[xyzelement]

// I do wish I had hedged my bets better and been less of a workaholic, of course. Would be nice to be married now.

I hear you and maybe a word of caution - sometimes "I don't have X because I was too busy with Y" is a way to sweep the complexity/ambivalence of X under the rug.

After all, plenty of very busy and hard working people get married, and I doubt that it's very often "I am dying to go meet this woman but I am going to sit in the office instead" type tradeoff that's being made.

[em-bee]

that's a good point. not finding a partner is not because of to much work, but because of not thinking about finding a partner.

which i think can also be interpreted as: if you didn't think about finding a partner, then maybe you weren't ready to get married.

but you are ready now, because now you know why you want a partner, and now you can look for the right kind of person.