From your lips to God’s ears, China.
All posts by Emily
Invisible Boyfriend
My friend sent me a link to “Invisible Boyfriend,” an internet service that “creates real-world and social proof that you’re in a relationship– even if you’re not– so you can get back to living life on your own terms.” The idea being that single women tend to get harassed (by family, friends, and society in general) about their single status, so “Invisible Boyfriend” gets everyone off your back. It creates text conversations, shares photos, and even comes up with a background story about how you met your special guy.
I know, I know– are they fucking serious? How pathetic do they think we single women are? That we’d resort to lying and fabricating information just to cater to society’s belief that we should be in a relationship? That we’d purposely deceive our family and friends, and essentially create a false double life, for the sole reason that we are obviously too insecure with ourselves to simply ignore other people’s stereotyped and ignorant beliefs? That we can’t just be proud of and happy about where we are in our lives, regardless of society’s expectations?
I’m actually totally cool with all that.
Here’s what I’m baffled by. The website offers five basic scenarios in which you could have met your boyfriend, and they have a fill-in-the-blank template, based on those scenarios, that you can use to create your story. For example, the first scenario is that “we met at a bar,” and the template is as follows:
Ok, fine. Benign, generic, and totally believable. And if you don’t like the idea of meeting at a bar, don’t worry, the site gives you four other choices of perfectly plausible scenarios:
1) We met on vacation– sure, happens all the time
2) We met at a party– yup, I know many couples who met that way
3) We met on a plane– ok, less likely, but certainly romantic and believable
4) We met climbing– um….WHAT?
This site decided to provide only 5 generic templates for how a woman could possibly meet her boyfriend, and they settled on CLIMBING? I just don’t even understand how that’s possible. How did CLIMBING beat out “On a dating website,” “At Whole Foods,” or “We were abducted by the same alien”– all far more legitimate scenarios than “We met while scrambling rocks in the Alps.” WHO THE FUCK MEETS CLIMBING?!
I’m not saying it can’t happen, so chill with the “I totally met my boyfriend on a rock wall” commentary. I’m just saying, if you HAVE to narrow it down to the five most common scenarios, WHY THIS ONE?
And THAT, ladies and gentleman, is the most insulting and dumbfounding aspect of this site.
On an unrelated note, I have a new boyfriend. We met on vacation in Canada. Here he is, top right:
There’s a Lesson Here
Last night at dinner with my whole family, we discussed the various reactions to my post “I Should Fucking Curse Less.” My dad said it made him feel that he should have cursed less around the house when we were young. This made me think two things: 1) If that’s your takeaway, you missed the point entirely (classic Dad) and 2) That actually does remind me of a funny story that may or may not make you feel better:
I distinctly remember, at around age 10 or 11, being on the sidelines of my soccer game (on this particular state-champ team, I was almost always on the sidelines and not in the game because….well…I sucked.). It was a big, end-of-season game and we were tied. In the very last minute, the other team scored a goal, so I muttered (loudly) “God damnit!”
The father of another girl on my team was standing next to me and looked at me, horrified. “Excuse me?”
I looked back at him, genuinely thinking he wanted me to repeat myself, as I saw absolutely nothing wrong with what I had said. I looked him straight in the eye and said it louder, “I said ‘GOD DAMNIT.'”
“You better watch your mouth.”
“But…I did.” I replied, genuinely confused (after all, I had wanted to say “FUCK, we are SO FUCKED!”, but I kept it perfectly clean with “God damnit.”)
Again, he stared at me, clearly disgusted and assuming I had been raised by wolves. He walked away shaking his head.
That guy’s daughter went on to become a huge whore.
My Sister is My Biggest Fan
My mom and dad are in town, and tonight the whole family went to dinner.
Dad: “I’ve been sharing your blog posts on Facebook. The ones I really like.”
Me: “I know, thanks! I see you’ve been sharing a ton of them!”
Steph: “I’ve been sharing them, too. The ones that make me laugh.”
Me: “You’ve shared like one.”
Steph: “No, like two. The two that made me laugh.”
Me: “Great. Thanks….”
Steph: “Well, you know what I mean– the ones that make me actually laugh. Like out loud.”
Me: “This conversation in itself is going to be a post.”
Steph: “Alright. Maybe I’ll share it.”
Baby Shaming, Part 2
Ex-Boyfriends Are Useful
Things Single People Don’t Want to Hear From Their Married Friends
Highlight of Tonight’s Date
Me: “I’ll be turning 33 in March.”
Him: “Really? You don’t seem 33. You seem normal.”
Well This is a Quandary
Tonight I have a first date with a guy who reads my blog (we’ve never met, though). I have to say, this is weird, unprecedented territory for me. How am I supposed to blog about a date if the guy I’m going on the date with reads the blog?!
Oh. I guess like that.









