August 18, 2011 | 9:20 am

Am I One Date Away from Prince Charming or Being a Cat Lady?

Posted by Ilana Angel

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I had a date last night.  He was from JDate and when we spoke on the phone it appeared we had things in common.  As you may know, I am not a fan of pre-dating, so we only spoke once and made plans to meet for dinner. It turns out that we really had very little in common.

I personally don’t think jumping into a conversation about politics on a first date is a good idea because you don’t know where your date sits politically.  I am of the opinion that saying you hate Obama is not the way to go.  Like him or not, he is our President, so have a little respect.

Saying you are down to earth and not into being flashy or “LA pretentious” is nice.  When the very next sentence is about how many homes you own around the world, are you not being pretentious?  Be proud of what you have, just don’t knock an entire city of people while sharing.

We spoke of a certain celebrity here is Los Angeles that we both know.  I happen to like him very much, and my date thought he was a shady and unethical guy.  I told him I knew him, and liked him, but he continued to trash him, which I found to be both stupid and unkind.

In the end he was a nice guy and I appreciated the interest, but he had no shot from the very second he said hello.  Perhaps I am the pretentious one when I say if you can afford to take a girl out to dinner, you can afford a box of Altoids.  First Date Law #1:  Good breath.

As I drove home I thought about what would happen if I just stopped dating. I don’t enjoy dating, so why do it?  I have experienced love, had my father walk me down the aisle in a beautiful white dress, am blessed to be a mother, so maybe that’s enough.  Should now be about being alone?

I joke that I am one cat away from being a cat lady but the truth is I only have 2 cats.  Actually, it’s really only one.  I have a cat, and since I work and she is alone a lot of the time, I got my cat a cat to keep her company.  So I have one and she has one.  You can’t be a cat lady with one cat.

Sadly, my explanation about my cat having a cat, technically makes me a crazy cat lady all by itself, but the point is this, I’m not ready to throw in the towel and have my life be about not dating, talking to my cats, and watching my son live his life while I sit and get old.

I am not getting another cat, and I am not going to stop dating.  I am going to believe every date I go on, good or bad, gets me closer to Prince Charming, not a trip to the animal shelter.  By good or bad, of course I mean bad because there have been no good ones, but think positive!

This morning as I washed my face I noticed I had a grey hair in my eyebrow.  Upon further investigation I found that there were two of them. I decided they needed to go and as I stood there, tweezers in hand, my cat jumped on the counter, gave me a kiss, and sat to watch.

I looked at my grey hair, looked at my cat, and could not stop laughing.  I don’t know why it struck me as funny, but sitting there with tweezers, plucking grey hair with my cat looking on, was hilarious.  It was as if God was giving me a sneak peek into what life could be.

I yanked out the grey hair, kissed my cat, and counted my blessings.  When I’m old, will I be sitting on the couch, yanking hairs off my face with a cat sitting on my lap?  I suppose I will.  And when my husband walks in to hand me a drink, I will remember today and laugh.

I am a mom, daughter, sister, friend, dater and cat lady.  There is room for all of it in my life and it’s up to me what order of importance I put all my roles in.  As long as Mom comes first, everything else will find its place in line.  I have a date this weekend, and I am keeping the faith.