Ah, Valentine's Day.

I am single and have been for nearly a decade now! I have had two relationships in my lifetime thus far. I am alone but not lonely. 

Don't get me wrong, I miss being in a relationship at times, but I also remember during difficult points in my previous relationships thinking how much easier it was to be single. I have never felt the opposite way. Being in a relationship takes work and a willingness to be vulnerable. I am not overflowing with the desire to fulfill either of those requirements. Sure, I have made the odd attempt at online dating/dating apps in the past few years, but I have quit all of them after very short intervals from disinterest and the kind of sheer exhaustion from my job that really makes scrolling through "dating profiles" incredibly unappealing.

My plans for tonight involved showing up at a friend's place with a vegetable dish for dinner and some quality time with his PS4 so I could chip away a little more at Kingdom Hearts III. When he was unfortunately called away due to his friend/girl he's seeing being involved in a car accident (she's fine!), I wasn't too fussed about him having to leave.

But then I remembered he had invited his colleague to dinner.

So the guy shows up about 40 minutes later, and I enter every shy introvert's worst nightmare - making small talk with a stranger. I can't just keep playing the game and ignore him because it would be rude no matter how you look at it. And he was perfectly nice and harmless, which is not always a given. But still, I just wanted warm food and some video game time, not an impromptu blind-date-ish scenario that no one asked for!

Anyway, I survived. And this just goes to show how much better I am at being single and disinterested in prospective romantic entanglements. Sorry, mom!