A funny, disastrous, Christian 20-something and her friends describe their funny, disastrous and sometimes not-so-Christian dates.


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

How I Met Disastrous Date #5, and Possibly Disastrous Date #6

It seemed like every unattached mid-twentysomething I knew -- especially those at my church -- was on eHarmony, Match.com, or both. In fact, I often felt like I was the only single Christian woman over 22 who was not looking for a husband. Yes, I would like to be married eventually (with "eventually" meaning "hopefully before I've lived alone for too many years to have a successful cohabitating relationship"), but I don't view it as a life goal. "Settling down" does not interest me; to quote Elizabeth Bennet, "Nothing but the very deepest love will induce me into matrimony."

The trouble is, I am a heterosexual woman. So, I like men. As loathe as I am to admit it, I would rather have a boyfriend than not.

But how to find one? What do you do when you are unable to act around the opposite sex in a "gender-appropriate" way that fits societal norms of date-worthy behavior -- treating every male you know as though you're his buddy or his boss rather than a potential love match? What to do when your "addictive personality" (the nicest thing a boyfriend has ever said to me) is almost always swept aside at the first sign of a prettier face? Or, worse, how do you face rejection from someone you might actually have to see again at some point in your life?

The answer couldn't have seemed simpler: blind dates, facilitated either by online dating sites or by people you actually know. But as Disastrous Dates #1-3 and #5 demonstrate, dating blind can be anything but simple.
Despite being fully aware of the headaches, annoyances and utter wastes of time such an endeavor could yield, I signed up for an OkCupid.com membership. I chose OkCupid because it is a.) totally free, b.) a happy medium between super-sketchy and -trendy Match.com and the lets-get-married-NOW eHarmony.com, and c.) written about by one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Anna Broadway of Sexless in the City.

So, the Vegan Virgin was an OkCupid match. We exchanged e-mails, IMs, and phone calls, and all seemed to be great. Well, you know how that ended. Next up: "GRE Words Guy", as he was named by a fellow OkCupid adventurer. He is a just-slightly older guy who writes like a nineteenth-century Brit. The date is Saturday -- I'm mostly curious to see if he really uses words like "halcyon" in normal conversation.


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