My apologies for abandoning this blog the way I did without wrapping things up- I was just doing my impression of all the guys I “met” on Match. The last guy seemed like a great prospect. We exchanged about four emails each then he asked for my phone number. I sent it to him and that was the last I heard from him. Another mystery. Up until the point I sent my number, Match showed that he logged on to the site daily. Then he didn’t log on for a week. By the time he did, my membership had ended so there’s no way to know if he emailed me but I assume he didn’t.

The disappearing guys really perplexed me. As has been established here, I’m very analytical, both about others and myself. There were a couple of emails I sent where I could have deciphered some sort of reason for not receiving a response. But these guys all vanished after brief, straightforward emails. Regardless of their reasons for being flaky, their lack of consideration will probably keep them single for a long time.

Some things I learned in this round of online dating:

1) Given that many qualities I possess and many that I’m looking for in a man don’t fit the typical mold, I really have to make a concerted effort to find a partner. An online dating stint every couple years probably won’t cut it. I have to make this a bigger priority. It’s so easy to get caught up in other aspects of life and then suddenly realize that months have passed without catering to relationship needs. I’m guessing that a lot of professional women who are content with themselves fall into the same trap. I’m glad I finally woke up to the fact that finding a good man is going to take some real effort.

2) I’m not the boy-crazy girl I used to be. One of the big mistakes I made this round was limiting the number of guys I corresponded with to one or two at a time. The reason I did it was so that I wouldn’t let someone fall by the wayside if one interested me more. That’s because I used to be the type who got really excited about a new guy who sounded great on paper. But now I’m at a place in life where even the ones who seemed perfect for me didn’t occupy my thoughts beyond the time it took to respond to their email. Next time around I’m going to find good prospects and compose emails to them before I even sign up for the dating service.

3) A three-month subscription is too long. For the price, it seems like a better idea than a one-month subscription but it allows for procrastination and boredom to set in. Plus, by month three, I was barely receiving any emails or even page views. I’ll be better off joining for a month here and there when I know I can devote a decent amount of energy to the process. And I’ll definitely avoid subscribing over the holidays!

So that’s it for round one. In the next month or so, I plan to take advantage of Yahoo Personal’s one week free membership and see how I like their service. I might check out a couple more dating services though I suspect I’ll eventually be back at Match. Thanks to all who have read this blog and supported my efforts. Please check back in a few weeks for round two. Hopefully that one will have a more exciting ending.

Match.com stats:

Total profile views: 2424

Optimism level: It ain’t over ’til it’s over.

The title sums up my Match experience over the last couple weeks. I’ll start with the guy I mentioned in my last post who sounded promising. He’s definitely the best looking guy to write me and his email showed some personality. Though his profile says he lives in Florida, he said he was moving out to LA the next week. I sent him a brief note and indicated I understood it must be hectic with the move so he should drop me a line when he had a chance. Basically, I was giving him an easy out to wait until he actually got settled before writing me back. But he ended up responding the very next day. In both his letters, he was very complimentary about my looks and there was a hint we might meet for a drink. I sent an even shorter reply- maybe two sentences- in which I kind of laughed about something he’d written and said I was curious to hear the full story.

Never heard from him again.

It was the weirdest thing. In his second (and last) letter he’d written, “I need a big single malt scotch and a kiss,” which I thought was a bit presumptuous. To go from that to disappearing makes absolutely no sense to me. I’ve since checked his profile and it still says he lives in Florida, so I almost wonder if I was some sort of test subject for him. Who knows?

Then about a week ago I found a profile that looked great: tall, agnostic, hottie from France. Ooh la la! We exchanged a couple emails and I threw out the meeting suggestion. He wrote: “e-mails are fine indeed to initiate a contact, but I prefere to have an one-on-one talk…besides I can’t resist your fordwardness. I live in La by Beverly Hills….Is Tuesday night ok for you?” Tuesday was Valentine’s Day. I don’t know if he didn’t realize it was Valentine’s Day or if he just didn’t care but it really didn’t matter to me so I accepted. I threw out a time and asked if he had any location preferences.

Never heard from him again.

Not only that, his profile vanished from Match the following day. Again, totally baffling. Maybe he did know it was V-Day and thought I was some kind of loser for accepting a blind date invitation. Had either of the guys disappeared after the first letter from me, it wouldn’t have been so surprising but for the life of me, I can’t figure either of these out.

