On Unicorns & Expiration Dating

It’s story time.

I was leaving work on the afternoon of Good Friday when I received an email from a good friend from college, asking if I had plans for the evening as she had a friend who was stuck in town for work who was looking for someone to go to the Twins game with.

Initially, I politely declined as I had family coming to town and I figured my family would not think it was cool for me to choose to hang out with a stranger over time with them.

Then she responded back, listing out some characteristics of this guy. When I read her email I thought – “my God, it’s like she programmed all of the attributes I’d like in a guy into a computer and out popped this guy.”

The thing is, it’s been so long since I have had a positive encounter with a guy, I was beginning to think that quality men were akin to unicorns, meaning they are a nice idea but they just don’t exist in reality. I wanted to spend the evening with my family, but I thought I might regret not taking advantage of this opportunity.

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I called my SIL and brother who were on their way from Chicago and asked them what they thought I should do. My SIL's only question: “Is he attractive?” My response: “Allegedly…” Her answer: “Then GO!”

And so I did.

There I was again tonight

Forcing laughter, faking smiles

Same old tired, lonely place

Walls of insincerity

Shifting eyes and vacancy

Vanished when I saw your face

All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you

And it was a fabulous night. The game got rained out so we went out for dinner instead and talked for hours. The conversation ranged from our mutual love of excel spreads sheets (yes, I talked about excel spreadsheets on a date, it’s no wonder I am single) to Hemingway to running to travel to being single in your 30s.

The playful conversation starts

Counter all your quick remarks

Like passing notes in secrecy

And it was enchanting to meet you

All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you

Of course the downside to all of this is the fact that he does not live here – nor does he live a driveable distance away. But I continued to see him when I could and labeled what we were doing as “expiration dating."

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go

I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home

I'll spend forever wondering if you knew

I was enchanted to meet you

His work project wrapped up last week and he returned home. I was sad when I found out he would be leaving – but my next thought was that I was actually thankful that I felt sadness because that meant I had actually met someone who made me feel something again. I was beginning to think that wasn’t possible.

Maybe our paths will cross again in the future – time will tell.  Chances are I will visit a sales office close to where he lives so maybe we will see each other again. Bottom line, it was a fabulous 2 week stretch of fun dates and great conversations.  It was good for me to take a easy-going approach to dating and just have fun and enjoy the company of another person.

This experience reminded me that there are fabulous guys out there. It showed me that you can meet them in the most unexpected ways.

It made me realize that life really is full of wonderful surprises.

(Lyrics are an excerpt from Enchanted by Taylor Swift)