26 is Too Young.

Outdoorsy Guy: Loves mountain biking. Really loves mountain biking. Really really really loves mountain biking. Wanna hear him talk about mountain biking? Because he will.

We decide to meet for drinks. I get to the bar a few minutes early and order a beer. He saunters in 20 minutes late:

"I'm late."

Not "I'm sorry I'm late." Not "Nice to meet you, sorry I'm late."

I smile and joke, "I thought you might be standing me up."

"No, I'm just late." Off to a great start.

I don't mountain bike. That doesn't stop him from talking about mountain biking non-stop. Trails he's been on. The types of mountain bikes he's had. The time he went for a 20-mile ride without eating beforehand and practically passed out halfway through the ride. He could barely keep pedaling. But somehow, he managed to push himself through the last 10 miles. Blah, blah, blah...mountain biking. I get it. You like to mountain bike, dude. Maybe take a break for a couple minutes and realize that I glazed over after the first half hour of you talking about it incessantly. Nope. More mountain biking.

A brief detour into hiking (he likes to mountain bike to the trail, then hike...), then on to road trips. He claims he loves road trips. I love road trips, here we go. Nope. Turns out, he doesn't really like road trips, he just drives a lot of the time when he takes trips. Not the same thing. Instead of flying, he just drives - as fast as he can - to his destinations. Where he (you guessed it) mountain bikes.

I ask him about his job - he's a petroleum geologist. He launches into a monologue about geology and how he really just majored in a hobby. And how happy he is to be out of college (he graduated two years ago) - now he's making money and can buy toys and play. At which point, I start thinking "26 is too young."

Don't get me wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a 26-year-old guy who is a couple years out of school, working at his first real job, making some good money, and playing. But he's not looking to date, not really. He's still in college mentality - he wants to play hard, drink hard, pick up random girls, and not be any more responsible than he absolutely has to be. Which is fine - for him. But not what I'm interested in. Maybe if I was 26. But I'm not. I started to realize that the difference between a 26-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman is bigger than it might appear to be. Now, it's not that I'm looking for a serious relationship out of this, but I am looking for a guy who is interested in making an effort at dating. Because there should be some effort - this isn't a college party where you can stand around the keg and drunk girls will fawn over you while you pontificate about how fascinating you are.

I tune back in to the conversation briefly, and he's blabbering on about how he often goes to job sites, does whatever it is a petroleum geologist does on a job site, then takes the rest of the afternoon to go mountain biking and hopes his boss doesn't find out. He's mostly just worried that he'll fall and break an arm - because how would he explain that when he goes back to work at the end of the day? I tune back out. I don't need to pay attention, because I'm never going to see him again.

As one last note: As much as I hate to admit this (on a number of levels, for a number of reasons), it says something about a guy who doesn't offer to pay for the first date. I'm happy to pay my own way, but it's nice for him to offer. And if you're not going to offer to pay, don't order ME another beer. Also, maybe stop talking about yourself long enough to ask me if I even want another beer.