I watched that whole series either on Amazon or Hulu, and it was pretty good.

Phil was a conniving, bumbling douche, but he appeared to be coming around by the last episodes.


All I can say as far as finding the right mate is this : It didn't happen to me until I'd given up. After that nasty divorce, I told my best friend that I was going to be a man-whore from here on out. It was a joke but the sentiment was true - I wasn't going to expose myself or my kids to any more unpredictable shenanigans from women. And marriage was damn sure not in the future.

It was after I was no longer looking that lightning struck - I met Sharon and suddenly the universe made sense. We clicked completely and it was joyous - and still is.

I firmly believe that there's a mate put here on this earth for everyone, and I think fate has a hand in the meeting.

I know what you mean about 'settling' and being extremely picky (and that underlying reality is fear to commitment IMO) but the result to that is being a lonely old person and having no love around you in your twilight years - I know a couple guys like that and while they had a helluva lot of fun back in the day, every one of them regret not getting married now. And they had some real keepers back in the day, but let them get away. Even today they keep women at arm's length when one enters their life and they recognize that they really like them... but by now it's ingrained and they don't even realize that they do it.

Since you brought up a TV show, I'll use another - and it may sound stupid, but bear with me : Seinfeld. You had 4 people running around NYC, each one of them dating, and each one of them almost in a race to find something that was a 'deal breaker'. Her jaw clicked. One didn't laugh correctly. One ate candy bars with a fork. One ate peas one at a time. Yeah, it was funny stuff, but the underlying reason is that they didn't want to commit because they perceived their parents as living in an utter hell with each other, so they overlooked all of the many great qualities of a potential mate to focus on something that really didn't matter at all in order to justify dumping the new romance.

I think the harder you look for her, the harder it is to find her. Love strikes when you're not looking for it. But you have to recognize it when it does and give it an honest chance.