the virtue. Alright, so before we left, um, she had an interesting take. She decided that

she was going to start to make herself a little bit less aesthetically appealing going out

on dates. She felt like guys were really into her, just for her looks. So the game plan

was, let's go ahead and I'm just going to ugly myself. Did you guys say it was up or down?

You ugly it up. Ugly it up. Are you pretty it down? Really? Ugly it up. Pretty it down.

Ugly it up sounds right. Pretty it down for some reason doesn't. Ugly down.

You ugly it up. You're making it more ugly. Ugly rises like heat.

And if you're going to downplay the pretty, like if you're going to go like, like you're not

upping the pretty, you're downing the pretty, you're not downing the ugly, you're up in the ugly.

This is like the thermostat conversation we had. So a coworker was going to set her up,

but she really kind of like wanted to ugly herself either up or down before she went on the date.

So the update, who's got it? I have the update. Well, I found middle ground. I decided to

wear something casual, but still me, jeans, a comfy tee and my favorite sneakers. I wore

minimal makeup just to touch a mascara and lip balm. I didn't want to go all out, but I also

didn't want to deliberately downplay myself to the point of feeling uncomfortable or inauthentic.

I thought this way I could still be genuine without compromising my own confidence.

Now, how did the day go? Pretty great actually. We met at a local cafe. Had a great time. He was

genuine, funny and attentive. Now, once I feel like he was judging me based on my looks,

our conversation seemed to indicate to me that he isn't that kind of shallow person who would

even think about that type of thing. We talked about everything from religion to politics to

philosophical questions. We're planning on meeting up again soon. Whether this turns into

something more serious or not, I realized the importance of being true to myself

...