Adding to the 2.13.06 post on Justin Roth's blog, Driving With Rope, I must say, dating can really, really blow. Trying to find that special someone who can take your breath with her littler finger can be some of the most heart-wrenching, ego-crushing, munkey doo. That specific, exact, completely-original-female you would want to wake up next to for an undetermined amount of time.

On the other hand, however, it can be a serious thrill, and you can have some of the craziest times of your life while being single--that is--as long as you aren't constantly concentrating on being double. The key (as if I have had a successful date in the last...we won't get into that) is to enjoy the place you're in, get really comfortable with yourself, and most of all, recognize that there isn't that perfect person out there. The double-d heiress to a brewery just isn't bouncing along (did I say bouncing? I meant walking...), holding a couple of sixers and waiting for you to stumble through the introductions. There is, however, some nice girl you might meet at the gym or the movies or at class or at work, or really wherever (except the strip club: all instances I've heard of have ended badly), who will be just tickled at your particular brand of humor--mine has lots of corn.

Dating is kind of like punctuation (insert dorky, bachelor-of-journalism jokes here), it takes a lot of time to learn the rules, even more trial and error to put the rules to use, and a lot of courage at times. The upside of this is that when you learn the rules (I am still looking for the manual), things just fall into place and flow like they were meant to be. Also, people are fucking amazed when you can correctly utilize a semicolon or an em dash here or there; this is a general rule that applies to both dating and punctuation. So, my solitary souls, continue to head the call of the opposite sex, and when the time comes, have the courage to bang a semicolon or two in there once in a while.