On the bright side (I hope), there’s another guy I’ve corresponded with a few times who actually sounds like a better match than the others on a personality level. He asked for my number, which I sent him yesterday. If this one disappears too, I might have to investigate to find out if there’s some sort of Match relocation program they’re all being sent to.

So…when I left off, my wine was sucking but my car was ticket-free. I suggested why don’t we plan a time in advance to end the date no matter how well it might be going to avoid any awkwardness later. He liked the idea. I would have been generous and suggested 9:30 or 10:00 but luckily he jumped right in with 9:00. I liked that A LOT. We had the obligatory Match.com discussion where he seemed to say Match every other word and quite loudly at that. I’m not embarrassed to be doing the online dating thing but saying Match over and over when we were so obviously strangers only encourages eavesdroppers in the tiny space. It’s one of those words that grabs your attention from the next table, kind of like “nipple” or “fart.”

He had very unsettling conversational habits. A good conversation flows seemlessly from topic to topic. This did not. When he was done with a subject, he would stop abruptly and look right at me. There was no glancing away, no tapering off to let me know I’d be up at bat any moment. Just silence with a stare. It freaked me out, though not enough to stop my mind from wandering through most of his talking. I’m usually a very good listener but I was everywhere but there. He was just like his profile- nothing interesting, nothing memorable. At one point, I noticed how bad my posture was. I was sitting slightly to the side with both my arms and legs crossed. The body language experts would have a field day with that. Strangely, he was sitting forward on the table, which would appear that he was interested, but I knew he wasn’t. I also spent a couple minutes pondering how we would finally part and tried to come up with something to say but was soon faced with a stare and had to leave my happy place.

It seemed like we’d gone way over our 9:00 deadline but I didn’t want to check the time on my phone as it would be a reminder that I have a purse and that there’s money in my purse and that I might pay for my drink. So I kept hoping the waitress would come by and relieve me of my misery. That’s when he mentioned it was 9:00. I couldn’t believe it had only been an hour, less actually. It seriously felt like a good two hours or more.

Finally the server dropped our check. I paused for a moment while he reached for his wallet, then very slowly picked up my purse. There was no mention from him of buying. Hey, I can understand a guy not wanting to pay the bill for a woman he doesn’t want to see again. But the fact is, he wrote to me and I’m the one who drove out to his neck of the woods. Rather than choosing a location where it cost him $13 for a glass of wine, maybe he should have chosen one of the thousands of other places where he could have bought both our drinks for that price. Cheap ass.

We headed out and just as I guessed, we had that awkward goodbye moment. Usually when people leave each other, there’s some mention of a future meeting, but I knew that wasn’t coming out of either of our mouths. I just laughed and said, “Well, maybe we’ll write, maybe we won’t.” And with that, I left.

The next day, I thought about him not buying my drink and was curious to see if he’d listed his income on his page so I went to check it out. His profile was gone! I don’t know why it was gone, but it seemed funny, like he’d skipped town immediately. Later that day, I received an email from him. For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine why he’d be writing so I put off reading it for a day. I finally did and it said:

I enjoyed meeting you last night. I’ll be honest and say I don’t think
we quite have the chemistry I was looking for, but wanted to at least drop you a
line rather than disappear from the planet Best wishes on your search.

I really can’t fault him for sending it but it couldn’t have been more unnecessary.

And that’s the end of Mr. Energetic (who was sooo not energetic).

One thing I learned for certain from this date is that I just don’t have it in me right now to try and make something out of nothing. In other words, there needs to be some sort of excitement on my part going into a date because I doubt that someone with little appeal on paper is going to surprise me in person.

The good news is, I FINALLY received an email from someone who really does interest me and who seems like a good match. I’m going to try not to jinx anything so I’ll write the details if/when there’s actually something to tell.

My three day delay in recapping my date with Mr. Engergetic wasn’t due to us falling madly in love and eloping in Vegas. I think I just need some extra time before reliving the boredom of it all.

I’ll start with the pre-show activities. I’m the rare woman who’s always either on time or early because I’ve planned out everything in advance. But this time, I couldn’t seem to get the enthusiasm going for this date and got ready in about 10 minutes. I think my hair was still wet when I left. I don’t know for sure because I never bothered to even check it in the mirror. So as far as my presentation, I certainly wasn’t looking my best but I still closely resembled the photos he’d seen.

