So the other night around 5:00 I found myself lying on my bedroom floor arms behind my head and staring at the splacker on my ceiling. For a good 15 minutes I made out shapes of animals and human faces as I laid there frozen—I couldn’t decide what to do that evening.

I really don’t have much of a social life, so for 3 events to fall on the same night is somewhat ironic—and kind of annoying. Because as a single person, I feel this pressure (both inner and outer) to put myself in situations where I can meet potential…lifemates.

I really don’t like deciding what to do with my life around that chance, as it mostly leads to wasting time and binge eating. Nevertheless the clock was ticking, so I analyzed my options.

Option 1: Christmas Choir at the local Catholic Church. My friend Ryan, the organist, promised an awesome performance, and it my effort to be people pleaser, I told him I’d go. But what cool guy would go to a choir if he had other options? If I didn’t already judge him for going to a choir concert, I’d constantly tease him and he would get annoyed with me and dump me.

Option 2: Attend a holiday fundraiser called “Sushi for Santa” on the top floor of the Wells Fargo building in downtown Salt Lake. Donate $25 for all-you-can-eat sushi and loads of single guys (word got out among the single scene). I could wear my little black dress and bat some eyelashes. I could “try,” as they say.

Option 3: Night skiing. Crazy, I know, especially when it’s ten degrees farenheight. I’m part of a ski club that trains gates every Tues/Thurs night, and I hadn’t been the last few nights, so one of the coaches giving me a hard time for not showing up. He kind of scares me, so despite the temperature and close-to-nil chance to flirt with cute guys, I still seriously consider this option.

It really came down to Option 2 and 3. Party…or skiing. Skiing…or party. What about Option 4: Stay home. As tempting as that was, I had to make a call. So I got on my clothes, and headed to the mountain. (And for the hell of it, I stopped by the Catholic church on my way home and listened to the “The Night Before Christmas” sung to harmony. Did you know they have much more comfortable benches than the straight-back wooden benches in Mormon chapels? They’re padded and slightly tilt backwards. And I loved the footrest, which I later realized was probably for kneeling. But if you can still use it as a footrest—that’d be awesome.)

Here’s why: if I arrange my life around social events and activities where I might “meet” someone, I will create too high of an expectation of these activities, which 99% of the time annoyed me and made me wish I were doing a thousand other things.

The next day I got the DL on the party: lots and lots of guys. According to my friend, “I missed out.” But the irony comes in the next evening when I attended another Christmas party (this time the only thing going on), and the guy my friend wanted to set me up was there. Now fancy that!

**So if you want to date Jenny, please note she likes seating attire to be padded, slightly tilted back, and (if possible) a footrest. Typically movie theatres meet these requirements and not church functions. (Hint, hint.)