North Dakota time

 Well, I'm here now and I feel poised on the cusp of a new life. But of course you bring yourself with you, so it's not really a new life, just a continuation.

For that reason, I'm feeling a lot of trepidation about trying to find someone here. My efforts in NY were so fruitless and discouraging.

I've been thinking a lot about 2 movie quotes.

One is from Four Weddings and a Funeral, when Tom explains his romantic expectations to Charlie:

Unlike you, I never expected "the thunderbolt." I always just hoped that, that I'd meet some nice, friendly girl, like the look of her, hope the look of me didn't make her physically sick, then pop the question and, um, settle down and be happy.

The other is from Sense and Sensibility, when Elinor explains her romantic expectations to  Marianne:

After all that is bewitching in the idea of one's happiness depending entirely on one person, it is not always possible.  

What Jane Austen originally wrote is an expansion of that idea:

After all that is bewitching in the idea of a single and constant attachment, and all that can be said of one's happiness depending entirely on any particular person, it is not meant, it is not fit, it is not possible, that it should be so.