Thoughts on Dating

  I've had some pretty depressing set-ups in my dating past, but none of them top Book Guy (BG). He is a colleague of a girlfriend of mine (the female half of The Coracle - introduced   here ) who had been talking him up to me for months. He had all the qualifications: Jewish, smart, funny, just self-published his own book, nice, etc. This was in early 2007, when I had decided that, if I was going to find a worthwhile man to possibly marry, dating was going to have to be my second job. This meant I had to work long hours on the computer exchanging emails with potential suitors and proactively participating in networking events like speed dating, singles parties and set-ups through friends. Too bad this second job doesn't really pay the bills (if you don't count the times when the guy picks up the tab). Over the weeks since she brought it up to me, I followed up with Mrs. Coracle several times to see if/when this set-up would happen (I am equally persistent at my paying job,

  Even though we’ve been broken up and officially ‘just friends’ for years, there was one part of my relationship with Only Child that lived on – our cat Tino. When we moved in together, I was convinced that my cat AppleButt, who had a kitty roommate in my previous place, was lonely. So I insisted on adopting another cat to keep her company. Only Child resisted the idea and, in fact, didn’t even come with me to pick him out. Instead I brought a friend and we fell in love with the most handsome male cat in the shelter. He was frisky but loving, beautiful but rugged and, according to his profile at the upscale coastal shelter, was found “in the bad part of town.” I insisted that OC come to the shelter to meet him and, just as I thought, we brought him home that day. We named him Valentino because of his sheer handsomeness. He quickly became “Tino” – and a member of the family. Not that everyone was thrilled with his presence. AppleButt had apparently decided that no other cat could