It's not just women!

Love in Palo Alto can be so very perplexing....

It's no secret that there are more single women in the bay area than men. It was rumored a 12 to 1 ratio. Ouch! I work with a lot of single women. I work with some women who I can't for the life of me understand why they are still single. Then, there are those occasional girls who after spending a few evenings swapping dating stories with it's obvious why they are in their late thirties and alone. The ultra needy girl who blows-up a guys phone after the first date or the girl who gives up the goods too soon. You know the ones..

However, women aren't the only one's behaving strangely.

Recently, I attempted to set-up my very dear friend, Penny (not her real name) on a date with a colleague of mine, George (also not his real name). George has been divorced for years - same with Penny. Both have a child in high school, love sports, a good beer or glass of wine, BBQ's on Sunday, and are in their forties, and she is better looking than he but isn't that the way it goes with a 12:1 ratio. He was definitely "over-chicked." So, I asked him if he was willing to meet a lovely girl and he seemed anxious to do so.

Penny agreed to meet George virtually, via email. So I provided George with Penny's contact info. After a week and a few days, Penny reported George had still not contacted her. This prompted me to go to George and ask why? He began to tell me a tale of how he was very hung up on an ex who living more than three hours away. He also told me how he had recently signed up for an online dating service so was trying to get back out there in the dating world. He said he was hoping to get my opinion on whether or not to share this information with Penny before asking her out on a date. What??? Is he a complete idiot. I told him "absolutely not." Do not tell her you are hung up on some women who is going through a divorce who has told you to date others. "Why would you want to do that?" I asked. It wasn't a question; however, he began to explain himself. After hearing him fumble through his story, I honestly wished I had never introduced him to Penny, virtually or otherwise.

I urged him to keep quiet and to focus on asking Penny out for coffee or a glass of wine. I encouraged him to keep it very simple and reminded him that this was only an introduction and nothing more. He agreed or so I thought.

Well, he got the courage to contact her on a Thursday evening and they were scheduled to go on a date a week later on a Friday. Simple, right? WRONG!!!! The day after he asked Penny out, he met a girl online and after communicating with this online girl virtually for a few days, George decided to cancel his date with Penny. His reasoning was that he believed himself to be very into this virtual girl. Let me remind you that he hasn't even physically seen her. I might add that she too, like the lady going through the divorce, lives three hours away.

This man cancels a date with a local girl from the right zip code who has already agreed to meet him, who comes fully loaded with recommendation and photograph for the virtual girl living in an undesirable part of California, whose name is probably Betty or Margaret just based off of her zip code.

Of note, I decided to call my gorgeous girlfriend in this story Penny because we had a laugh about the virtual girl and decided her name must be Penny cause any girl living in the zip code she lives in would have to be a Penny, or Betty, or something of that nature.

To make matters worse, George actually verbalized his desire for virtual girl to Penny over the phone. He got into this long soliloquy of how he is a one woman man, blah, blah, blah.....

Penny decided this has to be the oddest dating scenario she has ever encountered!


I have a strong feeling George is never going to meet virtual girl because he is afraid!!!! This is why he is 46-years-old and single. No mystery here!

See, it's not only women!