In honor of the upcoming debauchery that is Halloween, I decided a creepily titled post was in order. Although despite the fact that 'they're out there' usually connotes something creepy to come, in this post, the reverse is going to be true -- I mean those three words in a good way.
The other day, a truly terrifying prospect dawned upon me. What if my relationship destiny realistically lies in the hands of an online dating app? The Horror!! I know it has become 100% standard practice to be on one, two, even ten dating sites. But as with everything, there is a peak and then a valley and we are most definitely in an online dating valley. In fact, I almost wrote today's blog about some particularly abhorrent messages I've recently received (a 60 year old man offered to be my personal servant with no sexual ties attached), but decided against stoking the fire of our shared misery. In a nutshell, it seems that all things online dating related have disintegrated into attempts to solidify meaningless sex whenever, wherever, from whomever. No dating involved.
Since society seems to have moved away from the dating focus that attracted me to the apps in the first place, I once more decided to take a brief break from the app world. Whether this meant that I would be in a dating slump for a few months or not, I was willing to play the odds so long as it meant I could avoid receiving another gross message.
New plan in hand, last weekend, I set off for any other typical Saturday night. I met some girlfriends for dinner and a few drinks and then planned to meet another friend later in the evening for...more drinks. Post dinner, we met in Union Square and promptly headed for the east village, a section of NYC that I rarely visit, (most likely a residual mental hesitation inspired by years of the underage debauchery that took place there in my tweens) and promptly headed for an adorable wine bar. Though I enjoy wine with a meal, when it comes to Saturday night drinking, it's rarely my drink of choice--I'm much more of a whiskey gal--and so I was a bit skeptical about staying there to begin with.
However, the moment we walked into the bar, three handsome gents engaged us in conversation. Normal, employed, non-sociopathic, non internet-related men. No dick pics, no requests for sexual proclivities, just simple, entertaining banter among NYC professionals. We spent the next three hours chatting, drinking and just having a fabulous time--the type of evening and random encounter that I'd grown to believe was no longer possible in NYC. I had genuinely begun to wonder whether there were any single normal men left on this beautiful, abusive, lonely, enchanting island of ours, and as if by fate, three men, sent down to restore my faith in NYC and in men, randomly appeared when I needed them most.
The evening was one of the most fun I've had in a while and one drink turned into two then three then four. Midnight turned into 3 am. Numbers were exchanged, giggles were shared, dates planned. It was just the type of night I needed to restore my fate in dating the old fashioned way and even gave me hope that there is life beyond the screen. Bottom line is, they may not be abundant and they may not be out there in plain site but it seems as though there are in fact still some normal men out there.