Online Dating: Some Final Words

Last week I featured a few posts from the world of online dating. My dating life has always been kind of like the "when it rains it pours" theory (see former posts: Dating Degrees of Separation and the now famous Escapee returns to nunnery after year-long experiment with dating). So I suppose this wasn't much different, just amped up a bit.

It was definitely an interesting endeavour. It certainly exposes a person to a much wider range of possibilities... Often people that wouldn't dare talk to you in person (could be shy... or because they look like quasi-moto) are sending you a message in cyberspace. There were guys sending me long rambling emails, who didn't care if I emailed them back. There were guys sending short emails, who didn't seem to notice that I didn't email them back, i.e. "Do you have long fingernails?" or "I bet you'd look great in tight jeans." There was seriously not a day that went by when something interesting wasn't going on.

Briefly, I recognized and ended up meeting a guy I'd photographed in a former post! See: Nekedness... The good, the bad and the uggo (and it wasn't the neked neighbour!). He seemed rather fascinated that someone featured his neked self on the net without his knowledge. Oh c'mon, it's not that creepy! Another guy sent me a photo of his penis. He was emailing me pictures of himself and I had specified NO below the belt shots! So when I opened the picture, I had to take a second to lift my jaw up off the keyboard again before I could respond. A couple of days later I emailed him and said, "FYI me and my friends are enjoying your photos..." He was actually surprised that I'd share the photo. C'mon man, there's no way I could pass up telling that story to the girls! Ahem, and then they were all curious...

You need to get past the freaks and have fun with the whole online thing. It's some prime entertainment (and can be addicting, which is why I got out). There are people who will chat with you but never make a move to meet you. They'll even ask to go for coffee and when you agree- nuthin. It's almost like the guys at the bar who collect phone numbers and never call. A fellow online dater used to get very disappointed at some men's inability to follow through. She'd give her number out to several guys who said they'd take her out on the weekend. The weekend rolled around- nuthin. I had to remind her of my motto: Let the cream rise to the top. And it certainly did.

I have never been a multi-dater or that relaxed about dating overall, but I became better at it (with practice;). I have to say, there are some benefits to multi-dating. Us girls can be pretty high maintenance and a little obsessive at times (case in point: The Psychology of Dating). We need a lot of attention! If you date several guys, it's like a perfect world... One brings you flowers, another calls regularly, one jokes around while another braves some pretty deep conversations with you, another takes you out to dinner while yet another is texting/emailing you sweet nothings. Several men = the ideal man!!! The biggest drawback? Like I mentioned in that former post about dating degrees of separation, I hate telling people they aren't right for the job. GUH.

In the end, though, I'm a one-man woman. And that's how it turned out for me... Yay!