Monday, December 1, 2008

A Nice Girl from Ohio

When I was in high school, there was a joke about the difference between a nice girl and a good girl. A nice girl goes out on a date, comes home, and goes to bed. A good girl goes out on a date, goes to bed, and comes home. 

Turns out that I'm a nice girl from Ohio after all. I floss. I tell the truth. I don't litter. And I don't do the "friends with benefits" thing. 

Many people do; opportunities abound. Hey, why not? Just because there's no one on the scene whom I'm in love with, why not take friends up on their offers and interest? Time is passing, and I'm not getting any younger. 

But, it seems, I am getting smarter about myself--I'm the one who wakes up with me in the morning and faces myself in the bathroom mirror. And I don't like how it feels to be treated as a convenient option. I want the real thing: love, passion, trust, partnership, constancy, true intimacy. Anything less just highlights what sometimes appears to be the great distance from here to there.

Nothing less will do.

3 comments:

Jeff said...

This "nice boy from Ohio" agrees with this "nice girl from Ohio". My kids laugh at my tales from high school and my all-American boy days. No smoking, no drinking, no drugs, always the "nice boy" - as long as brushing hair in study hall doesn't count!

Edie Freedman said...

It wasn't study hall. It was Algebra II--with Mr. Crosby (not sure about the teacher's name). You'd sit behind me and pull out your comb and run it down the back of my hair to see if it would go all the way through without hitting a snarl.

(And I wasn't always such a nice girl. I kind of grew into it.)

Unknown said...

A variant of the joke we learned in MA:
A nice girl kisses her date goodnight, goes home, and goes to bed.

A good girl goes home, goes to bed, and kisses her date goodnight.


And yes, nothing less will do.