In the organization of modern life, it has become confusing for people to define where they are on the dating ladder.

Are they dating, or just talking, or hanging out, or in a relationship or fantasizing about what they are really doing.
 
Reporter Kristi L. Gustafson, a cute young lady with the Albany Times Union, has written a story trying to sort out all that for you.

As your local expert on love, I'll weigh in on this.

Kristi has defined the stages as: Talking to, hanging out, seeing, dating and in a relationship.

I'm not sure the first three are even in the ballpark. I can do all those with grandma.

I think the first stage is flirting. And I flirt with just about every woman I meet.

I define that as being friendly and personal. Winks, smiles,  pet names and maybe a touch on a shoulder.

The second phase is an available woman who flirts back and clearly wants to spend more time with me.

(Note here that this is a former description of my dating life. My wife has me hook, line and sinker in something we like to call a happy marriage.)

I would ask a woman out at that point. If we spend a couple times out, I call that dating.

I can only date one woman at a time because otherwise it's rude. That doesn't mean I can't have an occasional lunch date with a friend. That type of dating is called friendship.

Continuous dating develops into a relationship — for me, sometimes that meant just good friends, and sometimes that meant — don't blush here — lovers.

And lovers lead to marriage (that happy thing I'm in).

So any of these other terms for whether someone is dating or not are just ill defined situations that don't describe anything real.

Glad we had this talk.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson