Today Is ...

September 21, 2024, at home

I used to celebrate National Singles Day/Week, when I was single. Now that I'm married (since February 4, 2006), I not-so-fondly remember my single decades.

I was without female companionship from age 20 to age 40 (February 1982 to November 2000) and not by choice, so I have been quite intimate with the (good and bad) aspects of single life. (Please, no pity.)

During my lifetime, I was rejected hundreds and hundreds of times by women. This includes 414 rejections by women in 18 months with a video dating service in New Jersey in the mid-1990s, when I was in my mid-30s. Almost all of these women said "unattractive" was the reason for not wanting to meet with me for a date. I was able to go on a few dates, but when around 400 women described me as "unattractive," I will admit that I started to believe it.

I even wore a fake wedding ring twice in the mid- to late 1990s to get women to be friendly toward me: once while living in New Jersey and working in New York City; and once living and working in Florida. They seemed to be more friendly toward me, but not that friendly. When a man wears a wedding ring, he is suddenly viewed as normal by women because they know that one other woman knows he's normal. He becomes less threatening.

September 21, 2024, at home

I grew up on Long Island, New York, specifically Babylon and West Islip; I have lived in upstate New York: Cornwall-on-Hudson, Newburgh, Wallkill, and Wellsville; and I have worked in New York City for seven years (1991-1998). (I have lived in six states: New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New Jersey, and Florida.

September 21, 2024, at home

I do like pecan cookies.

September 21, 2024, at home

I do like the occasional chai tea.