E: All Matched Up

Ok, I did it. I finally did it. I am officially Out There. Tonight I joined the cyber-dating realm of Match.com.

I have thought about doing this for a couple of years. However, something always held me back. What if there are psychos on there? What if (horror of horrors) someone I know sees me on there? What if I am inundated by balding men out of my age range, who have 4 kids (and yes, they live at home), smoke but are trying to quit, and put pictures of themselves that they took in the bathroom mirror? Aren't these dating sights for lonely single folks who lack the social skills to find a date out in the real world?

But, alas, I have decided to put my pre-conceived notions aside and give it a try. The friend who set me up with Mr. January and Mr. February might get hit by a bus tomorrow, and I will be left to find my own dates for the rest of the year. And yes, I am one of those lonely single folks who has trouble finding a date in the real world. And heck, I have several friends who have actually met their husbands on Match. I figured what do I have to lose.

Getting set up proved to be a more difficult task than I expected. The Match gods really want to know a lot about you. To suggest a proper match for me, they needed to know my zodiac sign, my eye color, my body type and what types of pets I have. And how pathetic is this - I got stumped on the eye color! Well, they are not completely brown, and have a somewhat greenish hue, but do not change colors with my clothing.... Damn it, I never really thought about it that much.. What color are my eyes really?? After a trip to the bathroom mirror I finally decided on hazel.

Now for the real kicker: describe myself and my ideal match in 2000 words or less. (Gulp). How honest do I really be? Do I spell out what I really want, or will that just scare 'em away? Is it ok to talk about how much I love my dog, like my own child, or is that just creepy. If I talk about how incessantly organized I am will they see that as a positive trait, or a run-for-the-hills trigger?

After hours of writing, re-writing, getting a friend's opinion, drinking cheap wine, and revising some more, I reluctantly clicked the submit button. And it was as if men started popping up all over the place! Literally within a matter minutes I had 5 guys who viewed my profile, 1 wink, and 1 "interested." As I was clicking through to see the interested guy, an email came through from another one. Then an IM popped up. It reminded me of the game I used to play at Chuck-E-Cheese, where you were given a padded hammer-type thing, and there were 6 little guys who would pop up randomly from the table. You would do your darnedest to hit each one as quickly as you saw it come up. Well, that was me with the men.

First popped up Texastwostep9845, who liked my profile. Then Huggieu93 winked. As I write, I have 5 pages, over 50 men, who have viewed me since I've been Out There the past 2 hours. Everyone from 2sexy4myself to Iamsearching4u has viewed my profile and photos. Photos, I might add, that were carefully chosen to show my flirty, fun, and fabulous self.

Several of the men were interesting to me, and I will email them back. Probably tomorrow. Because right now at this moment it is more important for me to blog than to write boys. I am a tad overwhelmed, and it is after midnight. Besides, tomorrow is Thursday, a/k/a ladies night, my new favorite night to go out. Need to get my beauty sleep. Tomorrow will undoubtedly be a big day of flirting, in both the club and cyber realms.

Sunny1256 is signing off...