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Barbara Rose Brooker

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Divorced Boomer Clean Freak

Posted: 04/12/2012 3:30 pm

"Once you're divorced, over sixty, you're done," my divorced sixty-one year old friend Melissa says.

"Done what?" I ask.

"Honey, done. These divorced boomer men want twenty-five year old Swedish nannies. All they want to do is take you to Viagra Falls."

"Well, I still believe in love," I persist. "You have to go out, be seen. It's the only way to meet someone," I argue.

"Good luck. These divorced boomer guys are mentals."

Tonight, I'm at a restaurant opening. All these hot looking waiters wearing nose rings and attitudes are passing tiny potato caviar puffs. I'm drinking like mad. There are these free great little apple martini shots; I'm feeling no pain. Dressed to the nines in my latest mixture of used Versace and H&M, I'm standing in a corner, watching the crowd. When no one is looking, I put potato puffs in my purse and hope that when I close it the puffs won't get squished.

This rather short man with thin pale hair, but well dressed in a hot couture pin stripe suit, stands in front of me. "Hello. I'm Dr. Alan Birnbaum. Divorced a year. I pay taxes and I drive a Jaguar."

"Whooptdy do," I say. "I'm Cleopatra."

"I know who you are," he says, with a smirk. "I read your columns. I recognize you from your photo. I don't usually date women your age but you look pretty good."

"Wow. Thanks," I say. He has smooth spray tanned skin and too white veneers.

"You skewer men," he continues, standing so close to me I can see the tiny hairs in his nose.

"I do?" I tilt my head like I don't know what he's talking about.

"Skewer," he repeats, as if to no one.

So anyway, he starts shooting the breeze about divorce, how really "hot it is, and that he should have done it a hundred years ago. Then he tells me that he loves 'quality food,' and 'quality women.'"

"Uh huh. Fabulous," I murmur, still thinking about the cheese puffs in my purse.

"It's important to eat the right food, and to drink the right wines. Clean food," he adds, pressing his lips into a line. "Food poisoning is rampant."

"Really?"

"My ex-wife was always sick. Always on Imodium. She almost died from a pea. She didn't wash the vegetables."

"Interesting."

"She's a pistol."

"Wow."

"Say, I like you," he says, as if announcing a right answer. "I want to take you tonight to Coo Coo for dinner. It's the only restaurant with six stars. We can talk then."

"Sure," I say, telling myself. "why not?" He could be a good column, plus I'm tired of living on spaghetti.

We're in his low shiny black jaguar and he drives like a maniac, crouched low in his seat, and the windows are shut tight. At stop signs, he sprays this antiseptic stinky stuff, and wipes his hands with hand-wipes that stink like Clorox. I'm gagging and my tear duct is watering and I can't breathe.

"Can you open the window, please? I can't breathe."

"Bugs," he answers.

"Bugs? I ask.

"Bugs are everywhere," he shouts, driving in two lanes. "I can't open the window."

"I don't see bugs."

"Honey, you can't see them. They're in the air. They're all around us." The last woman I was with let her sheets go for a week, and I got bed bugs. A lot of these divorced women are dirty. They wear dirty underwear and stained clothes. You can't be too careful."

"Uh huh." Shame -- he's Howard Hughes reincarnated. I hate his too neat Gucci suit, too neat car, too shiny Gucci shoes, and too white teeth. I hate that at every stop sign he puts his cold clammy hand on my knee.

I hate Coo Coo. It's too serious. Drab. Military. Gray fabric wall,s a painting of a yellow dot, cranky looking waiters that speak only French and move like they're gliding. I hate the endless wine. I'm dying for my vodka straight over, and I hate the huge plates with a tiny mussel floating on it, and the flowers on top of the soup. While he's slurping up the food, he's raving about how his wife was one of the top chefs in the world.

"Honey, she was on Oprah, won awards. She wouldn't eat anything but good food."

"A pistol and a foodie, Wow. Why are you getting divorced?"

He stops eating and looks at me as if looking at me for the first time. A film of sadness comes into his drab tan eyes. "She wasn't... clean. She had a bad odor."

"A tragedy," I say. "Say. I'm not feelings too well. Do you mind? I have to get home."

"Sure. We'll do this again. You're interesting."

"I am?"

"Yes, you listen."

"Uh huh."

Outside, as the valet helps me into the car, I place my hand on car door.

"Oh my God!" he shrieks.

"God what?"

"You touched the car!"

"It's just... smudged."

Now he's crying. You got it, he's crying, ranting that he just spent two thousand for a "friggin' paint job!"

He takes pictures of the smudge with his cell phone. Then sprays this stuff around me to keep the bugs away.

Maybe the next one will be the one.

