In a pandemic, adjusting to a new WFH setup to makeshift gyms to constantly disinfecting everything around you, the idea of dating can easily slip to the wayside. Dating during a pandemic may even seem too far-fetched, but believe it or not, some locals have managed to reinvent the concept of dating and even make it out on the other side with a beautiful new relationship in 2020. Carly and Brian are one such couple, and we’re sharing their dating story in our new series of Quarantine Dating tales. Read on to learn about their journey from matching on Hinge — to now scoping out apartments together in the Mile Square, proving that love, even in a pandemic, will prevail.
Dating in 2020
Carly, a new Hoboken resident, and an occupational therapist at a school started off the 2020 year going through a pretty nasty break up, as she explains it, as well as moving back home, all while looking for a new job. By the time the pandemic broke out, she was finally ready to start dating again and put herself back out there, but it wasn’t as easy and it also didn’t seem as possible.
From Facetime to Face-to-Face
“I am no stranger to dating apps, so I re-downloaded a few {Hinge being my favorite} and started swiping. When this all started, I figured that it would be a few weeks and I’d have the opportunity to meet these guys in person eventually but thank goodness I didn’t wait around for that,” Carly told The Hoboken Girl.
One night, in April, when she least expected it, a dating app came through for her – tenfold.
“I was drinking with my brother, trying to teach our mom TikTok dances during peak quarantine and I matched with this guy, Brian, a software account manager. We struck up a conversation and we pretty immediately hit it off. After a few weeks of talking basically non-stop {I’m talking staying up until 4AM texting, every night like love-struck teenagers} we finally decided to give a FaceTime date a try,” she explains.
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“We ended up FaceTiming for nine hours… we legit never stopped talking and didn’t want to hang up. Eventually, after a few more FaceTime dates, we both felt like we had to meet each other and ended up getting milkshakes, walking around in a park, and just talking {socially-distanced of course}. Saying goodbye on that first date was so hard because we both just really wanted to hug, kiss, hold hands, or anything but we both felt guilty breaking any type of distancing,” Carly said.
Dating during a pandemic seems nearly impossible, or at least a huge challenge, but for Carly and Brian, it wasn’t hard at all — in fact, the two managed to make it exciting.
“With him, it’s been really fun because we had to be creative with date ideas and I feel like it made us get to know each other really well, quicker.”
The only thing that the pair were bummed about was not being able to introduce each other to their families. “One thing that’s tough about dating during a pandemic is not really being able to introduce and/or see friends and family and allowing them to get to know us as a couple,” Carly explained.
“Everything else has been pretty positive for us! I think this experience made us really close and appreciative of each other. We had to put in more thought and effort into date nights and have had a lot of quality time. We did facetime dates, walks in parks, and backyard hangouts. We’d order food for take-out and sit outside, have bonfires or go to the beach and watch the sunset,” she said.
Virtual Dating to Apartment-Hunting
After an ideal date with all of the sparks flying, it must have been extremely challenging not to seal the moment with a romantic kiss, but we respect their commitment to staying safe and keep the people in their lives safe as well.
Carly and Brian met while she was living at home in Long Island, as he also lives there, but moved out to live with her best friend in Hoboken – so after deciding that they had something special, Carly and Brian decided to be in a long-distance {ish} relationship, but that’s about to change.
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“We just recently went to The Ashford in Jersey City for brunch and had a great time but overall a lot of our date nights have still been at home. We love cooking together, paint nights, movie nights, etc. We also both love the show Friends and recently went on a date to the Friends pop up experience in the city — which was a different date and fun to finally get out and do something,” she added.
“I feel like because of the situation that we were in, we had to have more serious conversations faster than usual. We both immediately really liked being around each other and wanted to be able to see where it could go and as we progressed, it ended up working out for us. We’ve been happily dating now for eight months and are going to start to look for our own place when my lease is up at the end of the summer!” Carly shared.
But what Carly and Brian are most looking forward to is traveling togther —”when it’s safe,” they shared.
Have a quarantine dating love story to share? Email us the details to hello@hobokengirl.com!
