My Adventures ….chapter 2 ….Online Dating!!

Ok, after being coaxed and coached by my co-worker/friend, I finally set up an online dating account and profile. Yeah, yeah, I did it. After filling out the “all about you” portions, I begin my initial search through the different profiles…well, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a search, but more of an adventure on spying on peoples personal lives. I had not posted a picture yet because I was feeling some kind of way about certain people finding out I’d done it!! Why, you may ask…I dunno. I guess I had to make sure I wouldn’t feel as if I’m betraying anyone with my moving on. During the last week, from day of sign-on to last night, I’d gotten about 10/15 hits total, either requesting a picture, a faceless dude declaring my profile as a “Favorite”, or it was a very much older looking male on there talking about “Am I the one?”. So needless to say, it was going rather slow. According to my friend, putting a picture on the site would increase my “hits” tremendously so I thought about doing just that. After thinking a little bit, I then needed a little extra boost of courage. That “push” came from my niece, who finally said what I needed to hear to make the jump of picture uploading. She said, “You have honestly ended all relationships in your past and you are single; you are able to do whatever you want to find date(s) and NO one should have a thing to say about it. And if they DO have something to say, tell’em “f-em”!” And you know what? She’s right. I’m not leading anyone on and if anyone feels I’m in a space with them that I have not accepted, then it’s their issue, not mine. So back to the online dating adventure…

Last night I decided to put up a couple/three pictures and see what would happen, “hit” wise. In less than an hour, I’d had over 30 views, 3 – 5 favorites, 6 messages, and something called a “match”. I posted the picture last night just before bed, so most of this happened during the time I was uploading the other pictures and chatting online with another girlfriend about which pictures to use. I was still a little nervous because I think my features are unique and I feel like folks on the streets will recognize me as “the girl on the dating site”. But, taking my co-worker/friend’s advice, who said, “No one you know will probably ever see it.” I pushed along.

Fast forward to this morning, and it’s 8:30a and I’m down in the cafeteria at work; GUESS what happens? Um hmmm, ….an older man I’d met previously in passing, comes up to me to ask if my pseudo-name on a site is “…..”!! Of course I’m mortified but I admit it and then proceed to play it off so cool, you would have been proud! Now my question is this….this woman has been on this site before and NO ONE has busted her cover….WHY, when my picture is on there for less than 8 hours, and 6 of those hours are overnight, someone sees me??! I mean, it’s not like I’m doing anything illegal but it is rather, uh, how can I say it.…uncomfortable knowing folks know what you do in your off-duty, personal time! Especially someone who has shown a slight interest in you, who you have NO interest in whatsoever, but yet, no longer have a legitimate excuse when he now knows I’m “looking”? Sheez…man sometimes a girl just can’t catch a break!!

Until next time… Toodles!