“Let’s face it,” says ArLynn Presser. “Living alone and going to work and coming home and eating your food and putting money in your IRA makes [single] people wonder: What’s it for? Marriage is a decision in which the unit is more important than you.”
The class is called “How to Find Your Husband.” It costs $30, and it’s the most popular course in the Latin School’s Live & Learn adult-education fund-raising program, beating out such perennial favorites as “A Tour Through the Deep Tunnel Project” and “How to Write a Romance Novel.” One woman doesn’t like the course name, however. “Women were skulking around the registration table,” she says. “One woman was terrified that someone would call her office and leave a message that the course she registered for on how to find a husband was canceled.”
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Presser maintains that a technique she calls “mirroring” is a surefire way to get men to love you. “Mirror his clothes, his breathing patterns, the way he’s thinking, the way he’s feeling, the way he sees the world,” she says. “Make sure that after a while he sees the world through you. Learn about him–and he’ll be yours.”
“I told my husband when we were dating and we went on our first trip together to put all the reservations in the names of Mr. and Mrs. Presser. I told him I didn’t want anyone thinking I was single, traveling with a man. I knew no one cared. Who would care? The stewardess? The room clerk? But it set a precedent. It said, ‘If you go on a trip with me, you better put a ring on my finger.’”
“If nothing happens, go back to the beginning and start again with someone new. It’s better to start over again than to spend another five years with a guy who won’t commit.”