Around two years ago I went on a date. It's nothing I make a habit of doing, but the critical elements aligned and I found myself heading to one of Brooklyn's many brunch districts to meet a man. The date was job interview format, and he asked me when I was last in a relationship. The answer was "seven years ago," and he was shocked. He was also shocked that I ordered a Coke (as opposed to a Diet Coke) and admitted to watching "Madam Secretary" (which, fair), so obviously this did not blossom into a relationship. My answer to his question remained seven until it became eight, and now nine.

This past fall I fired up my OK Cupid account and lined myself up a few disappointments, among them a guy with whom I almost had a date a few times, but we just kept missing each other. When it seemed like we were belaboring the point, we just stopped texting each other and I went back to my baseline of not dating.

This past Saturday, I got a text that said, "Hey there! I have your phone number in my phone but I can't remember how we met :-/". I scrolled up to see the text history and it turned out to be OK Cupid guy (not judgmental brunch guy, of course, who will not feature again in this story). I explained to him who I was and how we almost met last year, and he seemed keen to try to meet up again. So far, we haven't gotten any closer to meeting than we did last time, but now I feel like I'm doing more than nothing toward the vague goal of not dying alone.

To be continued.