 
 
 
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09:08 AM on 05/01/2012
I'm sorry, Coco the restaurant or Coco the spa? Anyway, as a 50-ish baby boomer, I can assure you, there is nothing a "25 year old Swedish nanny" can do for me, except make sure my latte does not have foam under the whipped cream. A relationship is not all about sex or arm candy. At 50(-ish), I would openly welcome a 60 year old woman. Especially if she is one of the two who has not already heard my jokes, has some interesting stories to tell, relishes new kinds of martinis and once comfortable with someone is not too embarrassed to be seen holding hands. A 25 year old probably does not understand that Lauren Bacall is not a myth, a gourmet hamburger is an oxymoron and music was originally designed to be both romantic and melodic. She thinks flowers are just pretty, does believe every lady has her own unique style and more perfume is better than a subtle hint of a fragrance. Give me a woman who understands the phrase "well turned ankle" and that a fully clothed woman is much sexier than a full naked one. If you think women are done at sixty, page back through HuffPost. They prove you wrong every day. In my world a well turned ankle will do more for you than a zip locked bag of Viagra. I have actually never seen a Viagra pill, but I have seen Lauren Bacall.
10:55 PM on 05/01/2012
It's fiction, so don't read too much into it. You sound like a good guy. Keep fighting the good fight brother!
11:13 PM on 04/20/2012
Hmmm ... theviagradiaries page has been suspended. Maybe because she can't write?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mollymac
nice girls seldom get the corner office
09:47 PM on 04/20/2012
OMG this is hilarious! But scary!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
teatwerp
the 2012 teadump is coming
01:39 PM on 04/18/2012
falling off my chair, and dying with laughter!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
thebarbecuemast
bbqmaster,physician,hiker
08:56 AM on 04/17/2012
i just went to a wedding of a former patient of mine who got remarried at 75 years old his wife is 78,like begins these days at 65 if you take care of yourself and eat good food like bbq. most 78 year old men are practical they know their marriage to a 25 year old will not last with them going to the cleaners. only a foolish men would remarry without a prenuptial agreement same for a woman. Older men in their 70s plus seem to rent escorts to plat chess with but they dont marry them ...
best wishes
alan
http://thebarbecuemaster.net
best wishes
alan http://thebarbecuemaster.net
Morrisfactor
Just a little bent
12:06 AM on 04/15/2012
I don't think much of a women who accepts a dinner date - when she's already decided she not only doesn't like the guy, but detests him - for the simple reseason she's tired of eating spaghetti.
07:01 PM on 04/15/2012
She wants free food and someone else is paying. She's defined the parameters for her future relationships already.
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706makeupgirl
01:35 AM on 04/14/2012
Well I liked it. Funny stuff. Really funny because I have been out with my 60 something friends and this is just about right.
Keep it coming honey!
09:38 PM on 04/13/2012
Hot waiters with nose rings and an attitude passing out, among other things, martinis. That sounds like a copy of her post last month.

There's nothing wrong with posting some fiction, but the author should at least try for some originality and make some changes from post to post.
04:03 PM on 04/16/2012
She has another version of this story posted at Jweekly where the guy and the restaurant have different names. Instead of being a retired doctor he imports and exports food and coffee from Brazil, and he said his ex wife was "clean as a whistle," not that she was dirty and smelled bad like in this article. The rest was about the same down to the crying over a smudge on his Jaguar. Of course this stuff is fiction. She probably doesn't even go out.

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/62035/hes-aboomer-clean-freak-yet-still-ibelieve-in-love/
02:38 PM on 04/18/2012
I'm surprised there's no mention of hair extensions, "Pamela Anderson with brains", or "I look like (insert actor's name) in this story.
03:47 PM on 04/13/2012
LOL! Like attracts like.
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GeorgeGee
01:54 AM on 04/13/2012
What a croc of bull story. Dear Barbara couldn't think of something interesting to write about, or her life has been a tad bit "normal" as of late, so she has to invent this cockamamie tale. Please!
10:08 PM on 04/14/2012
I think the story is real. I know an older guy with a Jaguar who acts the exact same way about the paint job.
04:06 PM on 04/16/2012
It's not real. Here's a different version of the same story from last year published elsewhere: http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/62035/hes-aboomer-clean-freak-yet-still-ibelieve-in-love/ This stuff is all fiction.
11:10 PM on 04/12/2012
HAUTE couture ;)
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jf12
Esta vez saldré como las otras y me escaparé.
06:17 PM on 04/12/2012
"Sure, why not?"
03:50 PM on 04/12/2012
Menfolkens!
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OtayPanky
You're welcome
09:53 AM on 04/14/2012
Men r bad, m'kay?