Okay, maybe “State of the Union” is a bad title since I am single. I am, however, out of fresh and clever titles, so you are just going to have to live with this one. Being creative is a pretty hefty responsibility, people, and I’m not getting any support on it. I don’t even get paid for my creativity. Money would be great, but I’d even take the adoring gazes of women who want to unravel the mystery that is me. I’m seriously lacking in those. I’ve been realizing the past few weeks that “socially inept” might be a pretty good label for me. At least it seems that way. 

I’ve been on a few dates in the past few weeks. Most of which haven’t really gone all that well. A few were really good, but then there is that complicated area of trying to figure out how to interact with someone and make them interested. I don’t really think it’s possible to make someone interested in you, but I guess you can put all of the intriguing stuff out there and hope that something catches their eye. It’s amazing how complacent you get when you are in a relationship with the whole dating thing. I’m reminded of Fight Club, the scene in the bar where Edward Norton’s character is talking about his condo. Something along the lines of “You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life.  Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled.” A relationship is the same way. You go on a few dates, you get interested in someone, and then you become an “item” and then you’re done with the whole dating thing. You don’t have to worry about being so charming that it oozes out of your pores, or be mindful of what you say so you don’t make people uncomfortable.

Granted, you still do these things when you are in a relationship, but you have more leeway. Eventually you’ll do most every dumb thing you can do in front of this person and they will accept it for who you are. Dating often feels like an interview for the most interesting person in the world. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy dating, usually. It’s great to learn about people, and to try and find cheesy ways to impress them. I enjoy just listening to people talk and finding out what makes them tick. The uncertainty of it is just the bad part. You can be totally into someone and they could care less. You don’t know until it reaches the point where it is going to be too late for one or the other of you. So the solution is to become a celebrity. They have easy dating lives, right? I mean, celebrity status already catapults people into the area of not really having to be be interesting, just willing.

I honestly didn’t mean for this to turn into a rant about dating, so lets move on. What are we moving on to? Good question. I have a final this week. Hmm, I should study for that. And maybe I should get some work done. Yeah, instead of me typing, I’m going to do that instead.