When we last saw our intrepid heroes, Mr. Feather and I had finally landed on the same spit of land that Google, Facebook, and the Golden State Warriors call home. I was in my second year of a six-year Ph.D program in the Department of Architecture at a well known public university (Go Bears!) and was juggling 12 credits of seminars with teaching two undergraduate sections twice a week, plus grading, plus lesson planning, plus training for a half marathon.

This GIF sums up my sorry existence pretty well. // GIF via Giphy

I had been using OkCupid for the past year without much success. After taking a few months to recover from a particularly painful breakup, I decided to throw every bit of spare time I had left into going on as many dates as possible. To keep everything organized, I made a color-coded Google calendar that detailed exactly which date number it was, the guy?s name, and any important details in the notes section. Slightly obsessive" Yes. Totally useful" Heck yes. I?m pleased to say that I filled every weekend evening and some weekdays with dates. It was, and still is, a good time to be a single lady in the Bay Area. The odds were very much in my favor.
The first time I saw Mr. Feather?s profile, I was clicking through profiles of guys with beards (what can I say, I have a type) and spotted his picture in the ?People Like This Person? section. I clicked on him, noticed he was online, thought he was cute and witty, and then closed the page because h...