Wait Date Night

#11

Once a week I prepare as if I’m going out and a date and then I go and sit outside a restaurant, cafe, or park and I wait for an hour. It’s an act of ritual waiting and park of my No Woman Vision Quest.

This week I went and sat outside PokPok which is an amazing restaurant in Portland, but which was actually closed when I arrived.

Here are some of the things I noticed when I was waiting:

• The world changes in so many ways we can’t imagine. I remember life before I had an iPhone but I never knew smartphones would change my life so much
• Fewer people seem to be holding hands or walking arm in arm in arm during COVID — the feeling of a woman’s hand resting on my arm or in my hand is one of the loveliest feelings to me.
• Even though the sky is often changing, we rarely notice how it changes. Every time I looked up the clouds would be different but I almost never noticed them change
• I’m still amazed that even after months of not looking I’m still drawn to look at women on the street, the temptation isn’t as strong, but it’s still there.
• The likelihood of running into people you ‘sort of’ know is greatly reduced during COVID, because even if you think you might recognize someone, under a mask it’s really hard to tell.
• When I started this process it seemed like it would never end, and now with the end in sight, it feels both endless and like it will be over before I know it.
• It feels good to get ready for a date, even if I’m not meeting anyone, there’s something about putting on nice clothes and feeling good about how you look that’s very refreshing.