Of All the Gin Joints in All the Towns in All the World

Last night, I ran into 'the guy' on my home turf. Which is a bit odd, since in the years that it has been my home turf, I have never seen him there before. Then again, I wasn't looking for him then. I am not sure what the chance (or not so chance encounter means), but it intrigues me.

Regardless of how this plays out, it was nice to meet someone who actually saw me and not through me. To have someone get me that quickly was refreshing. It makes me glad to be a single-in-the-city. To have had that moment and the chance to see the potential of it all.

Sometimes, people worry about the single girl. (Count the number of times your relatives ask you (the single girl) when you are getting married or having kids...or my favorite, ‘is there someone special in your life?’)

People wonder about the single girl. They wonder if she is a jaded, angry She-man. Or, if she is the bar-hopping, easy girl (typically, Sex and the City is blamed for this descriptor). If she is crazy or damaged or clingy. They look at the single girl and wonder why she is still single.

Well, the answer is simple: Because. She is single because she is. Some of us are jaded and angry. Some of us are a bit on the promiscuous side. Some are crazy and damaged. Some are clingy. Some focus on majoring in our M.R.S. and some run in the other direction.

I like to think that the single girl is single, because she refuses to settle for less than the fairy tale. And I don’t mean the Little Mermaid. (Because, if you read the real version of that story, she doesn’t end up getting what she wants. She dies. Who wants to strive for that?) I mean, her version of the fairy tale – whatever that may be.

My version of the fairy tale is to meet my ‘split apart'. The person that knows me without having to think and who makes me want to be a better person. It is the person who challenges me. Intellectually. Spiritually. Emotionally. Physically. I don’t want to go through life with anything less than that. Is it lofty and idealistic? Yes. But, to quote one of my favorite (little known) movies – Dream for an Insomniac – “There are too many mediocre things in life to deal with and love shouldn't be one of them.”