These are all such good updates! @lucia_la That’s great! I’m glad you got the I love you out there and that it was reciprocated. Just goes to show, trust your gut for the good stuff, too!

I have no exciting updates. Still a little sad about C.T. Don’t have concrete plans with A.T. (I’m now fairly confident we’re not a good fit, but I’m okay dating him casually until hanging out isn’t fun anymore OR until we have a talk and realize we’re on different pages.) I don’t have big Halloween plans, but I’m going on a first date this weekend with some guy who also went to my alma mater — not sure what to expect but also I don’t really care. Haha. Going out for drinks with a friend tonight and decided to take the plunge and test out a running group this weekend (they run to brunch). And I’m going to take my dog jacket shopping tomorrow, and will probably end up buying him a Halloween costume because I’m THAT owner. Haha.

@Kate Thanks for the recommendation! My dog is a floof and my apartment is really toasty all winter, but it also gets really cold here so I think we need a jacket anyway. (Matching jackets, if I can manage it.) We need booties, too, for the ice/salt on the ice.

So, the friend I’m going out with tonight works remotely and decided she’s going to move to a warmer climate for the winter. She started scoping out the online dating scene there and started chatting with someone. I guess last night he impulsively bought a plane ticket to visit her here this weekend to “see if they have chemistry.” I offered to reschedule with her thinking they might want to be alone, but she wants my opinion on him. I already have an opinion: Red flag-y weirdo! (like, something HAS to be up, right? I’d bolt!) I’m simultaneously no longer looking forward to tonight (third wheeling on a first online date, basically) and curious what he’ll be like in person.

And yeah, that sounds highly suspect. If I were her, I would absolutely not go anywhere not public with him. She should not bring him home!!!

Sounds like this guy I met ages ago…. he had money and loved to travel. So he spent all his time seeking out women online, women that he could go “visit” but really, he just wanted somebody to go out with and have sex with while he traveled, without having to make any commitments. Then he could just leave these women behind and not have to deal with dating drama in his own city.

Okay, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks this is super weird. I’m not sure what my friend is thinking. She’s a couple years older than I am and about a year and a half out of an eight+ year relationship. I know she’s still not completely over it — and that’s fine, it was a long/important relationship and it sounds like the breakup blind sided her — but her romantic decision-making is still pretty lousy. And, I mean, she’s moving there in like four weeks. He can meet her soon enough without flying out here.

I obviously don’t think that it’s really “abusive” but my last dog always haaaaaaated when my wife tried to dress her up in costumes for Purim or Halloween. Even when I had to put a jacket on her for cold weather she radiated comical outrage.