Here's looking at me

I am a run-of-the-mill carbon-based life form, living on the planet currently known as Earth (or so I've been told). If you're reading this, it's highly likely you've come across my profile on Hinge. This must be the fourth or fifth time I've created an account there. It's not that I haven't had any luck -- I've connected with some interesting people, but obviously nothing that has worked out well enough to stop me wanting to go back.

I thought I'd write a profile (a "date-me doc" of sorts) for those piqued enough by the very limited window provided by Hinge to want to get to know me more, but on second thoughts I thought I'd do something different. So here's a list of reasons NOT to date me:

1. I'm married. No two ways about it: some time in 2005, I entered into a civil marriage, which is still valid on paper. The marriage didn't work out, and my wife and I have lived separately since 2018. Neither of us see the point in getting a divorce as of now, but this will obviously change if there's a good enough reason for it. Needless to say, neither of us has problems with the other seeking other romantic interests.
2. Steinbeck once referred to poor Americans seeing themselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires". Well in my case the pandemic and its aftermath has found me in a similar circumstance of temporary embarrassment (which I hope is truly temporary). I work with languages and have freelanced all my working life -- something that worked just fine, despite the unavoidable ups and downs, until a few years ago. Every now and then, it does begin to look like things might pick up again, but only time will tell if they really do. So all you prospective sugar babies can happily walk right past me and I hope you manage to find your pot(belly) of gold. But for those of you who might still be willing to overlook this: I have never been that interested in making money or other indicators of worldly success. Right now, the only interest I still have in doing so is to uphold my commitment to my children (did I mention I have children? Well I do: two of the most wonderful persons I've ever had the pleasure of knowing).
3. I can be a bit of a curmudgeon -- it's hard to get me excited about what's happening in the world outside (or even convincing me of its existence on some days), at least not for its own worth. In the right company, however, even the most humdrum, everyday activities take on the aura of the most exciting thing the world has ever known, and more than anything else, this quest of mine is for that right company.

That's it for now, but I'm sure there are many more reasons to weigh the prospect of seeing and going out (or staying in) with me very carefully. I promise to add them to the list as and when they occur to me.