Where Metro Meets the Dating Pool

This morning, I was listening to the radio on my way to work, sorting through the dozens of channels that do nothing but talk, talk, talk, usually about topics that I'm not interested in as my frustration level mounts with the increased sea of brake lights in front of me.  I landed on one that tends to play more music than chatter, right at the end of one of their conversations.  The female-half of the morning duo was sharing how much impact where you live can have on your relationship status.  She continued to state that Atlanta, in all it's wondrous event-packed fabulousness, has ten women for every one man.  TEN!  Ten to one, people! 

Now, for the gentlemen who are reading, this is wondrous news!  You can basically create your own line-up of your top 10 women and make your choice, knowing all the while that the odds are in your favor and if you so choose to re-evaluate your decision, the other nine probably have not found another guy yet.  But, for us chickadees, this is disastrous.  This means that we have nine other women potentially going after the same guy we are!  Nine other women...these women better be so ugly that their dog is embarrassed to be seen with them.  They better have a personality like a wet dish rag.  They better be so boring that an evening spent watching paint dry excites them.  Or I'm in trouble!

So, of course, I had to do my usual scrutinizing of this factoid pretty much for the remainder of my commute.  Were they simply referring to the actual city of Atlanta?  Because if you consider yourself an Atlantan, you know that this could really mean you're from Marietta, or Lawrenceville, or Roswell, or (brace for it), even Canton!  Cherokee County takes great pride in stating that they are "considered" a county within Metropolitan Atlanta and shout their tag line from every suburban rooftop:  "Where Metro Meets the Mountains."  If you're from Cherokee County and drive to downtown Atlanta everyday, as I do, you quickly realize that claim is a bit of a stretch.  Maybe, just maybe, if they were referring to the actual city of Atlanta, the odds were a bit more in my favor in the outlining cities.  I'll probably never know for sure...but the doubt is comforting.  Also, if I wanted to get really picky in my scrutinizing, were these all single men and women?  Because, although some might not agree with this opinion, I'm not interested in sharing my future mate with his wife.  And what age do we consider them "men?"  This might be a debate for a whole different posting in the future...

I also read years ago that there are twelve men for every one woman in rural Alaska.  I'm just throwing that out there.  Here's a travel guide if you'd like to plan a vacation there with me.  Just saying.

P.S. Still nothing from Mr. Saturday.

Waiting by the...inbox?

I was watching television yesterday and saw an ad for Match.com. As a current subscriber, I have basically tuned out their ads, mostly because so far they seem to over-glamorize this strange and mostly awkward way to meet a potential mate. But, last night's was different. The narrator stated that 1 in 5 relationships today started online. What?!? That means that for every 100 couples, 20 of those relationships started with an email?! That's crazy!

The more I thought about it in my own life, the more this fact seemed like reality. I know a lot of couples who started their relationships via Match.com or eHarmony or CatholicSingles.com, to name a few.  At least four of which are married or getting married.  So why does online dating have the negative connotation that it does? Match.com claims millions of users with thousands of new profiles added on a daily basis. If we can believe their claims, who then are the ones bashing online dating?

I will state openly that I have had absolutely zero success with online dating to this point. Prior to this subscription, I had had a couple of dates, none of which moved on past the first. On Saturday, I had my first date from my current subscription, heck, my first date in a long time! Having just thrown myself back into the Singles Market, after a long man-less hiatus, it was exciting to get dressed up and to be treated like a lady again, with doors held open for me and a meal paid for for reasons other than someone owing me money from the last outing. My date was nice, friendly, funny, courteous and respectful. But, it has been over 48 hours, and I haven't heard a peep. I felt that I was funny, full of great conversation, witty, intelligent...all the things someone would be interested in but not in a forced way. I tried dilligently to "be myself," whatever that means! So, why the ghost-town-like silence?

The thing about online dating that I think everyone should know going in is that you should have absolutely no expectations. And that your first "date" is actually not that at all. Although it may look and feel like a date, even if the gentleman pays and opens doors for you, it is actually just a meeting. And the conversation almost always feels more like an interview than it does a date. In a perfect world, you meet someone, strike up a conversation and decide to then go out, having already established a connection face-to-face. In the world of online dating, you've only read what this person chose to write about themselves in a profile. And who's honestly going to write "I like to sneeze at the dinner table without covering my mouth" or other things you could only learn by being in the same room with someone? So, to expect an instant connection upon meeting is a bit too much, and that's taken a while to learn.

So, I'll try to impose the rules of real-world dating on the new, technology-driven world of online dating and wait the traditional 48 hours to hear from Mr. Saturday.  I might bend the rules and touch base with him myself, I haven't decided yet.  Either way, I've gotten out of my comfort zone and met at least one of those "other fish in the sea."  We'll see if I get anymore bites.