When I was in college, I would inevitably received a rash of redts during the most inconvenient times of the year: midterms and finals. When I graduated I worried that I would no longer receive any matches.
For a while it looked that way. Although I was driving in to New York City every 5 weeks, I inevitably spent those long weekends with friends and family, not with dates.
Then, with a long stretch of no major Jewish or secular holidays, I decided to just hang out in OOT for a few months, sans pilgrimage to the Big Apple. I booked a plane ticket for Pesach and planned to let my car grow fat on so little exercise as a daily commute.
Naturally, my phone started ringing off the hook. As did my Facebook account and SYAS profile. Three separate women who I’ve never even heard of called me up to say they had a guy for me. An old classmate sent me a FB message with the same content. And a rash of pre-accepted matches landed in my SYAS inbox. Naturally (and uncreatively), every one of these guys is located in New York. (Except for the Baltimorian being redt to me to for the third time.)
This is even worse than finals.
When you get set up during finals, you can play a scheduling game, where you space your dates conveniently between your finals. But when you’re planning to be OOT for four months, there’s really no two ways about it. Nobody can sustain a 4-month telephone relationship, so either you’re dating or you’re not.
And I’m not.
So what do you tell a shadchan when you’re in this position? Where were you two months ago? Come back in two more? Is he willing to travel?
Beats me.
And, it just occurred to me, it gets worse.
Because come Pesach time, all the eligible bachelors born and bred in this area of the USA are going to be heading home for the holiday. All the shadchanim within 2.5 hours of my new town will be ringing my cellphone to set me up with them… and I’ll be in New York.
Probably dateless.
C’est la vie.
Bad for Shidduchim 