Mr. Tourettes

So for all of you who are familiar with Tourettes Syndrome it is not a laughing matter. It is a serious illness that greatly affects the person afflicted by it. I want to start off this blog stating that it is no way a judgement it is however a story that personally happened to me.

Two years ago a man approached me on Myspace for the sake of the story we will call him Brad. After communicating back and forth for a few days Brad asked me to have dinner with him. I happily met him at a restaurant near where I worked for dinner. The chemistry wasn't really great and I remember at one point in the conversation he asked me how I old I was and how much I weighed in one sentence.

After the date he called a few times, but would always hang up at the weirdest times. I thought at the time that he really was just not that interested and that was okay because I felt the same way.

Well this summer one of my co-workers met her new boyfriend on a dating site called plenty of fish. She encouraged me to fill out a profile. (First of all let me tell you I don't recommend this site. As soon as you go on you are bombarded by people trying to instant message you.) Well low and behold guess who approaches me on , POF Brad. This was a funny coincidence because I didn't have a picture or a real name posted. So there was really no way for him to know it was me. So when he sent the message I did answer back and tell him that we've already met and in fact have already been on a first date. Much to my great surprise he didn't remember me. Not a bit. Brad asked me out again and I was hesitant because we had already met. I even told him repeatedly that we had tried, but if he couldn't even remember me this wasn't a good sign. However he finally wore me down and I agreed to have dinner with him.

The night of our date we agreed to meet a new restaurant near my home. I told him that I was interested in eating there because the weather was nice and I wanted to eat on their new deck. So after arriving we ask for a table and the hostess asks him if we would like to eat inside and he answers "yes". At this point I'm kind of in disbelief. This could only really mean one of two things. 1. He wasn't paying attention to anything I was saying or 2. He is not assertive enough to get his desires across. Either way I would say this was strike one for Brad.

The food was great. The conversation was okay, but about 20 minutes into dinner I noticed that Brad's left eye was twitching. He didn't say anything so neither did I. I chalked the twitch up to nerves. But as the meal continued the twitch began affecting his shoulder as well. He continued to not address the situation and so I followed suit.

After dinner he mentioned that it was still early and would I like to do something else. Well frankly I didn't, but also did not want to come across as rude. So I suggested that we take a walk at a nearby park. He agreed and we spent 30 or so minutes walking around. At one point I noticed that the problem had progressed down to his leg. At this point I suggested that we take a rest at a nearby park bench and look at some pictures in my digital camera and talk. He agreed. He was holding the camera and he was literally jerking so hard with his arm at this point that I was afraid that he was going to accidentally throw it. In the end I made an excuse to end the date. He was jerking so badly that I was afraid that if it was progressively getting worse that he might have a car accident driving home.

Brad did ask me out again however through luck I was unavailable and have just used my caller id to screen him since.

For the record what bothered me about his behavior was that he never explained or acknowledged it. Maybe I'm wrong, but had I not told someone I was pursuing a relationship with that I had children they would feel deceived. I just feel that anything that will put constraints on a possible relationship that is so obvious should be put to the forefront at the very beginning.