Single Too Long?

Valentine's Day is coming up, and being in the entertainment industry, I'm getting a lot of phone calls asking about movies playing that day. Strangely enough, they all involve the anti-Valinetine's-Day movie. Go figure.

During one of my breaks, a bunch of the female employees were talking about their respective boyfriends. Girl talk in the very sense of the word. When they realized that I was in the room, they apologized for... well, being girls. I told them not to worry about it. Then the conversation turned to me and if I had a girlfriend.

I didn't come out and say that I'm gay. I just told them that I haven't dated in well over six years. Okay, so I admit it was a half-lie; I've never dated at all. But it was a better answer than what I could have said.

From there the conversation went on about how that's way too long to be single. The girls are young, though, so they are living their best years of their lives right now. Or so I'm told. Still, the conversation did weigh in some introspective thoughts.

I've never been on a date. I've only gone out once, and that was kind of forced upon me by Jason. My 20's are coming up on their close rather fast. (I turn 26 this year.) And what stories do I have to tell for it? To echo the Marines commercial, if someone wrote a book about my life, would this chapter be interesting? No, probably not. I have archives dating as far back as 2002. That's close to seven years! And even if I edited it down, it would still be boring.

The highlights? Getting published in a local newspaper, having regular encounters with a celebrity at my work, and the time that I experienced the corporate devil in the fact that I was (and probably still am) getting screwed over with my pay. Going to New York, Spain, Italy for the second time, and my dark days in Seattle? Okay, maybe those could count too. But nothing really stands out as identifying or life changing in the same sense those girls were talking about in the break room.

When they asked why I haven't dated in so long, all I said was that someone broke my heart. That was probably the only honest thing I said to them in that two minute conversation that day.