Right before I left, I figured I should take another look at his Match page so I wouldn’t ask him something stupid that he’d already mentioned. I immediately wondered why I agreed to meet him in the first place. I think it was all because he had a huge smile. And I probably gave him the name Mr. Energetic because he used a bunch of emoticons, which reminds me of high school cheerleaders. As for content, it was several paragraphs of nothing- just a bunch of chatter that sounds like every other profile on Match. Three days later and the only details I can remember from it are that he’s divorced and plays soccer. So I knew I was in for some work as far as discovering common interests. But I’m good at keeping a conversation flowing so I wasn’t too concerned.

On the drive over, I heard a commercial for eHarmony on the radio. That seemed like a bad sign to me. I arrived about five or 10 minutes late, which is really right on time. I found a parking space right out front. Well, it wasn’t exactly in front. It turns out the restaurant is in an alley. I thought that was kind of funny since an alley is the last place where I should be meeting a stranger but it’s a heavily populated area so I wasn’t concerned. It just now occurred to me that he should have mentioned it was off the main street as I got kind of lucky finding the place. It would have been very easy to miss either driving or walking.

As I neared the front, I saw a guy standing outside alone and I thought it was him. He looked at me from a distance and I sort of smiled. I almost said “hi” as I approached when he looked away, so I figured that wasn’t him. Thinking back, I probably would have been better off having a drink with that guy.

Mr. Energetic was standing just inside the doorway and recognized me instantly. The bar of the quaint restaurant was full so we took a table. I barely had my ass in the seat when he handed me the wine menu. I hadn’t even had time to verify I was with the right guy and now had to stick my nose in a menu. I assumed he’d be paying so as a courtesy, I ordered one of the more reasonably priced glasses of wine at $9.

Then the waitress asked if we would be having dinner. Without hesitation, he told her, “no.” I couldn’t believe he didn’t even ask me if I wanted something! If we’d been married for 50 years and we’d just had a full meal he should still check with me first. People’s lack of consideration for others is probably my biggest frustration and that right there pretty much did Mr. E in. I know I can be picky about little things but consulting with someone else before answering for them should be an automatic behavior and the fact that it wasn’t for him is a small indicator of a big character flaw. We’re now all of five minutes into the date.

After our wine was delivered, I took a sip and it was absolutely awful. The waitress came by and asked how it was and I had to tell her that it was really tangy. Believe me, I worked enough years in bar jobs that I handled it very politely. I hate those snobs who send back perfectly good wine, so that wasn’t my intention. I just mentioned it hoping maybe someone else would give a second opinion on whether or not it was old. It seriously was the worst glass of wine I’d ever had. She said that she saw the bartender open the bottle and maybe it just needed to breathe. All the while, I’m sitting there wondering what Mr. E is thinking. It was the classic bad blind date scenario no matter how well I handled it. As it turned out, the wine did improve. It was very bizarre that the flavor could change so drastically in such a short amount of time.

At this point, we’re 10 minutes into the date and it occurred to me that the street meters in that area might have to be plugged pretty late. Mr. E wasn’t sure nor was the hostess. I’m a meter maid magnet so I explained to him that I should go out and check. He probably thought I was ditching him and I have to admit, it would make such a great story that I was tempted to do it. How classic would that be? Date goes out to pay the meter and never comes back!!

With that, I’m going to knock off for today even though the retelling of the second half of the date should be much shorter since I slept through most of it. I’ll get the rest up tomorrow along with word of something promising…

I have a date tonight. It’s with Mr. Energetic, whom I put on hold about a month ago. I have to admit, I’m not particularly enthusiastic about the date. In fact, I think I’d prefer to stay home and watch “Lost.” He lives at least 30 minutes away and when it was time to make plans, he wrote: but am game to meet somewhere in the middle. Then two sentences later wrote: If you are game to come out this way, we could do a wine bar here. I wasn’t thrilled with the fact that meeting somewhere near me wasn’t even an option. And what kind of reason could I possibly give for rejecting the location near him? “Ooh, sorry- I’m allergic to the Valley.” Basically, as soon as he threw that out there, I was screwed.

We’re supposed to meet at 8pm, though I’m sure I’ll be late because there’s no way I’m allocating extra time for traffic because this would be the one time there is none and I’d arrive way too early and start hitting on the bartender. I plan to have two drinks and make a very weak offer to pay. I’m paying through my commute. I have an excuse for getting out by 10:00 or 10:30, which is probably a good length of time no matter how well the date goes.

Could it go well? I’ll give a full report tonight or tomorrow.

