The WTF Dating Files
Dating is supposed to be about meeting people, getting to know them, and maybe finding someone worth building a life with.
That was the plan.
What I actually found was a collection of experiences that repeatedly left me asking the same question:
Between 2008 and 2010, I put myself back into the dating world looking for love, companionship, and eventually marriage. Some men had real potential. Some were entertaining. Some were disappointing. And a few made me seriously question my own judgment.
Most of the situations weren't funny while they were happening. The humor came later, after I had enough distance to look back and realize just how ridiculous some of it really was.
I kept going. I took breaks when I needed them, dusted myself off, laughed when I finally could, and tried again.
Because a few disasters didn't mean everybody was a disaster.
Why I Wrote It
Everybody who has spent enough time dating has a story.
Some people have a few.
Apparently, I was collecting them.
I kept hearing women talk about dates that went wrong, men they met online who weren't quite what they advertised, relationships that started with promise and somehow wandered straight into What the hell just happened?
And I kept thinking:
I didn't write The WTF Dating Files because every date I went on was terrible. They weren't. Some of these men were genuinely nice people. Some had real potential. Some relationships lasted long enough for me to believe they might actually become something.
They just didn't.
And sometimes the reason they didn't was so bizarre that eventually all I could do was laugh.
These are my dating war stories.
For the women reading them, I hope there's a little comfort in realizing you're not the only person who has sat there afterward wondering how something that started so normally went so spectacularly sideways.
And for the men? Maybe you'll recognize something too. Maybe you'll see where one of these guys went wrong and think, Okay, I've done that.
Learn from him.
Or maybe you'll recognize yourself and decide you're perfectly fine with it.
That's between you and your conscience.
What the Fudge?
The title wasn't something I sat down and carefully invented.
I was already saying it.
Over and over.
I picked it up from South Park, and somewhere along the way it became my response whenever life handed me something so ridiculous that ordinary words weren't enough.
And dating was giving me plenty of opportunities to use it.
A date would start normally. There would be conversation. Attraction. Possibility.
Then something would happen.
And there it was again.
Of course, WTF has another interpretation.
Sometimes that one was more appropriate.
Eventually I realized I wasn't just dating anymore.
I was collecting files.
And The WTF Dating Files was born.
The Files
Some men earned a whole chapter.
Each one started with at least enough possibility to make me stick around and see what happened.
A few were genuinely good men with circumstances that made a relationship impossible. Others slowly revealed the reason they were still available.
And some?
Well...
They earned their place in The WTF Dating Files.
Not Every WTF Was Funny
Most of these stories became funny with time.
While they were happening? Not so much.
Some were disappointing. Some hurt. One became frightening enough that the police got involved. And a few involved genuinely good men who simply weren't meant to be part of my future.
But every experience taught me something.
I learned that I could laugh, dust myself off, take a sanity break when I needed one, and eventually try again.
And That's the Ride
The dates were only the beginning.
Some became stories. Some became disasters. Some barely made it past the first conversation.
From the men I actually dated to the ones who never made it through the audition, WTF Dating Files is the uncensored, laugh-out-loud story of trying to find love while repeatedly finding reasons to say, What the fuck?
There were bad dates, bizarre propositions, red flags I should have seen coming, and men who made eliminating themselves from consideration look like a competitive sport.
Bad dates. Bizarre propositions. Red flags. Hard lessons.
So, What Did I Learn?
Dating can be ridiculous.
People can be ridiculous.
And sometimes, apparently, so can I.
Most of what happened in The WTF Dating Files wasn't funny while I was living it. Some of it hurt. Some of it scared me. Some of it made me wonder if maybe I should just stop looking altogether.
So sometimes I did.
I took my sanity breaks, dusted myself off, and eventually got back out there.
What I didn't do was decide that because one man was a disaster, the next one would be too. I was still looking for love. I was still hoping to get married. And somewhere underneath all the sarcasm and all the What the fudge? moments, I still believed I might find it.
Eventually, I did.
Maybe you've dated a Slim, a Richie, a JJ, or someone who deserves his own special wing in the Hard Pass Hall of Fame.
Maybe you're reading this thinking:
That's part of why I wrote the book.
These are my dating war stories. Some funny. Some painful. Some completely unbelievable.
But I survived them.
And eventually, I could laugh at them.
Live. Learn. Laugh.
And if you're still out there looking?
You might already have a few WTF files of your own.
Find The WTF Dating Files