Internet Dating, i.e., Bizarro World

It's lunchtime and I've got the time to post something in my goofball blog. 

Okay, I first visited an internet dating website less than two weeks ago, creating my own profile page. After that, I did not know what to expect. My guess was that over the next weeks or even months I would receive a total of twenty or thirty messages, of which about a half a dozen would be thought out, serious inquiries. I’m referring to sincere messages containing more than a few words. I thought if I were lucky, a couple of these would pique my interest and would be truly promising. I could see myself gathering a bit of courage and writing favorable responses. Fact was; my plan was to write a polite response to every message that had any length, or clearly took a little effort to write. I thought I’d write something like; Hello. You seem like a really nice guy and I appreciate your interest, however I do not think we would be quite right for each other. But I’m sure that lady is not far off in your future. At that point I had not yet crossed into Bizarro World.

A day after making my page at the website CasualKiss, I was told that OKCupid might be better, so I decided I’d use that website too. After all, both were free. Just before I created my OKCupid page, I checked my CasualKiss account. I had about 15 “looks” and five messages. None of the messages were more than a short sentence, but I figured it was very early in the process. I was sufficiently excited to write about it as a short, silly entry in my blog. I then went ahead and created an OKCupid account. I submitted all the standard information, downloaded some photos, and answered about two dozen additional profile questions. It was actually kind of fun.

The next day I went to my CasualKiss profile page. I had three more messages. One of the messages was a couple of sentences in length. He seemed like a nice guy, but he was only 21 years old. Still, things were looking up. I then went to my OKCupid account, which was less than 24 hours old at the time. To my complete and utter shock, I had received 57 messages. Fifty-seven! I was traumatized, literally. I frantically clicked off the page. When just being off the website did not seem good enough, I shut down my computer. I then just sat there for about five minutes staring at my dark monitor. I had found the gates of Bizarro World.

A while later, when I had regained my senses, I turned on the computer and clicked onto my OKCupid account. I started reading some of the messages. Over the course of about an hour I made it through about twenty or so. Most of the messages were short. Some were just “Hi”, but others went for several paragraphs. The thing was; while reading the messages, I would receive new ones. My total message count was getting up near 80.

A couple of days later, last Saturday, I figured I needed a method to sort through the messages, so I decided to read the longer messages and if they seemed promising, put them into a “possibility” pile. Those messages would get a second look. I was searching for the guy who found me interesting as a person, and in return, I found him interesting too. By Saturday evening I had seven messages in my “possibility” pile. I need to say that through this entire process I remained in a state of shock and bewilderment. I had never felt so popular in my life. I was truly inside the realm of Bizarro World.

On Sunday I went out on a hike, just to get away for a while and clear my head. On Sunday evening I looked at a few more messages. On Monday I decided I would write in my blog about the coyote I saw the previous day, and how it reminded me of the first coyote I ever saw five years ago. While at my blog I noticed that I had two comments posted a few days apart that were from the same guy. I recognized him at once. He had sent me a lengthy, funny yet sweetly romantic message at OKCupid, a message that I had placed in my “possibility” pile. Within the comment he had written under my blog was a link to a song at Youtube. I decided to give it a listen. It was a simple, 19^th Century piano piece called The Girl With the Flaxen Hair. Thirty seconds into the music I was a mess… okay, yes, I had started to cry.

Now, a few days later, I sort of feel like an idiot. I say that because I am just too gullible for a humorous, charming letter and a sweet song. The combination made my rational thinking go right out the window. I guess that’s okay every once in a while, just as long as I don’t make it a habit. Anyway, his name is Mike. We messaged back and forth for a day, and then a day later we talked on the phone for over an hour. He is funny and pleasant with a nice voice. On Saturday we are going to meet in a public place and see how it goes. I am very nervous but I mostly feel sorry for Mike. He is going to be my first internet dating website guinea pig, poor guy.

There’s no doubt about it; internet dating is a strange thing. It is truly a trip through Bizarro World, especially if you are a painfully naive person concerning those things. I know just such a person. She is writing this sentence.