Dating sucks.
I say this as a person who had a truly great date last night. It was our second, actually. OkCupid comes up with some Ok guys now and then. While not my first second date, it's my first second date that I didn't feel obliged to end with a, "I appreciate your time, but I'm not interested in seeing you again," usually (but not always) with a "as anything more than a friend" tacked on there.
No, it was the kind of date that ends with the two of you standing at the train station, him clearly shivering, and you can't stop talking... you're talking as the doors to the train close... and you're waving goodbye through the window... and you're kind of smiling goofily on the way home. That kind of date.
Then he calls (actually calls!) the next day with, "Hey, just thinking about you. I had a great time last night. I know we're both busy next week, but I'd really like to see you again," that triggers a warm fuzzy internal SQUEE! That moment of elation is followed rapidly by the realization that nobody has been this warm, careful and considerate since your first serious relationship almost twenty years ago even though you married the guy you thought was your best friend, and all at once, past hopes and disappointments and times lost echo in your head.
Dating doesn't suck because of the people you're dating now. Dating sucks because you let all the old bullshit in your head drown out a single, tiny little squee, turning a small ray of hope into a memory of storms already passed.
I am determined to enjoy the next time I go squee.
No, it was the kind of date that ends with the two of you standing at the train station, him clearly shivering, and you can't stop talking... you're talking as the doors to the train close... and you're waving goodbye through the window... and you're kind of smiling goofily on the way home. That kind of date.
Then he calls (actually calls!) the next day with, "Hey, just thinking about you. I had a great time last night. I know we're both busy next week, but I'd really like to see you again," that triggers a warm fuzzy internal SQUEE! That moment of elation is followed rapidly by the realization that nobody has been this warm, careful and considerate since your first serious relationship almost twenty years ago even though you married the guy you thought was your best friend, and all at once, past hopes and disappointments and times lost echo in your head.
Dating doesn't suck because of the people you're dating now. Dating sucks because you let all the old bullshit in your head drown out a single, tiny little squee, turning a small ray of hope into a memory of storms already passed.
I am determined to enjoy the next time I go squee.