It's been an interesting month. I've been spending more time with my one single friend, I kissed my first stranger in a club (though that experience felt a bit more weird than enjoyable), and yet somehow still managed to subconsciously slip in a "my boyfriend" instead of "my ex-boyfriend" reference in a story I was telling a coworker the other day. How did that happen? Habit? Lately, though, my single friend (let's call her Lynn) has been MIA because she's been dating someone more seriously, so I've been spending lots of time with family, keeping my apartment sparkling, and trying to round up some of my married pals for a rare group evening out.
The other week, I met up with some of those friends (along with my crazy ex-roommate) for dinner. The conversation inevitably lead to my single status, and soon everyone was on the "You should join an online dating site!" topic. My ex-roomy had actually tried one for a month, and her attempt at convincing me to join went something like this:
Her: "I met three guys and they were really cool! Well, the last one was like 65 pounds heavier than in his picture … but they were all nice."
Me: "Hmm … yeah, you're not doing a great job at convincing me."
Her: "Oh! And you know [so-and-so], from our old work? He's on that site, too!"
Me: "You mean that extremely socially awkward guy? Ok, now I'm really sold."
Still, after some more joking around, gentle peer pressure and being on the receiving end of a bunch of sympathetic looks, I agreed to try it. I know. Horror of all horrors. I haven't signed up yet, but I told them I would, and I intend to. (I sense some awkward first date stories in my future.)
As for Lynn, I hadn't seen her in a few weeks, but she messaged me online the other day to give me an update on what she'd been up to. She just found out that her new guy is in the process of getting a divorce. As in still technically married. He's apparently been separated for a year or so, but the papers haven't been finalized. She was shocked, to say the least. She's on the fence about what to do about the situation, since allegedly the divorce should be finalized in about a month and she really likes the guy. However, how does someone fail to mention the oh-so-important "I'm still married" fact? Yeah, that story definitely didn't help improve my feelings about dating.
"You know," Lynn told me, "we're going to have to add this to our list of questions when we meet someone. It'll be: 1. How old are you? 2. What do you do for a living? 3. Are you married?"
Fun times ahead.
