Ryan Kunz

{Single Saints} Greener Pastures Right Where You Are

By Ryan Kunz

May 24, 2012 04:04 AM MDT

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being single, it’s that the grass isn’t always greener in future pastures. I typically have a disdain for clichés, especially those that assume I share behaviors with livestock, but this one describes how I sometimes feel.

2 Min Read

{Single Saints} Making Long Distance Work

By Ryan Kunz

April 12, 2012 04:04 AM MDT

One of my favorite treats is the French bread pizza. It’s an ingenious upgrade on the standard pizza design, can be ready to eat in five minutes, and comes with a handy tray for catching crumbs while you’re eating on the living room couch. However, though it comes in a package of two, even a pair of them is not quite enough to satisfy my hunger, and the price tag is a little more than I’m willing to spend on anything less than the kind of meal that results in my collapsing on the couch afterward in stuffed satisfaction. In other words, I love it, but I have to enjoy what I can get because it’s never quite enough.

2 Min Read

{Single Saints} Confronting Cupid: For Singles on Valentine's Day

By Ryan Kunz

February 09, 2012 05:03 AM MST

My original intention in writing this blog was to make a list of things you could do if you’re single in Valentine’s Day to take your mind off your lack of a lover. I meant to suggest that should you find yourself bereft of a boyfriend or girlfriend on this auspicious day, you could bake cookies with your roommates, learn to play the bagpipes, or use the time to finalize your zombie apocalypse preparedness plans. My suggestions were ridiculous—and then I realized it’s because the entire concept is ridiculous.

1 Min Read

{Single Saints} Dating Mistakes Women Make

By Ryan Kunz

November 10, 2011 05:08 AM MST

Dating is a dance in which neither partner knows the steps. There we go, one partner trying to do the tango while the other struggles through a waltz. Sometimes, the dance ends and both partners decide this awkward hoedown is something they want to figure out together for the rest of their lives. Most of the time, however, the dance ends with one or both of them clutching figurative sprained ankles.

3 Min Read

{Single Saints} The List

By Ryan Kunz

October 06, 2011 04:03 AM MDT

We have a lot of examples of lists: for example, the dean’s list, Schindler’s list, bucket lists, emergency contact lists, and those mysterious lists on Lost that never got fully explained. My current inventory of personal lists include grammatical mistakes that irritate me, actors who should be blackballed from the Hollywood community and exiled to the frozen north, toppings that belong on pizza, and best action movies of all time. I also have the list many of you have . . . The List.

3 Min Read

{Single Saints} Service: The S-word That Really Isn’t So Bad

By Ryan Kunz

September 08, 2011 04:03 AM MDT

When I see the word “service” in the title of an article, I usually devote just enough of my mental faculties to make sure the article isn’t offering me any free stuff.

3 Min Read

{Single Saints} Communication: Don't Make It a Jigsaw Puzzle

By Ryan Kunz

August 18, 2011 04:03 AM MDT

I’m in a relationship with a girl right now. Of course, I use the word “relationship” in its most basic sense: there is, right now, only slightly more interaction between this girl and me than there is between me and any given spear-toting pygmy in Africa. That is, I have achieved a level of interpersonal interchange with another human being. We are both aware of each other’s existence; of that I am certain.

3 Min Read

{Single Saints} Faith in the Little Things

By Ryan Kunz

July 27, 2011 01:57 PM MDT

Not long ago, I viewed the prospect of marriage like I viewed the prospect of gaining superpowers: It would be pretty cool, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath waiting for it.

2 Min Read

{Single Saints} The Talk

By Ryan Kunz

July 07, 2011 04:03 AM MDT

The other day I had The Talk with a girl. The Talk, for those of you who are either unfamiliar with my specific lingo or have managed to warp into an alternate universe where relationships always glide along intuitively without any sort of verbal guidance, is a checkpoint in which two parties in a relationship assess their progress up to that point, compare feelings, and make decisions regarding the immediate future in terms of the relationship as a whole. Or to use fewer words: It’s where the girl holds your heart hostage and can either give it back unharmed or toss it into a meat grinder.

3 Min Read

A Man's Response to 'Dating Tips'

By Ryan Kunz

July 01, 2011 03:24 PM MDT

Our recent “Dating Tips from the Opposite Sex” attracted some criticism from the women who read it. Julia Lynn Fuller was concerned that the “perspective is incredibly negative and the negative is directed at girls!” Eleanor Clark explained that “many men buy into the Hollywood ideal of beauty and so that group of women in a ward that looks closest to that ideal is the group that gets asked out the most. They normally constitute the minority in a ward, and if every guy is asking them out, of course the guys will hear ‘no’ more often. The majority of girls hardly get asked out, and perhaps may only have one date or less a year. So, if the men folk would like to hear more ‘yeses’ they might need to reevaluate who they are asking out.” Others insisted girls do not expect or care about expensive dates.

5 Min Read