Two Day Magazine

The aerial showcase was a great success!

Despite a few mistakes in my own routines, I was really relaxed and enjoyed myself. When the show was over, and all the performers went to greet their friends, family and significant others, it stung a bit when I realized for the first time I had no "other" to go greet. So on the recommendation of a fellow aerialist, I have decided to try a new dating site.

In my experience so far, I've had one good and one bad date from someone I was matched with online. I decided to try it once more for the tiebreaker. I was a bit thrown that on the first sign up page there were options other than single. I mean, a dating site with the option, "I'm married/ here for friends" immediately gave me pause.

I tried to imagine my mother, happily married to my Pops, signing up with that option. Then I pictured her gleefully telling Pops, "Well, yes dear, it's a dating website, but I'm just here for friends!"

Yeaaaah, right. Nevertheless, I signed up.

There were quite a few questions in the questionnaire, many of which were sexual in nature that I skipped. I put a lot of things out there, but my preferences on one night stands isn't one of them.

Am I happy with my life? Yes. Do people actually check no? I also had to laugh when it asked if I would date someone who uses drugs. Yes, please! Set me up with the drug addicted, depressed, one-night-stand man, because I needed to go online to find him. My confidence in this dating site was wavering.  

But, not even five minutes in to me setting up my profile, I already had three messages! Here we go again, I thought. As I reflected on the site so far, five minutes, and my friend who highly advocated it, I started to question her reliability. Keeping an open mind, I continued to fill out my profile and read my messages.

The first one was a welcome message or should I say the website promotion welcome message. According to them, smarter more attractive people sign up on their site. I continued on skeptically. Message number two: Shirtless guy. Really? Flashbacks of online speed dating flittered in my mind and I shivered as I hit delete. When I read one very explicit message, I had just about had it.

As I read through the next few, aside from a cuddle request, the messages took on a more normal tone. I sifted through, opening the ones who based off tiny thumbnails I thought were cute, but came up empty. This site really seemed to be a cross between an actual dating site and a hook-up site. I was getting ready to call it a day when I read one last message.

Tom, was apparently "hitting up" those the site said were open-minded to Bi men. What the??? Oh hell. I know I'm pretty bumbling with the dating stuff but I am usually fairly tech savvy. I scrambled to my profile trying to find where on earth I had selected or didn't uncheck or whatever that I was open to bisexual men. I AM open to bisexual men, I just don’t want to date them.
Well, this might explain some of the racy messages.  

While scouring my profile I found an option to make it visible to only the sites users. Great. So before that all my info, bisexual man preference included, was public to anyone with an internet connection. Fantastic. I think part of my problem with online dating is that it is SO public. I know if I put more into my profile I would get more out of it, but it's hard knowing any whackadoo can read what I share about myself. Charging forward with the "one in five relationships start online" ringing in my head, I straightened out my dating preferences. Now, when the drug addicted, depressed, one night stand man messages me, at least I'll know he's straight.

Check back next week to see if any of those other cute thumbnails panned out.

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twoday magazine wants to know: Share some online dating success stories with us on our Facebook page so Kimmie can feel encouraged!

Like this article? Check out other great articles about online dating:

     Kimmie on the Prowl: Dinner With Strangers

     Kimmie on the Prowl: Speed Dating on the Web?

     Dating Safely Online is About to Get Easier: By Bobby Cherry

Kimmie is a graphic designer, full time dog-mom and aspiring aerialist. You can keep up with her craziness on her blog life-withdogs.blogspot.com and follow her on Twitter at @lifewithdoggies.