Back to the coupling thing ...

The thing is, this pressure to couple isn’t coming from within. It’s coming from the people around me. You know, the people who are supposed to be my “support system” as they say these days. My so-called “friends,” my family doctor and my freaking therapist for instance. I’ve barely managed to extricate myself from my last relationship (11 years) and the therapist is telling me I need to get out, make friends, date people, find a hobby, get laid.

Now, I don’t have a degree in psychology but don’t you think that jumping into another relationship right away is kind of – what’s the word I’m looking for … oh yeah, that’s it – stupid? I mean sometimes you just want to take a break, take a deep breath and reflect. Appreciate having some time to yourself. Appreciate having a living space that’s just yours, that doesn’t look like a bomb just hit it, or like a junkyard with great mounds of crap piling up everywhere because your partner doesn’t believe in throwing things out or tidying up? You know, those trivial little issues.

And then, there are the more practical reasons. For example: I don’t have time for a new relationship and I don’t have the energy either. Basically, I just can’t be bothered.

Apparently, this means I’ve given up, and of course, that’s just not acceptable. There’s obviously something wrong with me. Now I have to be cajoled into taking action, because if I’m not in a romantic relationship, well then the whole universe will be thrown off kilter and go spinning into a ghastly vortex of nothingness. God, I hate it when that happens.

And so … I’m bullied into taking the next step: Internet dating.