It should be shocking to no one that I went ahead and put together a spreadsheet listing of all the Donors I liked on the website. Honestly, each one has like five or six different PDF files to go through. HOW CAN I KEEP THIS STUFF STRAIGHT?

So it’s interesting, because now that I’m looking through my marked “favorites” and adding them to this spreadsheet, I’m quickly narrowing things down. I guess my brain really is an accountant’s because putting things in this format makes it all much simpler.

First I decided what I actually cared about and added those as headers –

Donor # (need that)

Tagline (helps me remember each one)

Height (sorry short guys, I’ve already got enough)

Hair color (not sure I care, but keeping)

Eye color (same)

Frame (S/M/L)

Look a Likes

CMV (more about that later)

Pregnancies (yes/no – good to know)

Education Level (decided not to include GPA – I wouldn’t want to be judged on mine)

Major (I WILL judge based on that)

Skills (“can barely change a lightbulb” makes me nervous)

Math (low math skills make me nervous too)

Sports (something, anything)

Creativity (“how do you express your creativity?” is an interesting question to answer)

Essay (adding notes from the essay about what I liked)

Genetics (specifically Cystic Fibrosis scores)

 

And then I started adding in the Donors that I’d marked. Quickly, I was deleting lines. No, I don’t want someone who can “barely balance a checkbook” or who has the mad skillz of being able to fix only computers or build models. No, I don’t think your Theater degree is what I’m looking for. It’s tough, because there’s that whole nature/nurture question – but at this point, if I’m shopping anyway, why not take a closer look at the guy who was on the winning side of a Supreme Court case and the math teacher versus the guy who majored in Recreation in college (with a 3.2 GPA, btw).

The Essays have also been good – I remember reading over a few and just rolling my eyes thinking “OH HELL NO. I wouldn’t even want to sit through DINNER with this guy.”

An additional tab I decided to add was the description from the staff at the banks. When I was reading over some of them, I found myself deleting rows there too. Introverted? Meh. He’s always questioning everything – wants to know “why.” Calm down, man. Plus, if all these people can say is that he’s wearing a preppy sweater, maybe that’s not a great sign. Sure, they’re in a weird place doing a pretty weird thing, but impressions from strangers still count.

So, we’ll see as I become a more and more discerning shopper.