While it may seem that I have gone completely mum on this blog regarding all things personal, I can reassure you that its for a pretty decent cause. While details must remain more classified than NSA affairs pre-Snowden, I have effectively managed to gather some valuable insight on slippery slope that is Level II dating, starting with a few faux pas that will send a man running for the hills faster than El Chapo. Feel free to apply selectively, or ignore altogether!
In case you haven’t been following my mess of an Instagram feed, I recently spent 10 days in Japan, unveiling a world so far removed from the Western hemisphere that it would be take me days of waxing poetic lyrics to depict all my observations. As a key takeaway, however, comes an innate admiration for the impeccable etiquette of this country’s inhabitants, a phenomena reflected in each mutually respective interaction. While I was wary to investigate the dating scene, this particular dissonance with the Western world inadvertently triggered me to reflect on the etiquette of dating, a rapidly demising concept within itself. Additionally, I was traveling with two Latin-American boys who had zero romantic interest in me, and yet were brought up to treat women in a way that made me feel like (insert eye roll) a princess, at least as much of a princess as one can be in a never-ending chain of bullet trains and Capsule hotels. Combined with my Russian upbringing, which evokes a similar set of courtesy codes that I struggle to find elsewhere, I am left questioning whether a certain lack of chivalry is an issue particularly pertinent to the European and American cultures, perhaps a downside to the fight for gender equality?
When I was little girl and didn’t know that I would be one day meeting men on Tinder, I always dreamed of meeting the love of my life on an airplane. Exhausted after a business trip to an exotic locale (my vision of the future also involved a career as an international diplomat), I would slip into my first class seat, only discover a Don Draper lookalike ready to divulge his innermost secrets over dirty martinis. Granted, we would be an item by the time the plane touched the ground.
As I often iterate, being a mother is one of the most terrifying and challenging jobs there is. With it comes an incomparable wisdom, an ability to configure life’s priorities and abstain from useless over-complication that us semi-youngsters are so prone to. Last week, I asked all of you lovely readers to send me the most genuine, organic, old-school advice your wise mothers instilled upon you. Without further ado, here are some of the best gems from our moms, our real life Superheroes!
Let’s face it: alcohol is not only a social lubricant, but a dating lubricant as well, and not of the R-rated, jelly-flavored variety. The majority of us who are not strung up on life – or Adderall – find ourselves relying on the magic elixir to smooth out awkward situations, evoke fake feelings of fulfillment, and find depth where there is none. Those of us who are dating in a country filled with Men of Mediocrity may find ourselves doing this a bit too much, resulting in painful hangovers that do nothing but proliferate the budding sense of despair. Which is why I recently decided to conduct an experiment in which I deprive myself of this joyous substance for exactly one month and analyze the effects it has on my body, my mind, and my dating life. This experience can be described as simultaneously painful, masochistic, and eye-opening all at once. Let me elaborate with some key learnings.
Ever so often, I will get an email from one of you lovely readers, entrusting me with the details of your very own romantic trysts. More often than not, I encounter the following scenario: “I met so-and-so in [TK] city, but he was living in [TK] city and I was in [TK] city. We kept in touch, then met in [TK] city, etc, etc..” It is clear that the world is quickly becoming a romantically globalized place, with Tinder enabling us to surf the world via Tinder Passport (brilliant, can I get a free membership as a dating “influencer”?), low-cost airlines elevating travel restrictions, and Facebook turning us one big happy virtual family, causing intercontinental love to flow in abundance.
