Valentina’s Dates

Wait, was this a date? For the first fifteen minutes, I wondered if I had made a mistake. Come to think of it, her texts had been very eager. She was sitting very close to me and being chummy. I thought I was meeting to hang with a new friend, but had I misread her......
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I was realllly nervous. Really really nervous. This was my first real “blind date” in the 30d30d saga. Yes, I mean from an online dating app. But I had picked him, we had texted, and I had no clue how he or I would be together in person. Nervous! I think my ego really drove......
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Uri and I met almost four years ago in a hostel in Lithuania. He was a Berliner, and weeks later I’d be heading briefly to Berlin to take the GRE (before continuing to a refugee camp in Greece for some volunteering, as one does). We had a couple of interesting Berlin dates, and in pondering......
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Ten days in, with only four dates under my belt and a blog that still needed some content and design tweaking… I. was. burnt. out. It was 4pm, time for my Saturday women’s circle Zoom call. I recall giving a very rambly status update, at the end of which I muttered, “well, I have no......
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In a rush to scarf a quick meal before going out on Tuesday, I found an Italian restaurant willing to rush a pizza order (take-away only). I ordered this along with an Aperol spritz, took my drink, found an unserviced oversized table occupied by one young boy, and sat on the edge of the bench.......
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Xavier and I have sort of dated before. In LA, Berlin, and London. Sort of. One of my problems is never being quite clear upfront whether something is a date. I mean, I’m almost entirely sure it’s because I’m shy about being vulnerable (that thing I’m working on). And, because I’m afraid of getting stuck......
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Dora was invited by Adam the very next day to dinner with some friends at a fancy “Munich-like” stylish restaurant. She was lukewarm on him, and we both knew we’d be exhausted from a crazy week, but it might be good for serendipity. Given our challenge, these were opportunities to say yes to. (This was......
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This unexpected date arose the night before our challenge began, but I wanted to record it. This date encapsulates a lot of the challenge’s purpose for me: learning to discern right decisions and instincts, being braver in revealing how I feel, correctly identifying interest/availability (this is definitely not my strength!), and not rejecting potential interests......
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