town of about four thousand, coastal, lovely, and an absolute desert for this. the apps within any sane radius show me the same handful of faces on rotation, and one of them is a coworker, which produced a mutual sighting we have silently agreed never happened.
nearest munch is over two hours away. nearest anything is two hours away. i’ve done the drive twice and the people were great, but four hours of driving for two hours of dinner is a hard habit to keep, especially through winter.
and under all of it is the privacy math of small towns. everyone knows everyone’s car. if i date someone forty minutes away we still share a dentist. i’m not ashamed of what i’m into, but i’d like to control who knows, and around here information travels like weather.
rural people of the board: what’s your actual system? bigger radius and acceptance of the driving? online-first until something looks promising? moving away, eventually, honestly? i’d take a realistic answer over a hopeful one.
