Casting Far and Wide

She gave me one challenge. Go on twenty first dates before you repeat a date. Fuck every one of them if you want. Just don’t settle right away. She had been my therapist for years and helped me through my divorce, starting long before I even knew I was getting divorced. She knew where it was headed and helped me with the grieving process way before I walked away. I will forever be grateful for her.

Twenty first dates. How would I accomplish that? How long would that take? I would need to cast my net far and wide. The same day I got the challenge, I signed up for Bumble. I had no idea what I was doing. I can’t remember why I chose Bumble. I probably Googled “What dating apps are for old people?”.

Within seconds, I had potential men liking my profile and trying to match with me. The first guy I matched with sent me a one-liner - “DTF?”. I had to refer to Google once again. As soon as I saw what it meant, I felt like an idiot. Duh. I unmatched quickly.

Next was a wildland firefighter. A smokejumper. Oh boy. Of course, we laughed about the irony of that. He lived in Montana but traveled to Boise often for work. He asked how online dating was going and I explained it was my first day. I told him my first chat started with DTF and I had to Google it. Within seconds, he unmatched me. I guess he assumed we were NOT on the same page.

It only got worse from there. I quickly learned how naïve I was about online dating and how steep the learning curve would be. If I was going to hit twenty dates, I needed to pull myself together. Quickly.