Finally, someone who gets it!

I have managed to shock and amaze my friends and family by not only finding a woman who finds me attractive, but also in convincing her to stick around for more than a few months (in fact, we've exceeded two years now). In truth, I am more than a bit surprised and even more grateful that she has tuck with me - I can be difficult to deal with - but she has, and this is a right groovy thing.

Kaylia has many wonderful qualities, but there is one in particular that I have found is very important to me and is, unfortunately, not particularly common - but Kay has it! This quality is constant curiosity. Kaylia asks questions and tries to figure things out even when she is finding answers that don't jive with her previously held beliefs, which is a wonderful thing and something that is a great pleasure to be around.

For myself, I have a history of getting involved with women who either viewed my own tendency to do this as an amusing (and potentially annoying) personality quirk, or who simply didn't want to acknowledge it at all. One ex-girlfirend, after describing how strongly she fielt about music, asked me to tell her what I was passionate about. My answer: curiosity, finding out about the world around me. Her response: "ugh, that isn't something that a person can be passionate about!"

And so, I have been delighted to finally find someone who not only indulges this tendency of mine, but who even seems to enjoy it. When we travel, Kaylia points me to the science museums, she tries to get me to read non-fiction with her so that we both are learning simultaneously and can discuss what we have learned, and she becomes excited when she sees or hears something new.

We have been watching the old Carl Sagan series Cosmos, and in the first episode, Sagan describes how Eratosthenes made a fairly accurate calculation of the Earth's circumference in the year 230 B.C. by measuring the shadows of sticks in Alexandria and Syene on the summer solstice and working out what the curvature of the Earth would have to be. This is, to me, one of the coolest stories in science - an individual, through simple curiosity and intelligence, works out a fundamental fact underlying the world in which we live.

However, other people tend not to find this story as interesting as I do. Most folks look at me with a "what the hell is wrong with you?" look on their face when I go on about this, others simply tell me what I can go do with myself. So, Carl finished telling the story, I wondered how Kaylia would react.

She looked over at me, smiling, and exclaimed "THAT is so cool!"

Yeah, she's a good match for me. Any wonder that I love her?