Match.com stats:

Total profile views: 2163 (86 since day 58)

New received emails: 3

New winks: 5

Optimism level: Maybe I shouldn’t have downsized from the six month membership.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted, some people probably wondered if I was lying in a ditch somewhere (and thought, “Yay! That means she finally went on a blind date”). No such luck. I’ve honestly had nothing to write about. At this point, my filing cabinets are pretty full of folders detailing why I ignored guys’ approaches. I don’t see much point in continuing to describe every email I receive, though I will still mention the ones that are particularly amusing or disturbing. As for the emails I send out, I think the less I say about the recipients, the better. I need to focus on the positives for actual prospects. The more I say about someone’s email or profile, the heavier the minor issues start to weigh. When I finally have firm plans for an actual date, then I’ll mention the guy.

As for George Costanza, that’s officially dead. While his personality seemed cool, I came to the realization that I could probably never be interested in him as more than a buddy. There are some things I never mentioned because I was trying to be positive about him initially, but I’ll spill now. One is that his profile includes four sentences on how important sex is in a relationship. I’ve already stated how silly I think it is for guys to mention this (though it’s even sillier when guys talk about how important it is for their woman to be attractive since that’s so subjective and it’s not going to weed out anybody). The problem with him mentioning sex so much is that it encourages the thought of sex with him, which kind of made me shudder. In his main picture, he almost looks…dirty. Not naughty dirty, but Pigpen dirty. I could deal with the extra 40-50 pounds he’s carrying but every time I received an email with his picture in my mailbox, I had to see his raggedy old t-shirt, the bandana around his head and his unkempt goatee. And unfortunately, there were plenty of emails from him that forced me to see it. It seems like every time 30 hours passed without a response from me, he sent me a little “hi” note (always with at least one smiley face). It’s sweet when a guy I’m dating sends a quick email to check in but when a stranger does it (especially after I told him I would be travelling), it comes across as both aggressive and desperate.

So I wrote to him and essentially said that given my current situation, now really isn’t a good time for us to meet. I said I didn’t think I could give him the consideration he deserves and I didn’t want to waste any more of his time. I was deliberately vague on “my situation” but left the possibility open for a future meeting. He sent back a paragraph that included three “lol”’s, even though he didn’t say anything funny. That gets to me as much as the emoticons. Rather than ask what “my current situation” is, he assumed it was that I’m too busy and discussed how busy he is with work. It kind of sounded like, “Well I’m doing this and that so who are you to talk about being busy?” It didn’t make sense to build a case for himself on his assumption when I could have just as easily meant I was dating someone else or I was sick or that “my current situation” doesn’t involve dating guys I find physically repulsive. The way people deal with rejection says a lot about them and his response reinforced my belief that he’s not for me.

Match.com stats:

Total profile views: 2077 (69 since day 54)

New received emails: unsolicited, solicited

New winks: 1

Optimism level: It’s not over yet.

Due to some travelling, I’ve fallen seriously behind on both this blog and my Match searches. I’ve noticed that I receive a lot more page views, and consequently more emails, when I spend extended periods logged on to Match. I’m guessing this is a result of people utilizing the “online now” option or perhaps long sessions cause my profile to appear in more searches. Either way, I should probably log myself on to Match for an hour or two each day, even if I don’t do any searching. It probably can’t hurt, right?

In my last blog, I mentioned how the best relationship I ever had was with a guy I would have rejected immediately in the context of Match. It just occurred to me that at this point in my life, that would be a good thing. Even though he was a great boyfriend to have eight years ago, he wasn’t someone I was meant to be with long term. And all the reasons we weren’t meant to be together would have been apparent in a simple Match profile. I’m not sure if it’s worth pursuing a relationship that might be fun for a few months or a year at the expense of finding one that could be longer lasting.

EMAIL #1: This guy looked fairly attractive in his email photo. The body read:

May something wondrous ignite your soul and arouse your senses daily. Wishing you well with your search. If you so desire you have my undivided attention

I liked his writing style and the positive message but it was a bit impersonal- it almost sounds like something out of a greeting card. I inspected his profile and found his face was even better looking than I first thought. Only one problem: he has long hair. That’s probably my least favorite physical attribute. I think I might actually prefer the porn ’stache over long hair- THAT’S how much it repulses me. He has two kids, though he’s never been married. That’s a bit of a curiosity. One kid can be blamed on a condom mishap. But why the second one? I wonder if it was with the same woman and, if so, why didn’t they go the marriage route? I guess if he’s now searching for a woman on Match it was the right decision but it calls into question his ability to commit to a woman. Finally, his profile seemed overly Zen for me. Zen is good, but I think I’m too loud for someone who’s overly Zen. His whole profile sounded like his email and I kept picturing him sitting on a pile of pillows in a candlelit feng-shuied room that reeks of incense while Enya plays in the background. Moved to folder: Can’t date the author of “Zen And The Art Of Hair Products.”

