I am the Second Coming of Liz Lemon.
Seriously, if Tina Fey’s unlucky-in-love workaholic on “30 Rock” had a younger sister, I’d be her. I’m constantly rushing toward deadlines—in my line of work as an Associated Press writer, I’m literally down to the wire—and juggling pressing requests from the powers that be. After clocking out for the day, I usually hit one, maybe two, social events: happy hour or dinner with friends or business contacts.
Okay, I might be more of a people person than Liz, but romantically, we’re pretty much on the same wavelength. Here’s what I mean: At the end of many nights, I’m at home, curled up on my couch watching TiVo while drinking a Diet Pepsi and nibbling on store-bought Toll House cookie dough or something else with chocolate in it.
While my social calendar doubles up this time of year, my dating life is nothing if less-than-stellar. Well, there’s one guy who remains cluelessly persistent despite our lack of a soul connection and my attempts to fade him out. And there’s that other prospect: a magazine editor, attractive in a black-framed glasses-Sprockets-kind-of-way, who stopped emailing me because I kept postponing our drinks plans. I was working late one time; another night, I bailed on him … because I was exhausted from working late.
What a humdrum excuse: “I just don’t have time for love. I’m too busy working/catching up with friends/catching up on sleep.” But for a lot of single and partnered women, balancing romance with building a career and keeping up with everything else is a real and stressful dilemma. Kinda like having a second job.
Indeed, hectic schedules permit only so much free time to troll for prospects, or even tend to boyfriends and bond with husbands if you somehow find the time to snag one of those. Which begs the question: How much time should your love life take?
