Interweb Dating.

I never pictured myself as someone that would venture into online dating. In my mind the online dating world was instantly associated with crap like online predators, perverts, terrible and strange encounters etc. I always felt like I was cool enough, or hip enough, or outgoing enough to meet someone in a book store, a coffee shop or even while out on the town with friends. That cute romantic encounter  you wish to have as your own story: "oh, we made eye contact on the street and then he stopped me in my tracks and told me I couldn't go any further without at least considering having a coffee with him. Out of the blue, just like that! The rest is history!" Yeah...no.

Being out of a long term relationship now for nearly two years, I know it's not that easy especially in a city where, let's face it, isn't as friendly as some other city's: New York (I made 3 friends on the sidewalk in the first 2 hours of being there!), or even Paris for that matter. Agree or disagree, but the proof here is that almost every person I know in Toronto without a significant other is taking part in online dating because it's, and I quote, "too hard meeting someone in my every day life", "people aren't approachable", "the bar scene is for drinking and hanging with friends", and my personal favorite pulled straight from a Bay Street boy's profile: "I work hard and play hard, so I don't have time to meet people". Ugh. Anyway, all this to say that online dating has piqued my curiosity.

Messages come at you left right and centre, alerts of matches, chat requests, personality comparisons, a list of those who have viewed your profile...it's a whole other Facebook! I decided to go the 'free online dating' way, I figure that there are "normal" people on the free sites too, seeing as I'm there...no? Well, it turns out there is a very low ratio of what I would consider "normal" to "abnormal" people online.

At least three times a week I get a message in my dating inbox with the word "hi". That's it. Just "hi". Really though...are you expecting me to say "hi" back to you? What is it that you're doing? Waving to me through my dating inbox? "Hi". These messages, if you want to call them that, come from different people too so it's not like there's one "hi-guy" out there, they're all over the place. The last one I received, I simply responded with "bye" hoping that I wouldn't receive anything further from that particular user. I was wrong. I actually got a response to my "bye" saying "why"? Kill me now.

Then there are the RUDE messages that you receive. When you open up your dating inbox you close it with such haste that you nearly break your mouse because you feel like you've violated the internet space in reading such a message. I won't go into further details about this, all I can say is thank goodness for the blocking option.

Then there's the wordy guy, or the "question man" as I like to call him. I know this might be a violation of privacy, and I would hate it if this dude just happended upon my blog, but check this message out:

hello bella
hello what's up how are you and what are you doing tonight I honestly think you are very interesting and I honestly would like to know more about you and I am very interested in getting to know you alot better only if it is okay with you well I honestly would like to hear back from you soon okay bella

1.what is your favorite music

2.what is your favorite movie

3.what is your favorite thing to do on a first date

4.what is your favorite foods

5.do you have any siblings

6.do you have any tattoos

7.what is your background

8.what do you look for in a guy

9.what was your longest relationship

10.what is your favorite season

11.what is your favorite romance novel

12.what is your favorite animal

13.do you like cats

14.what is your favorite vacation place

15.where do you like to travel

16.would you like to talk on msn or would you like to text

17.do you have a blackberry

All in all, this message is completely overwhelming to say the least.
A) Bella? What the...that's not even my online name.
B) Honestly? Honestly. Honestly!
C) What really threw me off, and I mean made me laugh so hard that I almost had tea come out of my nose, was the question about the favorite romance novel. Enough said.

Although lots of junk comes through online dating sites, there are those rare moments where you virtually meet someone with a great sense of humour and a face that you think is pretty sweet. A first date comes along and you're full of nervous excitement mixed with the fear that you won't recognize the guy. Fortunately, I have yet to experience a bad first date. The two people I've actually met up with are wonderful and have become friends. Nothing more, but how fun is it to make new friends!? I'm willing and able to sift through the endless, shirtless, mirror self-portraits and find some genuine awesome guys out there.

Still waiting for a spark, but having fun in the meantime!