Love Conquers All

If you ask some of the online dating services, the most important thing is that you and your prospective partner are compatible in nearly every way and that you are unlikely to succeed as a couple if you don't have similar styles and values.

And I'm here to tell you that they can be totally wrong.

As superficial as it could seem, fashion and dressing is important. Especially when you are just starting out. People do make judgement calls on who you are by what you are wearing and how you present yourself. So, when you look at this picture would you think that these two "outfits" go together?



When my now husband and I met he was wearing something along these lines and so was I. Okay, not the first moment we met. At that moment, he was wearing green slacks, a tie with a jaguar (!) on it and some shoes that I think prob-ab-ly came from Payless. Not that I looked hot myself - I was wearing a black polo dress and I think I was swigging down cough syrup because I had a wicked cold/sinus infection.

But at that time I was just starting out in business and was really into wearing skirt suits, so I had lots of little dresses and suits and heels, heels heels. The first night we went to dinner, I was wearing a wrap dress and, keep in mind this is June in the South, he was wearing a jeans and a long sleeve, tab collar denim computer logo shirt. O-M-G. The first thing I said to him was "You're going to pass out in that."

But you know what, he was fun and funny and we hit it off right away. When my best friend met him and he showed up wearing jeans, a band t-shirt and a pair of these, which I absolutely HATE,

(Aaacck!)

I actually didn't care. She gave me a look that was like "Are you kidding me?" And my look back was "Eh, what are you going to do?"

The thing is, I was, and still am in many ways, a fashion snob. But I was lucky that when I met him, I overlooked our style differences, because there were so many other things that we felt the same way about. Things that really mattered to us. And that ten years later, we still do. I don't expect or ask him to dress in a way that he isn't comfortable and he tolerates all the shoes I buy.

Not that those sandals were around for long, of course.