Online Dating at 36 - The Good, the Bad, & WTH?

I'm not even sure where to begin right now. Let's start with the Doctor. I did hear back the next day. It isn't quite a "two and done", but there's nothing immediate happening. Back story: he has two daughters. One is in grad school, but the other is in high school. The latter daughter is also adopted. If you have kids or have worked with kids, you know some kids end up with attachment issues after being adopted. He and I had already had a discussion about the tan line on his finger where his wedding ring once was. It had only been off "for good" for a couple of months. Why so short, although he's been separated for over 6 months? Because of the 14 year old daughter. Since the divorce is not yet final (although they live in separate residences, etc.), she insists they are "still married" and because of that she would freak if he didn't wear his wedding ring around her. Children are in your life forever, whether biological or a...

NOTE: This post was supposed to be posted on November 9. Whoops. Fair warning: I'm pretty blue right now. It seems two and done is the name of the game right now. First there was NDD. Now the Doctor seems to be a two and done. The second date went really well. Then he got sick with a cold and the texting dwindled. And dwindled. I asked him if he was ghosting me, and if he was, to just be upfront about it. "After last night, why do you think I would be ghosting you?" It was a valid point, but didn't explain the behavior. Yesterday I texted him asking to get on his calendar for Tuesday. He thought it might work, said he needed to check his schedule. He was going out of town on Wednesday and hadn't decided if he was leaving "early, early Wednesday morning" or Tuesday evening. Even though we exchanged a few texts, I never really heard back. Today I texted him that I hoped he was feeling better, that I felt his interest in me was waning, if I wa...

Among my general rules on Tinder is if a guy doesn't have a picture of themselves up, I'll pretty much automatically swipe left. Nope. Usually that's a flag that they are looking to cheat on someone or are otherwise catting around on the down low. But up popped a profile of a guy named... C... whose explanation for not having a picture up was because he had also come across some of his students on Tinder. But the kicker is that in his profile, where he actually wrote some stuff, is that he said he was "Sapio". If you don't know why "Sapio" is, it refers to sapiosexual. That's not some new sexual or gender identity, it means that someone is attracted to intelligence. I am also sapiosexual. While physical attraction is certainly an important factor, looks will fade. We will get gray, wrinkly, saggy, and gain (or lose) weight. Hair may disappear. And you can only spend so much time getting frisky. A great conversation is a key factor for me. Frank...

Welcome back after intermission, sports fans! At the conclusion of the previous blog post, I had just started to introduce NDD, or "Newly Divorced Dad". Like his nickname implies, he is recently divorced and a dad. Gee, thanks, Captain Obvious! He is the same age as me, although technically 7 months younger almost to the day. Educated, articulate, and a teacher. Lives quite close to me, which is a nice bonus. And because I know some people at the school he teaches at, I was able to get a character reference before ever meeting him from someone I trusted, someone who I knew would tell me to steer clear if appropriate. The trusted friend gave NDD a glowing recommendation. We agreed that we wanted to meet. There was definite eager interest on both ends. But alas, a problem! It was Monday. I was leaving to go out of town early Wednesday morning and I was way behind on my preparations. What to do?! Meet for drinks -- and dinner -- on Tuesday night. Duh. Many...