EMAIL #2: At first glance, this was the most promising email I’ve received thus far. He appeared fairly attractive and his letter was friendly. He mentioned how much he liked my profile and that he’d found it before he ever joined Match. Then he said the words that always make me swoon: I am originally from Argentina. I love my South American boys and for some reason, the Argentinians have been my favorites. Honestly, this was the first email I’ve received that I was actually enthusiastic about. He, too, had better pictures on his profile, without the chick hair to ruin everything. Then the bullets came at me one after the other…divorced…lives half an hour away…Catholic… definitely wants two kids…two inches shorter than me. It was as if someone was out to get me and deliberately sent such an enticing letter for the absolutely wrong match. Moved to folder: Cupid is so damn cruel.

Match.com stats:

Total profile views: 2008 (47 since day 52)

New received emails: 0

New winks: 2

Optimism level: I guess I don’t deserve any better than I’m giving right now.

I just received a comment for day 52 that I think is worth exploring in detail. It’s basically in regards to how quickly I seem to write someone off based on a few lines in an email or profile. I suppose I should note that the factors I mention in my blogs are not always the only or even the main reasons why I reject certain guys. I usually just include the information I find somewhat amusing (or sometimes, horrifying). I’ve definitely omitted certain facts, some of which I’ll share now.

I’ll start with the first thing I notice when opening a Match email: appearance. I would guess that of all the guys who have written to me, one or two fall into the category of “moderately attractive,” about a handful fit into the category of “attractive enough if he’s got other things going for him,” another handful qualify as “he’d have to be a nearly perfect specimen in every other way” and the rest land in the realm of “I’d have to be so doped up I’d need my stomach pumped.” While looks aren’t everything, it can be a strike against someone and those strikes add up.

The next thing I notice is the spelling and grammatical errors (yes, I spot them even before I read the content). I would estimate that of the emails I’ve received (along with their profiles) only about 10% were written at a college level, about 40-50% were decent with occasional errors and the rest ranged from awful to worse. It’s an embarrassing indicator of the American educational system that the foreigners who post comments to my blog have better English writing skills than the guys writing me in their first language. Some may think it’s silly to place so much importance on this but I disagree. When you send an email or compose a profile on Match, you’re giving others an impression of yourself. If someone doesn’t care enough to take an extra minute to clean up his words so he can make a good impression, why should I be impressed with him? There’s also the fact that I’m a detail-oriented person who’s occasionally frustrated by people who aren’t. That these guys apparently don’t notice their errors is an indication they probably aren’t detail-oriented and that could be a personality conflict. So that’s one more strike that I rarely mention for specific individuals.

The glaring content flaws are what I usually write about. I don’t mention that some of the guys have very different likes or desires. I do cut guys some slack if their personality sounds a bit bland, which is somewhat odd since a good personality is what I’m searching for most in the profiles. But I know it’s difficult for everybody to translate that well in print.

That all said, I’ll mention that the best and longest relationship I’ve ever had was with a guy whom I probably would have removed from Match searches based solely on his picture. If I even got to his profile, his basic info. alone would have turned me away- he’s just so far from my type. But I met him in a work situation and we spent a lot of time together over the course of a month with lots of dinners involved (and a considerable amount of alcohol, I might add) and I eventually fell for him. Had we only gone on one or two dates immediately after meeting, I’m sure it would not have progressed any further. So while it’s possible I’ve turned away some great guys on Match, I think it’s unlikely (based on what little I know of them) that I’ve rejected anybody who would have excited me enough in one or two hours to want to pursue any sort of relationship.

