My love life may not be in full bloom but my garden is -- and less than 2 months since planting the seeds. If only dating were that quick and easy! |
It's been one week now since I signed up for Match.com and here are the stats to date:
791 people have viewed my profile, 80 people have emailed me, 58 have sent "winks" and 13 have designated me as a "favorite."
I have nothing to compare these numbers to, but I suppose that's not a bad return for a 49-year-old grieving widow living in rural Iowa. I should be flattered by the response, but I attribute it mostly to being a "new listing" on the site, like in real estate when people are only interested in seeing only the most recently listed homes. Instead of allowing my ego to get a nice boost, I simply feel bad. Why? Because what this seemingly large response tells me is that there are a lot of lonely people out there. I don't want people to be lonely. I want everyone to be happy. Regardless of age, height, weight, income or religious beliefs, everyone deserves to be happy. Even republicans. I want to bake all these people pie. And make them feel better.
Instead, I just ignore them. And that makes me--and probably them--feel worse.
I just can't email everyone back. While many of the emails seem sincere--people who actually read my profile, weren't put off by my widow status and liberal leanings, and still wanted to "chat"--I don't have time to take on the task of mass correspondence. I already have two Facebook pages, a LinkedIn page, and two Twitter accounts, on top of the daily business email churn. I have a blog to maintain and I have my latest round of book edits due. Managing a Match.com account--which is like having a whole separate Outlook email interface--on top of my regular workload is...well, it's just too much work. In short, Match.com has proven to be both time-consuming and guilt-producing. Not a good combo.
So why haven't I taken my profile down yet like I threatened to do after Day One? Because out of all those emails and winks and favorites and views, I have actually met a few nice people. And even though the chances are slim that they will become lovers, they will most certainly become friends. And dinner companions. Which is all I really wanted in the first place.
And that's all I'm going to say. If you want juicy dating details, I suggest reading one of my friend Leigh Michaels' romance novels.