The most successful daters have the ability to stop outside themselves and see their situation objectively as though they are watching themselves on tv

This date forward I am living and breathing by this.
Two Saturday's I did not follow this.

I was dating/seeing/talking to a dude from work.  Completely and utterly below any standards I have.  He was giving me some kind of attention I ran with it instead of just being friends with him.  He doesnt have a phone (we communicated through facebook messenger), no car (he got a DUI years ago and hasn't paid off his fine}, lives at home, is bipolar {on no meds}, insomnic {sleeps all day}, smokes pot, bad teeth.  ok, ok HES A DEAD BEAT.  End of story. 

Long story short he didnt want to talk to me one day and work some stuff out.  Teena Jones ended up flipping out. 

What can I learn from this experience?

Don't date people you work with and by no means DO NOT SETTLE!!! EVER!!!!!

Girls are taught a lot of stuff growing up: if a boy punches you he likes you, never try to trim your own bangs, and someday you will meet a wonderful guy and get your very own happy ending. Every movie we see, every story we're told implores us to wait for it: the third act twist, the unexpected declaration of love, the exception to the rule. but sometimes we're so focused on finding our happy ending we don't learn how to read the signs. how to tell the ones who want us from the ones who don't, the ones who will stay and the ones who will leave. and maybe a happy ending doesn't include a guy, maybe it's you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over, freeing yourself up for something better in the future. maybe the happy ending is just moving on. or maybe the happy ending is this: knowing after all the unreturned phone calls and broken-hearts, through the blunders and misread signals, through all the pain and embarrassment... you never gave up hope.