Why I would like for someone to just giftwrap Captain Wentworth and send him to my house

I went on a date recently. (I know!!)

But because this is my life and nothing can ever be simple, it was with a guy that my boss set me up with. To be specific, she met him a few months ago, found out he was single, and told him that there is a new single librarian at her library and he should really come in and check me out. Another coworker was with her at the time and rushed back to warn--I mean, tell me about it.

"I mean, maybe you'll like him. Do you like obnoxious guys?"

He eventually did come in and did ask me out. And since he didn't seem to be an axe-murderer or anything, I said yes.

We went out to dinner and he was very nice and polite and, dare I say it, even witty. And then this:

The server brought us our food and he asked, "Would you mind if I offered a quick blessing on our food?"

Me: "Um, I guess that's fine. Do you mean silently or, like, vocally?"

Him: "Well, out-loud if that's okay."

Me: " . . . Sure."

Note: We Mormon folk typically do say grace/offer a blessing/what have you over our meals in our homes, or church activities where food is served, but not so much in restaurants. When I was at BYU and living in the dorms, people would close their eyes and say a quick, silent prayer over their cafeteria trays before eating. But everyone knew what that was about, and were all so excited to finally be Among the Righteous where you actually could pray over food without being called a Jesus freak. But the restaurant thing? To me that just feels awkward and conspicuous. And after his prayer, which to be fair was very brief and quiet and did not involve vials of sheep's blood or any other unexpected thing, I had pretty much decided that I'm not down with the restaurant praying.

Only I feel a bit like a hypocrite to be all, "Yeah, I'm not into you. I like guys who pray less. And drink more." If I were in New York City and sitting near a Jewish or Catholic or Muslim family and noticed that they were praying over their food, I would probably think, "Cool. Good on them." But out here in Utah where lots and lots and lots of people are the same religion as me and none of them feel the need to pray vocally in restaurants, the ones doing it might come off as a bit attention-seeking and self-righteous, if you see what I mean.

So we're going out again, but if the subject comes up I'm going to tell the truth, that I'm just not down with that. And that I said a 3-hour prayer before the date and made sure to cover any food products I might come across.

Posted in: being a Mormon,dating or not so much,Utah