COVID impacted everything about the way we lived our lives on a day-to-day basis. Dating during a global pandemic may seem impossible, but in actuality, it’s just extremely difficult to pull off. We reached out to our readers for some of their quarantine dating stories, and they are all unique in their own way. From managing a dating system that worked smoothly in the past, to Zoom dates to quarantine together, these three stories cover a lot of territory in the COVID dating scene.
When You Only Date Mikes
Author: Anonymous
I work in healthcare and prior to the pandemic, I was working in multiple offices. I had to remember all the patient’s names and what they told me, which is a lot to handle. So to keep things simple in my dating life I decided to only date Mikes. There’s a lot of them and honestly quite a diverse selection. It was also only one name to remember, which should be easy enough. Anytime any of the mikes asked me where I wanted to grab a drink I always said the Ale house. It’s honestly the best bar around. Great beer on tap, super chill, and they got games.
I didn’t feel like I had to dress up and I can go there, relax, and have a good time. Well COVID hit and since I hadn’t really heard or seen any of my Mikes even just prior to COVID, so I decided to delete their numbers. You know, kind of like spring cleaning for your contacts. You don’t need to have Mike hinge, mike tinder, mike concert on your phone. No one needs to look at their contacts and see all the failed-could’ve been’s.
Well, about 3 months into quarantine I get a message about the Ale house from, I assume, a mike. Well shit! All the mikes dates were similar so how was I going to figure out which one? I googled the number which narrowed it down to 3. I then proceeded to ask some questions to see which one it was. It was finally solved by a PG selfie. Mystery solved! We hung out again but some things are just meant to stay in the past. No happily ever after for me. But, lesson learned, dating men only named Mike can be tough. Oh well, I guess it’s Matt season.
Read More: ‘I Suddenly Lost My Sense of Smell and Taste:’ A Local COVID-19 Patient Shares Her Story
Zoom Chats Are The New First Date
Author: Sabrina B.
At the beginning of March, I was newly single and slowly inching back into the dating world. I was ready to swipe right and left until I heard about the first case of coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York City. Confused and scared, I found myself going down an internet K-hole to learn as much as I could about COVID-19. Could I get the virus from kissing? Is it transmitted through sexual intercourse? These questions and more began to run through my mind. In the days and weeks to follow, May came along and the number of cases in the area started to decrease and I thought about dating again.
I made the decision to turn my “date mode” back on in the Bumble app, while also restarting my Hinge profile. I thought to myself, I’m going to date in the middle of a pandemic, I might as well double my chances. A few right and left swipes later, I came across some amazing and hilarious matches. One of my FaceTime dates insisted that we exchange nudes right away since it wasn’t “guaranteed” when we would ever see each other and we “might as well see what we’re both working with.” Another match, let me know that he had never dated a Black woman and the pandemic had him “feeling adventurous.” Needless to say, after our first Zoom date, I knew that wasn’t an adventure I wanted to ride.
At the beginning of June (and several Zoom dates later), I found myself smitten with a new match on Hinge. After three Facetime dates (two planned and another drunk dial from me to him lol), we decided to take the plunge and meet in person. We went through all the COVID-19 dating questions: Have you traveled out of the city recently? Have you or anyone you live with been sick? Have you been tested for COVID? Once he arrived, I knew I made the right decision. We wined and dined inside and ended the night with an “Office” binge on Netflix.
If I could do everything all over again, I would still make the decision to date in the middle of the pandemic. It has forced us all to realize what we really desire and need from a partner and ask for those things upfront. Say what you want and swipe right until you get it.
See More: A Local COVID-19 Patient Shares Her Family’s Story
When You Quarantine Together
Author: Elizabeth C.
My current husband was my romantic interest for several months before the quarantine hit. He was a teacher of mine {self-defense} and was always super professional. Raz never treated me any differently on the mat or in lessons. I liked him, but I felt it would be inappropriate to approach him, and he later admitted he felt the same.
In January, we attended a gathering that a mutual friend invited us to upstate. We traveled with her and after dinner, we ended up speaking about everything from politics to philosophy to meditation to nature. We stayed up until four in the morning talking and eventually he admitted that he would like to get to know me better.
We began to see one another once or twice a week for coffee or a trip to a museum. Eventually, we ended up dating casually. The entire time we dated we kept our professional lives separate and no one knew. In March, we ended up quarantining together because his roommates moved out for a time. I was worried that perhaps too much time together would cause us to lose appreciation for one another but we actually ended up appreciating one another more. Even with both of us working from home and being in the same space, we still stayed up talking until four in the morning.
Eventually, we figured that we loved one another enough to know that we didn’t want anyone else. I’ve never wanted a wedding {social gatherings where I’m the center of attention make me nauseous and nervous} so we both agreed that the wedding should be a quick, very intimate ad on Zoom.
We booked an Air BNB high in the mountains next to Woodstock. Our mutual friend {also an incredible teacher and women’s self-defense expert} married us and we had a total of five people at our wedding party.
An amazing friend of ours {Candy Kennedy, a very well known photographer and incredibly strong woman} photographed the whole thing, my Ukrainian family Slava and Luba gathered wildflowers for our table and hair, our officiant Rachel baked the cake, and Cash, the son of Candy was the ringbearer. Their dog Dexter sat on my train as the Zoom ceremony started, which made it more difficult to walk but was definitely worth it for how adorable it was in the video.
We were sad that our family couldn’t make it (my family are in Vegas, his are in Israel) but we know that once this craziness is over we’ll have a celebration for all of our loved ones. Overall, we had a beautiful experience and we wouldn’t trade it for the world. We went hiking and swimming in the local waterfalls before and after the wedding {I had a big scratch on my leg from rock climbing before the wedding day}.
At our wedding, our families and friends blessed our Union via Zoom. The night of the wedding, our friends made a bonfire, wrote intentions for our married life together on strips of a birch tree, and cast them into the fire as they repeated their blessings. The whole weekend had an air of magic to it. No one {except our closest friends and family} even knew about our relationship until our wedding day.
