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

I'm Laura Stasi.

When season one of this podcast launched two years ago,

who could have imagined that a contagious virus would basically shut down the entire world.

With millions of people getting sick and dying, looking for a romantic partner seemed trivial, even dangerous.

But as a year progressed, I started hearing from older daters who had decided to safely and cautiously look for new love.

Many of them were lonely, tired of writing out the global health crisis on their own,

and feeling like romance was so important to overall well-being that it was worth taking calculated risks.

When season two launched last year, the coronavirus was still raging, of course, but the vaccines were rolling out.

So there was hope.

The world started opening up again, and for a time there, it looked like the worst was behind us.

That's from a summertime wedding I attended in Key Largo, Florida.

A nice hotel room, glow-in-the-dark beach balls, drinking and dancing with millennials.

Oh, good times.

But now here we are starting season three of the podcast.

It's 2022 and COVID variants are causing infection rates and hospitalizations to rise again.

Yes, this news is discouraging.

But I'm among about 84% of Americans 50 and older who are fully vaccinated.

And I'm boostered.

So I decided I could safely venture back out there.

And on this episode, I'm sharing my field notes

along the gray dating journey.

...