Goodbye, Match.com

Ok, so I realize it has been over a month since I (B) posted anything. Over the last few weeks I had a hard time coming up with an amusing post because, well, I wasn't having awkward dates or interactions with creepers and duds.  Instead, I have gone out five times with organic coffee, and have had a great time each time. We have been progressing slowly but surely (partly slowly b/c I managed to travel to Baltimore, sprain my ankle, and get strep throat since we met and he is busy with a new business). However, he has been pretty creative in his date ideas (roller derby, a cheap circus, an improv show) and we have been having a lot of fun.
So, like M, I am relieved to say that my Match account is currently closed. I gave online dating a chance, and I'll see where it goes from here!

B here. These are the most recent texts from "Mountain Dew/Pizza." I realize I haven't told him directly I'm not interested but can't he take a hint? I haven't responded to him at all!  Him saying "Hi" or some variation of "How is your day?" 19 times over 6 weeks is not really going to win me over. 

Stock Photo

B again. (I know, twice in two days?) This will be short. I just had to share that I was glancing at my email that showed today's matches. One guy caught my eye as pretty cute, so I clicked through to see his profile. It looked like a professional photo...and what was that little black word-shaped smudge on the right side? 

Well, I do know how to use Google, and an image search proved that this guy is using a stock photo (from Thinkstock) that is on a few other websites, including this one: http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/09/20/o.praise.young.men/index.html
  
Seriously? What did he expect would happen when he met someone?

awkward goodbyes in parking lots

B here. Well, it has been way too long and is time for an update from me. In the last post, these are the guys I mentioned and their current status:

Milk - a few emails, no sparks, kind of fizzled out

Apple Cider - one phone call, went pretty well, I thought we connected over an enjoyment of fun games, but never heard from him again. 

Mt. Dew (aka "Pizza man," since he began the "relationship" by ordering some pizza). I asked him over email to explain why his faith section on his profile said "I'll tell you later." He responded by saying he just felt it was something that couldn't be explained in a few short sentences...apparently it is not worth even trying? He continues to text me occasionally, saying things like "Hi B," or "How is your day going?" I usually don't respond. One time, I did, saying I was at a friend's house. He responded that he thought that night was a night we could have hung out. It was about 9:45 pm on a Tuesday so I told him I hoped he didn't still mean that night. He responded that he would be up for it but didn't want me to blow off my friends. When I didn't respond, he asked me where my friend's house was. At 10:30 pm I just said, sorry, I need to get home, it is a school night. 

I'm not interested in him so I suppose I should just tell him that.

Most promising right now is organic coffee. (He is in the coffee business.) We went out for drinks almost two weeks ago, met up at 8pm and stayed at the bar talking until after 1am. Clearly, he was very easy to talk to and be around. I am not totally sure if an attraction is there or not. There was absolutely no touching....which made for a somewhat awkward goodbye in the parking lot. I am interested, though, and we talked on the phone a couple of times and now are going on another date on Sat. We are going to see a roller derby match! I think this will be a fun activity to do and definitely something I haven't done before.

I did go out for drinks with one other guy two nights ago. We'll call him Miller. We made it through nearly 2 hours of conversation but I definitely had to stretch for things to ask him/talk about. I ended up talking about my travels a lot, even though he hasn't really had any similar experiences, but I could at least come up with some interesting stories. He just emailed me now and asked how my week is going, so I suppose I should respond. He seems like a nice guy....just boring? And I'm not sure we have much in common. In the parking lot, it is possible he might have been leaning for a kiss on the cheek, but I was going for a hug.  Awkward.

Finally, just to show the weirdness of Match, there was a guy, I'll just call him R because I'm not going to waste my time thinking of a creative name for him. Anyway, he initiated a connection with a wink  and I winked back. He then emailed me "Hello! How are you? Thanks for the wink. How is your day going?" A day or two later, but before I responded, I got a form response from Match saying "Thanks, but no thanks....R is not interested."  Ok, no problem....but he is the one who found me, winked at me, and emailed me!  I did note that in his ideal match, tats and piercings were a big plus, so I'm not to worried by this rejection. But still.

Numbers Game

It's B again. So, not only is it a little strange to try to meet someone online, I am also finding the idea of "getting to know you" via texting to be strange. No, I haven't given my number out to anyone else, but I have had several guys give me their number, which I then haven't done anything with. Maybe it is because I have never been the type of person to quickly give out my number at bars or anything that this immediate flooding of numbers seems so strange to me.  Most of the guys that try to communicate with me and want me to call/text them are not actually very communicative in the match emails, but give just a line or two:
"This is M. Just breaking the ice here. Here's my number."
"I hate stupid match.com. text me." (Couldn't make talking with you any more appealing than that, right?)
Another guy gave me his number immediately and when I didn't respond, 5 days later he asked if I would date someone shorter than me if he said my smile was golden.


Maybe if I was really interested in a guy this wouldn't seem so weird, but of all the guys that have contacted me, I am not really intrigued/interested in many. I guess it is good that I kind of learned my lesson from the texts from Mt. Dew to be more careful with communicating by phone. To update the Mt. Dew situation, he has texted me more, I respond to maybe 1/4 of them, but now he just left a message. When I just looked at his profile again, I noticed/remembered that his faith information is "I'll tell you later," so I think I'm going to ask him about that in a match email rather than calling him back. Is that chickening out??


Of the guys that have been communicating with me via the match email that seem ok, one is "milk," in that he seems pretty normal, close with his family, seems to value his faith and is conservative.  Another is "apple cider," who also seems quite conservative but caught my eye with a very sarcastic and funny profile. We have emailed a few times and when I made a joke about something he referred to in his profile and asked him what kind of superpower he would like to have, he turned it into a more serious discussion about all the things God has given us and how we need to help others with what we have been given. Hmm.
Other than those maybes, I am still waiting for a winner!

B's pizza?

So I gave out my phone number for the first time. We'll call him Mountain Dew. We had been emailing a bit but looking back, he didn't give much info or give indepth descriptions in his emails. But he asked a couple of times for my phone number and I gave in. An hour later I get a text, "I want to place an order for n extra large pepperoni....thanks :-)." I thought it was weird and reverse white paged the number (that's a verb, right?) and found out it was indeed Mountain Dew. Before I could come up with a response he said "is this b's pizza? ;-)" I just said, "Who is this?" and he said, "its Mt. Dew...how are u today." He seemed to think this was funny and now is surprised I didn't find it funny, but rather thought it was odd. And now he has my number. Great.

2 Days in and So Far, I Fail.

This is B.  I'd just like to say that so far, I fail. Most of the people winking at me are ugly and/or fat.
Plus, I already broke the rules and did not log in to Match yesterday because I was busy.  However, I tried to make up for it today I responded to 2 guys emails. If we keep talking, I will come up with drinky names for them.
That is all for now!