I lived in the North Dallas area during the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, and moved to the Washington District of Columbia (DC) area in January 2021, following my divorce and 23 years of marriage. Yes, you could say my marriage was a victim of COVID. I recently read an article regarding the “gray divorce” trend, where an alarming number of 50s, 60s, and 70-year olds announced their separation and divorce. As you know, COVID-19 exacerbated many challenged marriages. As it did mine, but for me, even roughly 2 years later, I still feel that it freed me…. Here is my Welcome to DC (Washington District of Columbia (DC)).
The South vs. the North
As a ‘young 53-year-old’ and once arriving to Northern Virginia, I quickly witnessed a vast difference in the community reaction to the pandemic between these two locales. From March 2020 through around June, the Dallas area was mostly locked down, similar to the rest of the country. But after that time, it significantly relaxed and the population didn’t stress as much about things like wearing masks, double masks, N95 masks or sterile gloves. It may have been political, but I think it was more of a social norm in the region to relax the wearing of these personal protective equipment (PPEs) and the self-imposed lock downs inside the home. I was out and about like most of the city.
When I arrived in Northern Virginia in January of 2021, I was a little shocked how locked down the area still remained, as well as the rhetoric that came along with what was socially acceptable for both public travel and the wearing of PPE. After going through a long divorce and being newly single, I wanted meet someone new and try to restart my social life. I found the lock down to be stifling to my new-found freedom and positive attitude about my future, putting my hopes for a possible relationship in jeopardy.
I Turned to Online Dating
So, around March 2021, I did what many other were already doing, and turned to online dating for the first time. I first went on Tinder (okay I know it has a reputation) and didn’t like the responses I received. I had also heard about another site, Bumble.
Once I joined Bumble, I was pleasantly surprised at the responses I received, both in quantity and what I initially perceived as quality. I must admit, I was overwhelmed at the amount of responses and then the aggressiveness of the women in competition for my time and communications. I was not prepared for any of this. 🙂 At all. For the purpose of this post, I want to address one particular encounter related to the DC culture, politics etc. that was very shocking to me.
After combing through a set of profiles on Bumble I met Jill, who was a nice, slightly younger, beautiful, smart, educated, and cultured woman. We matched and really connected with each other; we had a lot in common and similar interests. What I didn’t stress enough on my profile or from the profiles I read, was the political position. Not to be controversial, I selected middle of the road on my profile. There was a large number of profiles that described themselves as ever range from uber-conservative to liberal, very liberal or maybe more extreme in selection of this categorization and/or what was in their written descriptions.
Jill had not selected any political category in her profile, for which I didn’t really pay much attention to anyway, as we matched on the site. We quickly started chatting and found a strong interest in each other, texting for a long time, clocked in hours and then multiple text chat sessions. Learning about each other, our character, culture, athleticism, future outlook and the like. Everything seemed great, and we both expressed a likeness for each other.
I Asked Her Out
As I was at this point interested, and being aware of the pandemic lockdowns, I asked for her number and asked her out to gauge her interest was in meeting in-person. I was surprised by her immediate response being “no way.” And then it really turned south, she berated me for coming from Texas, and accused me of being an insurgent and a member of QAnon, who stormed the capital on January 6th. Note: I was traveling through Kentucky on my way to DC at that time and had zero interest nor opportunity in actually marching on the Capital.
I had previously mentioned that I came from Dallas in our chats and that the lockdown had mostly been lifted before I moved, but in no way had I mentioned my political persuasion.
To make a long story short, after berating me, she did not give me a chance to defend myself, she called me some colorful phrases and then blocked me on the app. Welcome to DC.
Welcome to DC, lol.