Meh-nopause

Mr Meh suddenly became very persistent - calling, texting, etc.  Eventually I called him back.  He was easy to talk to and seemed normal, if a bit yappy, so I agreed to have dinner with him last night.  It was not a total loss.  I learned a lot of useful things.  Granted, I should know these things already but I don't have a lot of experience with dating.
New Rule # 1: Never agree to a first meeting at the last minute unless there is a really good incentive.  I'm not a "Rules" type girl, to say the least, but it totally threw a wrench into my plans to paint the posts on my front porch.  The project was 90% prep work and 10% painting.  I'd be done by now if I had been able to work through the day.  Instead I still have some priming and painting to do.  Adding to my annoyances, the water went out sometime when I was painting and I had to rush over to the gym to get showered and made up.
New Rule # 2: Steady does it.  Fast and steady, or slow and steady, or slow then steadily accelerating, but randomly hot and cold is not for me.  This applies to things other than online dating, but I won't go into those here because it's a family blog.
New Rule  # 3: If I'm still making up my mind at the end of the date, that means no.  Yes means yes, No means no, and maybe also means no.  Maybe always leads to me realizing that the answer is no as soon as I can be alone with my thoughts.  This does not mean it has to be love or lust at first sight, but it at least has to be a certain feeling that I'd like to see this person again.
New Rule # 4: I always offer to pay for my half of the meal, but dudes who either accept without putting up a little bit of protest or resist way too hard are suspect.  Mr Meh fell into the former category.  I think that is the first time that has ever happened.
Anyway, we met for dinner.  Mr. Meh was older-looking and fatter that his picture,and seemed shorter than he claimed.  These things don't bother me too much, since I do the same thing with the pictures, within reason.  He was interesting enough, but he talked, and talked, and talked, and even when he asked me questions about myself he managed to go off on a non-sequitor and talk about stuff he wanted to talk about.  It was sort of off-putting but it wasn't until after it was over how much he had done it.
I was being too nice, and gave him the benefit of the doubt, so when we parted I told him to give me a call if he wanted and it was nice meeting him.  He said yeah, let's hang out, but it seemed like I was being friend-zoned.  Which is fine, since I wasn't into him either, but I won't lie and say that my pride wasn't a bit injured.  What can I say - I'm vain.