket scientist (though my brother is one.  so.) but I would say that my ability to hold an intelligent conversation is at least moderate.  So if some rando Provo All-Star wants to chat me up at a cookie night with talk of bench reps and summer sales....I'm outie.  A guy's gotta be able to give me at least a tiny bit of HP fangirling and a fair discussion of some modern societal issues for me to take an interest in him.  Bottom line: Date within a comfortable range of your own IQ score and you'll be able to converse a whole lot easier.

4. Above everything else, there has to be natural chemistry.

     When all is said and done, you have to actually like the person.  I've been on plenty of dates with guys who fit the top 3 qualifications and the sad truth was.....I just wasn't feelin' the spark.  Or maybe he wasn't feeling it.  Or maybe it was mutual.  I once went on a few dates with a guy and thought it was all going pretty well until the end of one date when I suddenly realized that we were way better off as friends.  I just wasn't attracted to him like that.  And before you ask how cute he was, I will assure you that he was a dang good looking young man.  I had thought that from the beginning.  The feelings just weren't there for me.  And if the feelings aren't there, the relationship shouldn't be there either.

Bam, boom, bang, there it is.  I'm obviously not a pro (currently in sweats on my childhood bed in my parents' house, so eat that one up, interwebz!) but I feel pretty good about the qualifications I've made for my future hubsalicious.  (If you read that word with less than a metric ton of irony....stahp.)  All in all, in summation, to conclude, etc, I say this: Be reasonably picky.  It's okay to be picky!  Why would you ever want to spend eternity with someone who was just a so-so fit for you?  But keep your qualifications in a partner to a reasonable amount.  And then keep your partner to those qualifications.  We'll all find them eventually, I promise. 

What are your qualifications in someone you would date?