I hear you Ginger. Funny the things that trigger us. The remnants of abandonment and rejection that never truly seem to go away. Even after you are long over the end of your marriage and the loss of HIM, those feelings remain. And they leak over into your dating life and hit you there as well. I haven’t been divorced as long as you or been on as many going-nowhere dates but I am feeling similar feelings. It’s hard to connect with someone when the only thing that connects you is a history of disappointment…who doesn’t have that history in their forties and fifties? It makes it really difficult to trust someone enough so they see the real you and vice versa. So you sit across the table from a stranger and it feels awkward and forced. Meeting someone IRL, forming a friendship and having it turn into something more over time is the ideal. It’s just so hard to do these days with people living in bubbles… even before the pandemic. Take my situation with VP. Two dates and both of us felt so much pressure to know where things were going romantically that we bailed…who knows what could have happened if we had met IRL and been friends first. Anyway…just wanted to lend you my support and tell you that you are not alone in feeling frustrated and disappointed with OLD. It’s not that I think there are no good people to meet. I definitely do which is why I have still have a profile on a couple of sites. I’m just not expending the energy that I used to or giving it too much mental and emotional space.
Glad to hear you had such a fantastic time with your friends and with your D. Hope you get to do it again soon. (((HUGS)))
