I cant believe we’re already basically a third of the way into the year and what a unique years its been already. I’m pleased to say that the year has been entertaining so far and Ive had tons of fun. Last year gave me closure, acceptance and clarity on a level I’ve never had before and it allowed me to ensure that 2020 will be what I want it to be, fun, mostly. Ive done a ton of dating and Ive had absolutely priceless moments with my friends.
Dating, I decided to get back onto the dating bicycle, so I created a cute and humourous profile for online dating and had went on a LOT of dates over 6 weeks and then hit burn out. To be clear, Im still very much so single but do you know, I had fun. Theres a show called ‘First Dates’, where single people basically go for a blind date over dinner, it seems most countries have this show, including the Netherlands. My Dutch colleagues often tell me that the British version is better, I agree. However, after my dates I’ve realised its not just the show but the Dutch take dating very seriously and they dont really seem to laugh or have fun on a date. If you cant have fun on a date, its unlikely you’ll have fun in the relationship and for me thats a red flag. I met a lot of really ‘nice guys’, unfortunately there just wasn’t a connection. I previously was a bit of a Dutch dater and took it too seriously, this time I decided to say ‘yes’ to everyone as long as there were no obvious red flags and the goal was to have fun. I treated it more like findafriend.com rather than youmeforever.com, which also took the pressure off. Luckily for me, there were no horror stories for dates but a lot of stories that make me laugh. A few examples are when I ruined a date making what I thought was a funny science joke with a date but he didn’t find it funny and it killed the date or the time a guy told me we couldn’t have a future because he didn’t like pets, the irony being he didn’t even realise what level of crazy cat lady I really am. Turns out guys really like burgers (great, so do I!) and I have a restaurant/bar that Im fond of because they do excellent burgers and even better cocktails, I went on a number of dates to this restaurant and one of the staff members pulled me to the side and said ‘why do you have a different guy every time I see you? Go girl!’ I laughed and explained it was my date bar and whilst I enjoyed myself, clearly my dating wasn’t going that well if each time it was a new guy, we both laughed. After around date 20, whilst I was still having fun, I could feel a shift within myself that I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I had previously and that I was starting to get cynical and jaded. I also went on a date with a guy who was negative about his dating life and I really thought to myself, at no point do I ever want to be on a date saying these things, ever. This is was my red flat that I needed to stop dating, take a break and re-evaluate. I decided my priority should be my friends and making memories with them over strangers on dates. For now, dating is on hold (which is bad timing given the current global situation and free time, it feels like a great time to be swiping) but I absolutely believe in fate and think if something is meant to be, it will, regardless of what app I’m on or not.
Speaking of friends, I cant say how much I adore mine! I really have had a ton of fun with them. I think Ive laughed more in the first three months of this year, than I did all of last year combined, which is also kind of sad that last year as such a bust. This year I want to go tandem sky diving and its booked in, so I threw the idea out to my friends to join me, make a day of it and make memories. Three friends got very excited and were totally on board for it until they thought about it for two weeks and decided it was too hard core for them but its an activity I’d definitely enjoy, bless! What I also love about my friends is normally I can throw any idea at them and we go for it, even for things I expect they will say no to. Once we’re over social distancing tango dancing is the next thing on my list to try, the question is which friend can I get to join me?
Corona…. who would have thought that in the year 2020 you’d need the mentality of a cage fighter to be able to buy toilet paper, rice and bread? The irony normally being when you have the flu you need tissues for your runny nose, not for toilet paper for the other end. There are many conspiracy theories and of course I have my own but that hasn’t stopped what is essentially the flu bringing the entire world to a halt. Its cancelled my holiday plans to Egypt, forced me to work from home for 3 weeks minimum with a dodgy everything connection and whilst Im ok with self distancing, I’m quickly realising that my cats are selfish arseholes (but I still love them).
If this is the first quarter of my year, I can only imagine what the next three quarters will bring. Im hoping for far more fun and laughter and less viruses and disease.
Adventures of a Cat Lady 