Rules to D.C. Dating According to the Post's Date Lab

My friend Autumn and I love to read and analyze the Post Magazine's Date Lab. She sent me an email with some rules of dating in D.C. that she gleaned from reading Date Lab columns, and they were so funny and spot on. I asked Autumn if I could post her rules here and she graciously agreed, so without further ado, here they are:

1. Always present yourself as super-happy, care-free and lacking any psychiatric diagnoses.
2. Have a minimum of 15 interests (Two of which MUST be travel and exercise).
3. Act very picky/judgmental (you MUST have a type and decide within the first 3 minutes whether your date matches your type).
4. No matter the circumstances, do NOT let the first question you ask be "so, what do you do for a living?" (even though you really, really, REALLY want to know).
5. Do NOT talk politics but do drop enough hints to make it clear you're on the same "side."

I will add that based on Date Lab's pool of daters, if you really want to get in the game, you better speak three languages with varying degrees of fluency, have taught for a few years in Asia or spent a summer surfing in Mallorca or something.

Have a Nice Life! Or Not. Whatever.

It's really great when after a first date, both parties tacitly agree to never see each other again. This is the best possible option - oh wait, yeah, it would be better if they actually like each other. Scratch that.

But this outcome is way better and less messy than something one-sided. How simple and wonderful to say goodbye, mutually thinking, "Well this was fun, we both merely tolerated one another, but hey, we gave it a shot. The end."

Done and done!