Other...

A few months ago, I read one of the multitude of dating advice books out there.

One of the first things it advised was to take advantage of every opportunity you could to make sure people knew you were out there and wanting to date. It even went so far as to say you should set a goal, find someone to keep you accountable. For example, each week you'd try to get at least five phone numbers or ways an eligible sigle person for a date. You didn't have to follow up on them, but the goal was to have them. The arguement was that by getting you in the mind-set of looking for a date, you'd find one. Also, you'd get better at talking to strangers and putting yourself out there with practice so you wouldn't always be feeling silly or embarassed.

Another piece of wisdom it gave you was to get over yourself and try a dating service. It recommended the on-line personals route.

So, I tried one of the big ones with the guarantee you'd have a date in six months. That totally didn't work. I honestly have no idea what women on there are looking for...but I guess it's not what's in my profile. But I've got another free six months so I might as well keep on trying....

A few weeks ago, another of the big dating sites gave away a free weekend..it was over a three-day holiday so I signed up, went through the litany of personality tests and preferences and gave it a shot. The thing was it felt like this huge sprint to find a date because the cost of said site is sixty bucks per month. Basically I wanted to see if there'd be any interested candidates for my sixty buck a month. I don't mind spending some money to be introduced but I really wanted to see if there was anyone out there that I was "comptabile" with. What if I'm one of those unmatchable people or I only get one match and she hasn't logged in for six or eight months?

So, I tried it and it went OK. There were some good matches and one actually wrote back enough that we got to exchanged e-mail addressed in the time frame. After that, the web site went back to making you pay the huge fee for useage and I stepped away....that is until they offered three months for the price of one and I thought why not.

Anyway, I'm about a month into it and it's still frustrating. I'd say that most of the profiles I'm matched with either get closed on the woman's end or no response. The most frustrating thing is when someone closes a match, they are supposed to give you a reason. I understand the ones who have met someone and are pursuing that opportunity. But the ones that bug me the most are "Other." It tells me nothing and it makes me wonder if it's a quick, superficial glance at my picture and going--well, he's not physically what I want and shutting it down.

I have no idea....