This past Sunday I was with a group of 8 fun ladies, most of us having met through our “Divorce Recovery” support group. Not having a man thankfully no longer slows us down, or keeps us at home. We attended an amazing art exhibit at the Museum and then settled in for dinner afterward. Of course, the subject comes up – dating and men!
As previously noted, I have once again tried the “online” dating websites and was regaling the ladies of this past week’s “meets and greets”. More on that in another post – sigh – I could do a stand up comedy routine on the exploits of my dating life . . . when did meeting at a restaurant at 7:00 stop implying a meal???
One of my blog “followers” (love you M.E.!) suggests that choosing to date these days could boil down to a priority choice . . . match.com or netflix.com. She was opting for Netflix. After my last week’s experiences, I’m tending to think the same. I once had a man I was seeing tell me that dating hadn’t changed since we’d done it in our 20’s. REALLY???? I beg to differ.
Out of the four M&G’s I had last week, three had never been married, the other one had been divorced almost 20 years. I am here to tell you that dating HAS changed, and at this age, it’s both intimidating, exhausting and mostly demoralizing. There are 3 or 4 of us for every available 1 of them. They’re a valuable commodity and they know it. One friend told me she had to go through a lot of loser’s before she found a nice one – I don’t know that I have the strength?
They prepare to meet you by swinging by the house and changing shirts, maybe! We mostly prepare with a shower, change of ensembles, look in the mirror, change again, do our hair, apply new makeup, look in the mirror again, throw on the Spanx, feed the dog, check the DVR, leave a note where we’re going should we never come back and the police need a starting point in their search, call a GF on the way for morale support, tell HER where you’re going should you never come back, then arrive early so we can be seated when they show up vs. walking in and having to scan the room for a man who looks older than his posted pic all the while telegraphing to anyone else in the restaurant/bar that you’re on a “blind” date (if you can even call it a date?). Am I right?
My moods toward dating swing high and low, back and forth and I can feel Netflix starting to edge out the competition. Since my latest dating profiles are now about a month old, the winks and flirts and “yes’s” have started to dry up – I’m no longer the new girl on the block and the offers to meet have mostly stopped.
Yes, dating IS different, we no longer have our High School BFF to do her due diligence on the boy you have a crush on who then avoids you in the hallways if he’s not interested. You’re bruised but you move on. Nowadays we’re out there on our own, no one to run interference, dealing with men who troll the websites, message you then disappear, or worse, offer to meet you at a restaurant at 7:00 and offer to get you a glass of ice water . . .
Yup – Netflix is looking pretty durn good for this weekend.
suddenlysinglewomen 
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