….Sigh….
Welcome to a new year! As you have probably guessed, I have not been blogging lately. I decided to take a bit of a break and just enjoy the holiday season. And, to make matters worse, I hurt my hand making it a huge challenge to type. That being said, I am just now back and am excited about this New Year!
On that note, I wanted to recount for you my New Year’s Eve plans and how it all relates to online dating. I attended a New Year’s Eve dance and party, hosted by one of the larger online dating sites here in Atlanta. As with most such events, I do not get my hopes up in meeting someone. I just go in with an open mind and a great attitude. I let the event happen and whoever I meet, I meet. If I meet no one, that is fine too. I am there to enjoy the sights.
Well, I attended with one of my single girlfriends who is over 50. She is NOT an online dater, so I am thinking the novelty of this event with her could strike some interesting perspectives on the scene. And, I was not disappointed!
Prior to attending, I reviewed the statistics of those who signed up to attend the event. On average, the age range was 35 to 50, a nice mix for someone like me and also my friend. If for no other reason, we could take a sampling of our age group and determine is we are faring better than our peers. (Is that bad?) When we arrived, I have to say that we were not only the youngest attendees; we were also the most attractive, put together and polished in the crowd of 400. She and I secured a very good looky-loo location, next to a column right outside the dance floor. We had access and we had the ability to talk quietly over the noise without having to raise our voices. This proved to be very rewarding as the night progressed.
As she stood on one side of the column and I stood on the other, a line literally formed on each side of us. Men would come up and talk, while others hovered nearby, awaiting their turn. As I would wrap up one conversation, another guy would slide in and make his introductions. The same was happening with my friend. I have never seen anything like this in my entire dating life. It is almost as if one man had no regard for another’s conversation with one of us. At one point in the evening, a gentleman interrupted my friend’s conversation with another guy to give her $20. He told her that he had to run to meet someone, but he would be back within the hour and definitely before midnight. He said he wanted to buy her drinks while he was gone. Thank goodness she had the couth to NOT take the money.
As people came up to me, one of the things I did was ask their online user name, and thanks to technology and a Smartphone, I was able to look up their profiles right on the spot! How fun was that?!?! I got to see exactly what people thought of themselves and compared pictures to the person standing directly in front of me. Let me put it like this. When I arrived, I had a full charge. When I left, my battery was dead. Needless to say, I looked everyone one up I possibly could. Now, if you are like me, you want to know exactly how many people matched their profile pictures, right? Here is the number: ZERO!!!
Not one person looked even mildly close to their profile picture. I saw it all! Young pictures, old faces. Thin bodies, chunky (and even obese) waistlines. Youthful smiles, and snarls and unsmiling individuals who appeared scary, let alone approachable. One guy was absolutely gorgeous online, but as he continued to stand behind me, I could not help but feeling like a stalked deer during the November rut. I have never seen such a display of egos and misleading individuals in my entire career.
When New Year’s came, of course the $20 guy returned to hover over my friend, and yes, she gave him his new year’s kiss as he expected. I, on the other hand, saved my new year’s kiss….Still am…. It’s something that is important to me and I haven’t found someone to give it to….yet.
So, what is the purpose of this post? Expect nothing at online dating events, because that is probably what you are going to get.
Much love,
Shawn
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