Is it this hard for normal people?

It's encouraging to me that I seem to get better and better at this whole gay dating thing, even if the improvement is glacially slow and the eventual outcome has inevitably been failure before actual "boyfriend" status is reached.

I've now been on several dates with the sexy 25 year old Brazilian soccer player from my last post, and things are going reasonably well. We're only seeing each other an average of once a week, but we text each other virtually every day to touch base.

The main problem seems to be accessibility. He is a complete and utter fail in terms of the GTR Test. He doesn't own a car, he only has a part time evening job (since he's at college during the day), and not only does he share an apartment with some Brazilian friends, he also shares a bed, because they are five people living in a three bedroom apartment.

His bedmate is a) straight and b) female, I hasten to add.

So we can't go to his place. And it's hard for him to get to my place on the bus. And he's either working or playing soccer most evenings. And I work all day. And when none of these other things is an issue... I get a cold sore. Or he has to go to the hospital following a soccer injury. Or my parents suddenly announce they're staying with me overnight while on a visit from the country. Or there's a fucking zombie apocalypse!

We can't even spend hours chatting on our phones, because English is something of a struggle for him and Portuguese is something of an impossibility for me.

This might all sound like a fool's version of a proto-relationship, but the thing is when we are actually together the chemistry is profound. We're vigorously attracted to each other, and he's sweet and talented and six kinds of adorable. He texts me to tell me he misses me, or how he's yearning for me to kiss him, or how he just wants to snuggle up to me on the sofa and watch TV. And hey, I feel the same way.

We just never seem to get much chance to prove it.