First there was Brandon. We went on 4 dates. He was tall and cute and seemed to really like me. Unfortunately, he seemed to like me too much and was constantly texting me. He used too many smiley faces and said "lol" too many times in his texts. He also couldn't spell worth a damn and I still don't understand why his phone wasn't correcting his spelling when he texted me. It drove me nuts. In the end, I didn't feel the connection with him that I was hoping for so I ended it.
Then there was TJ. We met for drinks one night. He was also tall (it's a preference that I have). He didn't go to college which bothered me more than I thought it would. We didn't have a lot to talk about.
Next was Ben. We also met for drinks one night. He used to date a girl I went to college with so he seemed familiar. I thought the date went well- we carried the conversation easily. We talked about doing dinner the next Wednesday. I texted once to set a time, he didn't text back until the day of our proposed date to tell me he "didn't want to date right now". That turned out to be a straight lie since he was still active on the website. That annoys me because I would much prefer to be told the truth but whatever.
Skip ahead through a few months of no prospects and I met Matt. He went to galas. I was intrigued. He texted me one Friday night to get me to meet him downtown but I didn't feel like getting all dressed up and leaving the house so I politely declined. He seemed annoyed. The next night I ended up meeting him after I was at a fundraiser and he was at a gala. He was drunk but he "doesn't usually drink" and made a complete ass of himself. Not only did he make me uncomfortable but he flirted with other women for the whole 45 minutes I was there and then he ditched me. He LITERALLY disappeared with his buddy never to be seen or heard from by me again. Here is an article about Matt, the founder and owner of MN Pro Paintball. http://sunthisweek.com/2012/04/12/matthew-ames-awesome-adventure/ One would think he might be a nice, humble guy after what he has been through in his life but that is not the case. He is just a giant douche.
More recently I haven't even made it to the first date. For whatever reason I decided to respond to an email from Adam. He seemed nice. He also lives in Big Lake so before I got too attached, I told him it was just too far for me. A cop out perhaps but I barely see my best friend and she just lives in Shakopee so trying to arrange to see a guy from Big Lake would just annoy me. Yesterday I started texting Ray. Literally yesterday afternoon was our first text after one email through the website and this is how it ended:
What a freaking joke. I refuse to drop everything in my life for a man. Don't you think that moving is a pretty reasonable excuse to be busy? Good grief. I didn't even have a witty comeback text for him I was so surprised.
This doesn't even include the winks or picture likes or email I've gotten from weird dudes who are way out of my age range, who don't even live here and who are just creepy. It happens a lot. Or the guys who seem nice and normal and like we have a lot in common so I email them through the site and never hear anything back. That's frustrating because I like to think I'm a normal kind of gal who is not creepy but who knows.
So here I am again with a subscription that ends in July that I have zero intention of renewing. Those people in Match.com commercials, though it says they are not actors, must be very carefully screened to make sure they're pretty and normal looking because that certainly has not been the case from what I've seen.
The only positive thing I can think of is that it got me into the dating scene, which is something I didn't do before. So I'll give you that, Match.com.
It just sucks to put in all this effort when I know there is someone out there that I was just a little too late with.
And that is my experience this far with online dating. People keep telling me that I'll find someone when I stop looking but it is really not in my nature to leave things up to fate not to mention the fact that I'm not getting any younger (this is half a joke and half my quarter life crisis). Hopefully those people are right and someone surprises me when I least expect it. We will see.
