Happy New Year
Dating And Other Disasters Series
I’m off the online dating circuit. That’s right. I’m exchanging my cave bear tendencies for a more active pursuit of a dating life. Aside from my dismal luck finding date magic in cyber space, I read something over the holidays that really hit home. No, it wasn’t anything that deep or profound, it was a quote from dating advice columnist Jula Jane’s book, Secrets to Date By. I was reading my December issue of Date Night Magazine (okay, I was primarily clicking through to see if anyone had posted any responses to my blogs – I’m a writer, we like feedback) when the book review caught my eye.
The review included this gem:
“In response to the question “Where does a single woman meet a man?” Jula’s answer: “OUTSIDE! He’s outside. That means he’s not in your apartment, hiding behind the sofa, and he’s not under your bed, playing hide-and-go seek.”
D’uh! It’s all well and good to sit huddled on my couch, dressed in the comfy, tattered robe with matching socks (picture Elmo on a bad day), exchanging witty banter with a potential Mr. Wonderful via laptop keyboard, but how much of a connection can I really make? Especially since deep down I’m afraid that the person I’m chatting with is really a maniac who lures women to their doom. It happens! Don’t you watch Lifetime? But more than that, I remember that when I was younger (have I mentioned I’m 43 years old?) my friends and I were almost always out somewhere. We did just about anything to get out of the house. Whether we met for wings at the local pool hall, window shopped at the mall, or wondered loose through downtown summer evenings talking to people and having a good time, we were OUT of the house.
And while we were out, we were almost always guaranteed to meet men. Not all five of us scored attention, and, more often than not, the guys we met were looking for quick hook-ups, but it didn’t matter. We were out and about, playing the numbers in hopes that we’d eventually luck up on “the one.”
That’s How I Met My (ex)Husband
Okay, so things didn’t exactly work out, but if I hadn’t been on the dance floor that night, I never would have met the man who contributed to the best thing that ever happened to me – my daughter. Granted, online dating hadn’t even been invented then; we were forced to venture out of the confines of our cocoons.
So, I’m going back old school. Going to get up off my butt and enjoy all the things this city has to offer a single gal of a certain age. Um…where do single women my age meet men?
