🌻NOT a Post About Dating

OK maybe just a little bit

Howdy-ho! What’s new, folks?

I am pleased to report I did, in fact, play The Sims last Saturday. Then I spent way too much of Sunday trying to hack my PC so that I could get all the objects from all the expansion packs without having to install the actual full games from The Sims: Complete Collection. Some of you are already falling asleep so instead of telling you all about it I’ll say: It almost worked, but in the end, it did not work.

I had an exceptional Memorial Day at the park with a big gaggle of friends, which included losing at kickball, throwing a softball around, eating pizza, and kicking a soccer ball around. I haven’t been that active for that many consecutive hours in a very long time, and it was VERY fun. (I am very sore.)

Apparently I’m on a game kick, since I also spent a good chunk of hours Saturday and Monday playing my other favorite computer game, Valheim, which I play online with Andy and our brother-in-law. A new level came out (Ashlands!) so we finally beat the previous level and started to explore the new territory. SO. FUN!!!

That’s plenty about me. But there’s a problem with this week’s post, and it’s that I wrote it, and then I deleted it. It was about dating. Not ME dating, but reflecting on my past dating life and attempting to offer some advice for my beloved single souls out there. I just wish I could help, but, after reading it a few times, maybe I can’t. 

🌻This is not the post I wrote about dating

In science/academia there’s a running joke about old professors giving young students career advice that is just so painfully irrelevant since the scene has changed so much. I don’t want to be that guy!

In my own life, I almost always dated friends. Not necessarily best friends, but certainly at least good acquaintances (like a lab partner — shout out to MV and CV). But it was always friends who I already had a crush on, and vice versa. 

That was just how it worked: You asked someone out because you had feelings for them. I never dated a stranger or acquaintance that I hadn’t already “hit it off” with. 

Remember being a preteen and asking your friends, “who do you like?” There was always an answer. 

Are crushes even a thing in 2024?

Sure, we’re not thirteen anymore. But I don’t think I’ve heard a single person mention they harbored even the slightest feelings for someone else in years. Since the pandemic, now that I think about it.

Do people think they’re too old for it — or too old to mention it? Did COVID somehow destroy everyone’s ability to feel butterflies in their stomach when they see their friend or coworker who is actually a super cute cutie? 

Single friends, all I want for you this summer is to get out there and hang out with your co-ed group of friends and talk to your coworkers until you develop a crush on someone. You don’t have to get married, I just want to know whether someone, somewhere, is still feeling feelings!

(Cue Teen Girl Squad, “I have a crush on every boy!”)(That’s for you MP)

OK, this is creeping dangerously close to once again being “a post about dating” so I’ll stop here. I will keep the rest of my thoughts and outdated advice to myself.

But if you want to tell me about your latest crush, your secret is safe with me. <3

Meanwhile I’ll work on scrounging up a good story to tell you all next week.

✌️

Gideon does, in fact, have a crush on you.