jml297

• Sign up for one of those dating apps that the kids are always telling me about.
• Ask Mia to take a decent photo of me.
• Go and get a haircut before asking Mia to take the photo.
• Time to shave the beard off? Ask the kids about what’s on trend at the moment.
• See if Nicola has any wardrobe suggestions. Or is it wrong to ask your ex for fashion advice before you head back out into the dating world?
• Track down Alex and ask him to work his magic with a profile blurb. He gets paid to write and has known me longer than most. He’d know how to put a spin on it.
• Work out how to make my hobbies sound interesting. Could watching fishing shows be massaged into a love of the outdoors? Do the countless hours of watching kids sports and sporting replays make me a subject-matter expert?
• Make a time with Jenny to catch up and practice small talk. She could talk the leg off a chair, but has a way of asking questions that gets to the heart of a matter. This could save a lot of time and false starts.
• Join a gym. Don’t just talk about how you should do it. Do it.
• Get to the gym a couple of times a week. Time to make inroads on the belly that came from nowhere after Nicola and her heart-healthy meal plans left.
• Stop eating take away meals.
• Ask Mum for some basic dinner ideas.
• See if Mum gets the hint and does a batch of meals to fill the freezer.
• Encourage the kids to cook a meal one weekend, ask Mum over to dinner, and this may speed up the filling of the freezer with edible food.
• When shopping for groceries, try making small talk with other shoppers. This might reduce the need for an online dating profile, and ensure that if I find someone, they live nearby. This could save much time and energy.
• Consider some counselling to talk through the extensive list of faults and areas for improvement that Nicola had identified. Remember her clear instructions around requiring guidance beyond my mates.
• If talking to a stranger is too much right now, see if Damo would be up for a weekend away at the shack. It’s been ages since we last caught up, and as my brother, he’s always been straight with me.
• Don’t dwell on how much everything has changed in the last couple of decades. Try to embrace the changes, rather than resist them.
• Maybe just leave everything as it is for a little while longer.
• Believe that things have a way of working out, all by themselves.
• Definitely make a note on the calendar to do something, at some point, though it’s okay to push things back if it’s all a bit hard.
• Perhaps just focus on the here and now, and let the future take care of itself.
  

This piece was written to a prompt on the Writer’s Digest website. The List: write a story as a list of things that didn’t happen.

Photo: a heart