I recently posted about signs that your relationship is going nowhere. But have you ever met someone and it was as if someone struck a match in your underpants? Your brain may shut down, but the rest of you is on fire! The fireworks are blinding, your heart is pumping, your mouth is dry (or it’s all drooly!), your palms are sweaty, and you’re seeing stars, just like in the cartoons. And the other person feels the same way, too! If there were a way to attach solar panels to you both, you could power a small city for a week! Doesn’t it feel wonderful?

Until … reality sets in and the fire goes out. But until then, WOW! Isn’t it the best feeling in the world? I’ll give you two examples which have happened to me; both were men I’d heard of many times, and they me. I was being dragged to meet one of them, and for whatever reason, when we laid eyes on each other, dynamite went off. There were stars in my eyes, bells in my ears, and little birds tweeted around my head. He was a very handsome Italian man, and when he saw me, his eyes lit up. He swept me up into his arms in a welcoming Italian bear hug … and I smelled bad breath that could gag a maggot! Standing back at arm’s length, he nevertheless charmed my panties off … until he mention his wife. Buzzkill number two!

The story has a happy ending nevertheless: here it is all these years later, and we’re still friends.

When I met the second man, as soon as I laid eyes on him, I felt sorry for him because he was the homeliest man I’d ever seen. As soon as we shook hands, though, and he said “Hello,” again, for whatever reason, a jolt went through me. I turned into molten cheese. I stuttered, I perspired, I tripped over my feet like a newborn calf. He, however, was as cool as ice, and it wasn’t until the following Monday when going on my usual lunch date with my usual friend that this fellow showed up, too, that my usual friend said that this fellow had asked to come along. I found out later that this fellow had been smitten at first sight, too. He just hid it better.

This one had a happier ending: we ending up seeing each other for many months, and we’re also still good friends to this day.

Why do things like this happen? Did evolution build this into us so we’d have an urge to procreate? And if so, why doesn’t it happen more often? Why is it so rare that these chest-bursting occasions occur? Is it the little Valentine baby with his bow and arrow? If it is, why hasn’t he more arrows? Why can’t he hit us more often? Isn’t it the height of fun when it happens, when you walk around, bumping into things, unable to think about anything but the man/woman of your dreams you just met?

Tell me about the time someone struck a match in your underpants!