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Had a date with this one gal one time.
We went to dinner.

I have a habit, when I’m at a restaurant, to “clean” my area.
Used sugar packets, butter tabs, creamers and such, get scooped up and put on an empty plate.
When I’m done with my meal, I stack my plates and silverware, so that the waitress can easily grab them.

I am of the belief that dining out is a mutual “consideration”.
I admire the waiter or waitresses service,
they admire my tip.
I am out to have a nice experience dining out.
I want my waiter/waitress to be pleasant.
If I EXPECT pleasantness, I offer pleasantness.

I have no idea the day the waitress has had.
I have no control over that.
I do have control over how I engage with and treat her.
Honest smiles and heartfelt cheerfulness, do a lot to put others at ease.
If you look to be a blessing to others, it makes it easier and often times they want to be a blessing back.

Thus, I end up having a nice dining experience.

It also builds goodwill, in that at future points, that waitress/ waiter remembers you. They are quick to greet you, with a smile. They’re a little friendlier. Their service is a little sharper. Often, they take care of needs even when you aren’t their table.

Back to my story.
As I’m on this date. I pick up my litter and stack my plates and silverware.
This woman I was with, excoriated me for doing it.
She felt that the waitress was just a lowly worker and should do it.

I never asked her out again.

I’m a construction worker.
I’m around rough, gruff and crude people all the time.
Anger for some is a way of life.

I also realize that I can be much like the guys I work with.
I WANT to be a little different than that.
I want someone who is happy, kind and considerate of others and hope that my being around them, they will rub off on me.

I was working at a school one time.
A teacher had a poster on their door.
It read:
Everybody brings joy into a room.
Some when they enter.
Others when they leave.

I want to be a person who brings joy into a room when I enter.
Should I marry, I want my wife to do the same.
(for me as well as others)

You sound like a decent, considerate, terrific guy.

Your date might have been decent, considerate, and terrific but maybe she had a very strict grandmother who never allowed the china stacked, never allowed the wrong fork used,never allowed all the meat cut up all at once and never allowed politics discussed at the table.

Of course, if she gave you a hard time, she might have been a pain in the neck female.