Tuesday, 5 January 2016.
Day 16
Ha! This is so amusing!
Not even in her wildest of dreams would Anna have imagined that someday she would be a divorced mother of teens, living alone two weeks a month and – above all – swiping left and right. Well, mostly left. 😏
Quem te viu e quem te vê.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s how the Tinder app works: you create an online profile through your Facebook account, after which you get to see pictures of other Tinder users, with or without a profile text.
In theory, when you see somebody you like, you swipe their picture to the right side of your smart phone. At this point, you may or may not have looked at their possible text/other pics. When you don’t ‘like’ the person, you swipe left.
Anna looks at everything before deciding which way to swipe.
If the person you swiped right to has also swiped you right, the two of you become a match and are now able to chat with each other. Genius!
If you as the reader are thinking “So what? No biggie with Tinder!” … that’s because you don’t know about Anna’s history well enough yet. For her, using Tinder is huge.
And remember she has been alone for only 16 days.
After a twenty-year-long marriage.
To top it up, Anna comes from a kind of, what shall we call it? A less worldly background. Granddaughter, daughter and ex-wife of pastors, to be precise. Anna herself has also worked for the same church in the past. And even though she does not consider herself ‘religious’, her faith is central to her – no doubt about it.
So, for her, it feels extremely exciting — and almost sinful — to be having a go on Tinder.
She thinks a lot about the profile text she wants to have there, before coming up with this:
Fun-loving, international (5 countries, 20 cities, 5 languages), half-Finnish/South American. Smart, artistic, sociable. A think-outside-the-box-hardworking-independent kind of teacher. Separated. Mom of teens. ❤️
Volleyball, jogging, working out. A healthy lifestyle and your inner beauty.
Please tell me you’re communicative and fun without alcohol – then it’s OK to drink a little. For me, God is love. Looking for new friends, but a cool guy once said, “life’s an adventure,” so you never know… 😊
(Later, she uncovers what her dates understand by “fun-loving” 😅🤣).
Anna never liked video games as a child, though she did play Atari a little bit. A decade ago, playing Tetris on the computer was super cool. It is just not the same on a touch screen, so bye-bye addiction.
She always says that the only video games she approves of have to start on the left of a TV screen and move only to the right. And up and down, of course. Super Mario was awesome to try out! But mostly, she just used to watch her younger brother Moses play it to its last phase, when they’d be really excited and celebrate!
Gosh, today’s games make her dizzy.
Joey, her son, loves playing Counter Strike and Grand Theft Auto. For Mr. Ex, Fifa was the way to go. Her mom Riitta was addicted to Candy Crush for a long time, but never spent a dime on it – quitting after she realized there would be no end to its 900+ phases.
Anna would never play with anyone’s feelings, but this Tinder “game” is fun! Real people in a real game?
What are they all doing there? What are they looking for? — She wonders mesmerized.
Wait.
What am I doing? What I am looking for??
© 2017 rf
Obs. Day 16 since moving out. New beginnings and some confusion.
The Chronicles of a Happy Divorcée 