This is Dating While Gray, the grown-ups guide to love sex and relationships.

I'm Laura Stasi, and on this episode, True Stories of Taking a Long Leap to Love.

If you ever worry there's some kind of expiration date for being on the dating market,

that if you haven't found the one you're looking for after months or years, then your time is up,

well, I'd like to introduce you to this woman.

My name's Julie.

I reached out to you about a year ago, and I thought,

Laura Stasi has to talk to me because I'm the queen of dating while gray.

I've been doing this for so long.

24 years.

That's how long Julie's been dating after her two-decade-long marriage ended in divorce.

Julie's career in fundraising allows her to live wherever she wants.

After traveling around, she's now in Oregon.

Julie's tried basically all of the major dating sites.

She's had two long-term relationships, but when she set me a voicemail in the spring of 2023, she had yet to meet

the one. And while she's happy on her own, she's still hopeful, even if the positivity was wavering a bit.

I included Julie's voicemail as part of the Dishing on Dating episode, and I neglected to inform her ahead of time.

Okay, I admit, I listened to podcasts to help me fall asleep.

So I'm listening in bed to the podcast.

And I hear this woman talking, and she says she lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Boulder, and Hawaii, and I kind of like woke up.

And I'm like, wait, wait, that's me.

I did not recognize my voice at all.

...