To whet your appetite on a date, perhaps I could regale you with an anecdote about the time, as a kid, that I climbed a tree at the marina in November and came back down only to discover hundreds of ticks seeking warmth in the folds of my clothing (OK, maybe that's a guy thing and too gross!)...Or the time that my family was driving over a pass in Switzerland and a falling boulder crushed the car in front of us (well, maybe not; too gruesome)...

...Or helping tourists on the Mall wash their eyes after Nixon's thugs let loose a barrage of tear gas against the demonstrating students (nope, politics is a minefield)...Or being given a temporary office at the Smithsonian at age 17 while building a model of the Hirshhorn (sounds like braggadocio)...Or divorcing an attorney in '91 after living in Spain for two years (talk of exes = kiss of death)...

...Then there are the 300,000+ miles of bicycle riding: Touring, racing, and as a courier on Capitol Hill (nope, won't work; sounds too obsessive)...

...Or for that matter, designing stage sets for the Miss Rodeo America pageant (maybe a good topic, even if I'm not C&W), or writing insurance claims on the road for 7 months following hurricanes Katrina and Rita (OK, this one might work and is at least fairly contemporaneous).

I'm happy to report that my life isn't quite as novel-worthy as it used to be, and considerably less exhausting; although friends and family have been bugging me for quite a while to put some of my experiences into writing before I further lose my faculties.

The class clown that frequently got sent to the office, I made Nat'l. Honor Society anyway, and then dropped out. Since then, I haven't found many "answers"; but pursuing questions has been pretty entertaining, if not necessarily enlightening.

I still have the cream-silk suit that I bought for the discos, but you'll be relieved that I haven't worn it in 30 years. Even today it has amyl nitrate and Heineken stains on it.

So many fabulous men and women over the years from many walks of life have enriched me. I miss the ones that are gone, and cherish the ones that still put up with me.

So tell me what floats YOUR boat and why. Who in your life do you most admire? Who do you love in spite of your best judgment? Do you find the extraordinary in the mundane, and vice versa, as I do?

Do you see the irony and humor in the fact that by the time we are able to make truly intelligent choices based on experience and insight, our lives may be more than 1/2 over?

The best first dates I've had have been low-key: Lunch, a walk in the park/arboretum/zoo, Scrabble at a cafe, browsing the Galleria; in other words, quiet enough to hear each other and appreciate nuances in conversation.

Subsequent dates tend to be be a bit more involved: Sailing, dinner, dance lessons. The JMW Turner exhibit would be a great date when it arrives here: I just viewed it at the National Gallery of Art, and it's spectacular. I knew he was great, but now I have to say his are the best watercolors I've ever seen. (The oils aren't too shabby, either.)