Online Dating, Take Five (I think)

Okay, so I've decided to give this online dating thing another shot at the perpetual requests of my best friend Darren.

Anybody who's been reading my blog for awhile, or knows me in real life (the chances are it's both), you know that I've been trying online dating on and off again for the last couple of years with varying results. Varying is actually being complimentary, more accurate would probably be disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I've met some great girls, but it's never gone anywhere longer than dating for a month or two. The more frequent result has been meeting a lot of girls ranging from okay to down right crazy.

Here goes nothing. *Deep Breath*

UPDATE:
I started to write this posting about a week and a half ago. Since then I've had one date, with two more scheduled. I know it hasn't been that long since I last tried it, but I forgot quite a few things about this whole dating thing.

First is how much work it is. Ploughing through profile after profile. Sometimes things catch your eye, most of them don't. Then the ones that do, reading through them, then trying to write something engaging that will coerce a response.

Second I forgot how frustrating it can be. It's like sending out a message into outer space, you sit and wait and wait and wait, a reply is not guaranteed. At least in person, the answer is immediate, regardless if you like the answer or not.

Third is that it how it comes in waves, I could go for streaks with nothing happening. Then all of a sudden within a span of a week or two, I have to try and slot in a whole bunch of girls, without giving them the idea there's a whole bunch of girls. That, all the while trying to keep enough time to enjoy my regular activities and get the normal stuff done.

But the thing I forgot most of all, is how much fun it can be. While I complain about it, and it's emotionally draining, good things do come out of it from time to time. 

Maybe the problem I had before was my approach. Maybe I've too goal oriented with the whole thing. I should just enjoy the process of meeting new girls, whether the outcome is good or bad. I never really thought about it, but forming a relationship can't be planned. It either happens or it doesn't, what I should do is focus on what's happening now and take it one date at a time. 

And I guess that's the thing that I always found most frustrating about it. It's like painting a picture without a plan in mind. In the past, I would have a picture in mind, and would be trying to fill it with what I had at hand, and when that didn't pan out, it was annoying. I guess now it's more that I should enjoy painting one tree at a time, maybe a lake or some ducks. Who knows, maybe it's not even a nature landscape at all!

I suppose that's what makes it frustrating, scary, yet strangely exhilarating all at the same time.