Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match

As I mentioned, I signed up for match.com before my trip to Boston. Given my nearly pathetic levels of social activity (both friendly and romantic), I figured that it was time for another foray into the realm of online dating. Coincidentally, Velvet recently decided the same. Charming , however, recently ended her subscription to match. So far, I'm happy with my decision to give this a try - though I'm probably one (or two) dates away from feeling otherwise!

Admittedly, the initial response I received was a bit overwhelming. Signing up before leaving town for a few days was probably not the best idea I've had. I found myself inundated with winks and emails, and I found it hard to keep up or even sift through them to decide if any of them were promising. Then once I got back to Raleigh, I was busy with preparing for the start of the semester, since I had so successfully put it off.

Now, after getting my bearings a bit, I have this to report:

* I'm receiving fewer emails/winks from men in their 40s, which is promising. I was a little skeeved out there for a bit. I certainly ascribe to the line of thinking that says "age is just a number," but when some of these men are older than my stepfather and not that much younger than my real father, it leaves me feeling, for lack of a better word, dirty.

* Apparently my single male colleagues think that match is a good idea too. I already talked about finding the one, but then this morning another colleague showed up in my potential matches they send through email. Now I just need to find out if the other colleague I'm really interested in (who doesn't have a specific name on the blog) is on there too! (See background on him here ) It's getting too confusing. I need to give them blog names.

* Colleagues aren't the only people I've found on match. Or, I should say, have found me. A friend of mine, who I mentioned in this post IMed me the other night wanting to know how I liked match. I was confused at first, thinking I had given him my blog address, though that seemed unlikely. But he told me I had shown up in his search and that he hadn't known if it would be "okay" for him to look at my profile. I told him I didn't care and proceeded to look him up. He complimented me on sounding "funny and smart," and we traded winks on match. I proceeded to shamelessly flirt and we scheduled a "date" for the weekend. I went out with him on Friday, and we have plans again this weekend. I am unsure where that's going...

* It's hard for me to ignore people that contact me. Maybe it's my lack of dating activity, or my problems with saying no to people, but I've been liberal with my response, even to those I am not sure I will be interested in/attracted to. Perhaps that's a big part of why the process is a bit exhausting - it's like a part-time job.

* I don't know if it's the location switch from the first time I tried match (Boston to Raleigh), or the profile picture I'm using this time around, but I've received SO much more response this go-around. There's just something about the sepia-toned, half-smile, picture that I took from the computer camera in my office last year that gets the guys' attention.

* In this short amount of time, my dating life is already looking up. I met the first of three guys I have plans with this week, today. I met one for coffee today, who I'll call Inspector. Tomorrow I have lunch plans with another, who I'll call the Writer. On Wednesday, it's drink plans with Music Man. Busy. Busy. The hard part is trying to schedule them in-between work and the graduate course I'm sitting in on.

* As much as possible, I'm trying to meet the guys I'm communicating with very quickly. I've only talked on the phone with one of them - Music Man, though another one called me tonight and left a message (he doesn't have a name yet). Though I could potentially be setting myself up for a public meeting with a complete psycho, I'd rather meet them before I form too much of an impression about them.

That's the update so far. Hopefully if I have time this week, I want to post separately about each guy I'm meeting this week. A post about Inspector and our coffee date today will follow later.

Yay for new men!