Date.com - I must be crazy.

Sooner or later curiousity gets the best of you. You see the commercials, you read the wedding pages in the New York Times and you say - hey - it worked for them, what are you waiting for? Happiness is right around the corner. That dream date/man/match is just a click away.

Or so I thought.

Date.coms are more funny than fun. You screen through countless men and their cheesy lines. Guys who seem to be either players or played out. You have the guys that post with their dogs - now don't get me wrong, I like dogs, but give me a break, the guys with cats - always a turn on. One guy even posed with a monkey. Ok, I'll give him points for bravery. Some guys are with their kids - I guess that is supposed to be a
clue that they are great fathers - but putting your kids on the internet?? Others pose with the same shirt on in different positions - clearly clueless.

Their explanations are amusing. They are all sincere, energetic, athletic and spontaneous. A rare combination in the real world, but in the virtual world I guess you can be whoever you want to be. And you need to shoot high, because not one that I met had an accurate tape measure.

No matter what range you keyed in as a preference - you get them all. Hot twenty-six year olds - not sure what I would do with that. I even got a message from a 76 year old.

Some messages are plain-out erotic. Some guys just dull. All persistent.

If someone actually breaks through the menagerie - you work up the courage to meet them. Trust me, they never look like their photo. That's probably just the nature of the beast. Probably some guys have thought I was a troll. But it's tough sitting through a first date, when they obviously like you and the whole time you are thinking - dream date/man/match a click away? Yeah right.

Sometimes you actually start to connect with someone, but don't think just because they are "online" to meet someone, it's a lock. Date.coms come with the same bag of tricks that you will find in the real world. I suspect the odds are actually about the same of hooking up with a kook. Which incidently is a specialty of mine - which is what led me to date.com in the first place.

So in summary, it's a crap shoot. Just like everything else in life. I still would like to believe that meeting someone is as easy as going shopping for shoes. Because after all, that is what you are doing. Shopping for a date. All I can say is you better keep your receipt.