The Jareds

In college I went on several first dates with a slew of guys who had the same first name. For the purpose of this post, we’ll say that name was “Jared”. In order for my friends and me to keep track of which “Jared” we were referring to in conversation, we gave them nicknames…

“Tree Jared” (he was a forestry major and on our date he told me about all the different types of woods in the restaurant… “This table is made of walnut. That bench is made of oak.”)

“Dauber Jared” (he looked a lot like Dauber from the TV show Coach.)

“50s Jared” (he paid for dinner and then totally freaked out – as in actually made a large and embarrassing scene, when I insisted on paying for the movie.)

“Bad Teeth Jared” (pretty obvious where this one came from.)

The fact that all of these guys had the same first name was made even more comical by the fact my high school boyfriend also had the same first name (we called him “Original Jared”.) For the longest time I thought I must be destined to end up with a guy named Jared, for the simple reason that those seemed to be the only ones I crossed paths with. Then, however, I met Soon-To-Be Mr. Ex, and my streak of Jareds ended… or so I thought. I tell you this story, dear readers, because New Guy is also a Jared!