As I mentioned previously, I am dutifully persuing my goal to be more outgoing in the hopes of actually going on date-like outings. Naturally, given my work schedule for 10 months of the year and travel schedule for the other two, "outgoing" means "trying to meet people online".
Annie gave me some very good advice when I bemoaned the awkwardness of writing profiles about yourself earlier this week. Rather than trying to "tell us a little more about yourself and what you're looking for in a match," I'm telling a travel story. After all, my tale of fighting a monkey on top of a waterfall does a much better job showing who I am than something along the lines of "So, I'm a high school teacher? Who likes to travel? And reads a lot?"
After cutting my 7000+ characters blog entry down to less than 2000 characters (Whoo!) I finished my Chemistry.com profile last night. I even found a headshot I tolerate (which is an entirely different issue. Turns out, I don't like any pictures of me taken in the last seven years. Or rather, I don't like any pictures of me when looked at with the intention of trying to convince someone to want to know me. If you already know me in person, no problem. You can see me covered with blood, sweat, or Shakespeare. But if you've never met me before, well, I just don't have anything picture-wise that I think makes me look attractive enough to click "yes").
But then I hit the wall of "Oh, yeah, this stuff costs money." A lot. Chemistry.com wants $50 for a one-month membership. So, I'll put that on hold until either 1) I decide that their service is worth it and/or 2) they offer a truly great sale.
In the meantime, I've been thinking about what kind of person I am interested in. One recent conundrum aired by internet "dating" by is how very much the pond shrinks with the Mormons-only restrictions. I don't know how to solve that pickle yet - if the choice is between not marrying at all and marrying someone outside of my faith... well, I just don't know.
What I do know is how much I like nerds. Don't get me wrong, this kind of thing is also very nice:
But what does it say when I like the fact he mentioned the mighty sequoias of the Redwood forest more than his abs?
It means I like nerds, my friends. You want to see hot? Watch this. (Sadly, embedding is verboten.)
Categorizing your home library? HOT.
That's John Green, author of one of my very favorite YA novels, Looking for Alaska. One of my speech kids is doing an Original Oratory at State tomorrow all about the glories of YouTube. At the top of her arguments is the awesomeness of nerdfighters. I have read all of Green's books, but I was not aware of his vlogging goals. Hence my research and subsequent attraction reveries tonight.
So here's the question: Where are the single nerdy LDS boys my age hiding?
And the scarier, bigger question: If they do exist, would they even be interested in me?
I married a 40 year old, so I think some of them are just REALLY taking their time figuring it all out.
ReplyDeleteI am certainly no expert on matters of dating (married my first girlfriend after all), I do consider myself an expert on websites.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion of the 'for pay' dating sites is that they may have a better 'matching algorithm' or whatever, and the fact that you have to pay will ensure a more active user base - but that's not really what the internet is good at. The internet is good at throwing a metric ton of data at you and letting you sort it out. Think about it - if you let a librarian from the '30s loose on the internet, she'd lose it.
That said, I think you should try plentyoffish.com and okcupid.com. They are both free and they both have a ridiculous amount of users. Just canonball in there - who cares if it's mostly slime, you can wash it off. There might be a diamond down there ;-) While swimming in the slime - consider getting good at this game.
One final thought - one in which I may not be an authority, but I have strong feelings about. I don't think you should worry too much about getting married at this point. Just date for fun. That doesn't mean you can't get married, but I think worrying about marrying outside the faith is not something that needs to be worried about right now. You can worry about that after you find some amazing nerd-hunk that happens to be a worshiper of the Great Marmot King.