Now, as far as the current action is going… I totally chickened out with George Costanza. We had tentative plans for Wednesday and I was supposed to call him to finalize the details. But I just couldn’t bring myself to call. I kept putting it off more and more and now it’s too late . As much as I dislike calling strangers, I still managed to make a call to Bodybuilder Boy- even after my interest in him had waned a bit. I think it was partially due to the fact that there was a physical attraction to Bodybuilder Boy while there’s absolutely none to Costanza. But I think even moreso it was because at the time, I thought there was a chance I’d be meeting Homer and I was anxious to get a trial date out of the way. Right now, I’m not corresponding with anybody who interests me (Adventure Man and Banana Man never wrote back), so, strangely, I seem to have less interest in meeting Costanza right now. I’m actually leaving town for a week so I’m going to email him, apologize and suggest maybe we can meet when we return. I’m not sure I want to do that, but there’s no way I could flake a second time. I figure either he’ll disappear or I’ll get that first date in simply out of a sense of obligation.

Match.com stats:

Total profile views: 1961 (55 since day 50)

New received emails: 2 unsolicited, 1 solicited

New sent emails: 2 new, 1 reply

New winks: 1

Optimism level: They’re all either too anxious or not anxious enough. Goldilocks not happy.

I fell behind a bit because Friday’s migraine never quite went away and came back full force the next day. As a result, about 34 hours passed in which I hadn’t responded to George Costanza’s previous email. In a second email he wrote: Just saying hey!…hehe On the one hand, I like guys who don’t play games but on the other hand, I don’t think the passage of a day and a half really necessitates a check-up email from someone I haven’t met yet. It was a tad too anxious. I responded with an apology, explaining I’d suffered from a migraine for the last two days and said: At least I hope it was a migraine and not something worse. I wrote that because I’d never experienced a migraine for two consecutive days, not because I wasn’t familiar with what a migraine headache is. His reply included two paragraphs on what triggers migraines, what worsens the pain and how much migraines suck- all this apparently based on second-hand information he’d received from friends. Something about that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. We have tentative plans to get together on Wednesday and I promised I’d call him in the next day or two to finalize the details. I think it’s pretty obvious I’m not too optimistic about Costanza, but I really do need to get the first date for this go ’round out of the way.

SENT EMAILS: I wrote to two new guys- not particularly good prospects. The first is a guy I’d added to my favorites list when I tried Match almost three years ago. I wonder if he’s been around all that time. He sounds like a good match for me but it’s pretty clear he’s not looking for a Caucasian woman. I figured I’d write him anyway. If nothing else, at least I can remove him from my list. The second guy isn’t really my type physically but he’s agnostic, doesn’t want kids and his profile was witty. He even mentioned an aversion to emoticons! I got the impression he’s the type I’d either get along with famously or horribly.

EMAIL #1: This one’s not bad looking, though his only picture features him shirtless on a boat. But his brief email was somewhat incoherent. He has a good grasp of punctuation but he transposed some words and made a reference that makes absolutely no sense to me. I took a look at his profile and it was the same thing. What he said sounded all right- when I could understand it. However this part was clear:

Please no BBW’s (just my preference). As I stated, I have no children. If you do please make sure that your ex is not obsessed with his children knowing mommy dates (been there done that).

Both statements just seemed incredibly lame to include in a profile. Moved to folder: No major flaws, just too many little ones.

EMAIL #2: This guy sounded way too excited to meet me, especially in light of the fact he lives in New York. But I have to mention something he wrote in his email:

To futher intrigue you I have a very very silly but incredibly effective dating game type of question. I can learn more about you from this one question than from any other single one. May I ask you?

I’ll admit, I’m kind of curious what the question is, mostly because I’m guessing it’s corny and tells him nothing about me. But I’m not so curious I’d bother to ask what it is. Moved to folder: I’d take the real Chuck Woolery, but not a knock off.

Match.com stats:

Total profile views: 1906 (54 since yesterday)

New received emails: 1 unsolicited, 1 solicited

New sent emails: 0

New winks: 1

Optimism level: This is giving me a headache.

I didn’t send out any new emails today because I had a migraine most of the day and couldn’t bear to look at my monitor for more than a few minutes. When the pain finally eased, it was nighttime and there’s something about sending a lonelyhearts email on a Friday night that seems particularly desperate. I’ll send out two tomorrow. I haven’t heard from any of the guys I’ve approached over the last few days, though I noticed Banana Man checked out my profile. I did hear back from George Costanza. He wants to get together this weekend but that doesn’t work for me so I’ll propose a day next week. Based on what he wrote, it sounds like we live within walking distance of one another, but it’s probably not wise to walk to wherever we meet, at least not if it’s at night.

EMAIL #1: This guy wants two kids and he’s Catholic. Moved to folder: Can I do it any faster?