My First Time

Way, way back in 2003, around the time that I met The One That Got Away, I had my Very First Internet Date. As I mentioned previously, I had just broken up with the Speed Freak and I decided to give internet dating a try. I posted a nice little add on Craigslist and received a mountain of replies within hours. I was completely overwhelmed and had no idea how to narrow them all down. I also made the mistake of using my AOL email address as the "reply-to" and ended up with a couple of IM stalkers for weeks later. (Believe me, I wised up quickly and ended up creating a specific "internet dating" email address.) Somehow or another, I eventually narrowed them all down to a slew of guys that I thought seemed worth meeting. Pictures were exchanged, then telephone numbers.

I can't remember whether the first guy I went out with was chosen as the first for a reason, or if it was just how the timing worked out. In my foggy retrospect, I think that it must have been a coincidence, because I know there were other guys that I was more interested in that I ended up going out with later. Actually, now that I think of it, I jumped RIGHT IN to the dating. I scheduled myself a double-header on the very first day.

My first suitor was Good On Paper Guy. He wrote well, seemed intelligent and nice and was a Psychologist or the like, working in a mental care facility. He seemed to be very into what he did (which I was incredibly interested in, and here I am 3 years later in the healthcare industry myself) and I really admired it. But the first red flag came with the first phone call. I gave out my home number instead of my cell, so that I couldn't be endlessly cell-stalked if any of the guys ended up being creepy, and GOP Guy called when I wasn't home and left a message. It wasn't that the message was bad, or that he said anything inappropriate - it was just, well, he sounded like Keanu Reeves.

Ted "Theodore" Logan

In person, GOP Guy was much more like an airheaded surfing frat guy than he was like an intelligent medical professional. All of his stories involved getting in trouble with his buddies or his frat brothers. In person he didn't seem to have any reverence at all for his career choice, it seemed that he was just in it for the money and the job security. He was also incredibly into his car, which is something that I understand but I don't really find attractive in a prospective partner. I like shiny, pretty things too, I just don't need to have that much focus on an inanimate object. (Unless, of course, you count my collection of TV on DVD.) All in all, we just weren't a match. But I still felt that it was a successful first internet date because he didn't kidnap me and take me home and tie me up in his basement.

The second guy that I went out with that day was Boston Guy. In real life, I actually still refer to him as Boston [Insert first name here] so I figure I have no choice but to call him Boston Guy here. I had met GOP Guy for an early afternoon coffee and was meeting BG for a later afternoon coffee. It was a good date, I really liked him, but we didn't go out again because I first met TOTGA and then got back together with the Speed Freak. But for some reason, BG stayed in my life. We kept in touch a bit and eventually ended up hanging out again about a year later. That was another good time, actually it was sort of an amazing evening of soul-baring, but I could never tell if he had any romantic interest in me at all. Now I hear from him every 6 to 12 months. He'll suddenly pop up and ask me how I've been and say that we should get together. I say that I'd love to and then he'll drop off the face of the earth for another 6 to 12 months. I've given up on him

I can't explain why it is that I wasn't initially freaked out by the idea of internet dating. My friends and family surely were. But to me it just seemed like another thing to do, something new worth trying. Unfortunately, that first round of dating was by far the most successful. I haven't had an experience that compares to it yet.

Lyrics of the Day

"And it feels like the first time, like it never did before. Feels like the first time, like we've opened up the door." Foreigner Feels Like the First Time