{"id":31,"date":"2006-05-09T20:45:10","date_gmt":"2006-05-09T08:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/2006\/05\/09\/dates-and-more-dates\/"},"modified":"2006-09-26T14:51:08","modified_gmt":"2006-09-26T02:51:08","slug":"dates-and-more-dates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/2006\/05\/09\/dates-and-more-dates\/","title":{"rendered":"Dates and More Dates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#39;ve been going on a slew of blind dates from an online dating site recently.&nbsp; It seems that every profile I put up attracts a different sort of person.&nbsp; My last profile seemed to attract young, intense, focused entrepreneurs.&nbsp; My current profile appears to have attracted intelligent artistic men.<\/p>\n<p>It&#39;s strange how a online dating profile, like a resume, can highlight different aspects of yourself, each attractive to a different sort of guy.&nbsp; My early efforts into online dating attracted a lot of immature young partiers.&nbsp; I wasted hours chatting to men who lived so far away that we would never meet, and I spent ages composing carefully polite responses to men that I knew I&#39;d never want to date.<\/p>\n<p>Although I know much more than I did back then, my online dating efforts seem to follow the same pattern: I put up a profile, chat with a dozen or so guys, meet half of them, then end up with one really cool friend\/romantic interest with whom I end up hanging out constantly for the next six months.<\/p>\n<p>I tend to get discouraged with online dating sites.&nbsp; It&#39;s like the old adage: &quot;Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.&quot;&nbsp; There are so many men online, but finding someone you click with is hit or miss.&nbsp; The effort involved in answering emails and sorting through &quot;winks&quot; can become too much when coupled with work and social activities.&nbsp;&nbsp; After a month online, I end up removing my profile and spending more time on <em>me <\/em>rather than dating.<\/p>\n<p>The great thing with taking a break from online dating is that when you get back into it, you have fresh enthusiasm.&nbsp; I recreate my profile from scratch every time, with different photos, so that I can meet different sorts of people.&nbsp; My most successful profile was when I was moving to a new country and men lined up to show me around.<\/p>\n<p>Why was that particular profile so successful?&nbsp; I think it was because men had a reason to meet me that <em>wasn&#39;t <\/em>to suss out the romantic possibilities.&nbsp; Even if they weren&#39;t particularly attracted to me, they felt a friendly obligation to welcome me to the area and did it with pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>And when romance happened, it struck without warning.&nbsp; A friendly fellow thought that it would be a laugh to meet this traveler for a drink and a chat, and the attraction was immediate.&nbsp; We ended up having a wonderful six-month relationship.<\/p>\n<p>So what does that suggest about online dating?&nbsp; That perhaps a better approach to meeting than the first casual coffee date is to meet one another <em>for a reason.&nbsp; <\/em>Maybe he is into kayaking, and you&#39;d like to learn.&nbsp; Maybe your favorite museum has a new exhibit, and he doesn&#39;t know much about art.<\/p>\n<p>When one of you has something to share, and the other one is willing to learn, then a friendly ground is established that promises that<em><\/em> the date will be a positive experience with no pressure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I am always wary of online profiles that state that Bachelor or Bachelorette X is seeking for their soulmate.&nbsp; We&#39;re ALL looking for our soulmate.&nbsp; But I don&#39;t want to meet a possible online match knowing that I&#39;m going to be immediately rejected if I don&#39;t fit his vision of the perfect mate.<\/p>\n<p>I think that men feel this way, too.&nbsp; Men will want to meet you if they think from your profile that they&#39;re going to have a great time chatting with you.&nbsp; If they sense that your only purpose in being online is to find the guy of your dreams, then they may not want to put themselves up for rejection.<\/p>\n<p>At any rate, I&#39;ve had a couple of nice chats with lovely men.&nbsp; No sparks yet, but I don&#39;t have any expectations.&nbsp; I&#39;m simply enjoying the experience of dating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#39;ve been going on a slew of blind dates from an online dating site recently.&nbsp; It seems that every profile I put up attracts a different sort of person.&nbsp; My last profile seemed to attract young, intense, focused entrepreneurs.&nbsp; My current profile appears to have attracted intelligent artistic men. It&#39;s strange how a online dating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,36,34,39,19,27,31,41],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dating","tag-dating-sites","tag-dating-skills","tag-expectations","tag-find-boyfriend","tag-find-love","tag-meet-guy","tag-online-dating"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.000relationships.com\/tomen\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}