Online dating is like being an FBI agent: you research, you deduce clues and any given day you could find yourself having coffee with a serial killer.
It’s not surprising our young, digitally-savvy staff are highly active on Match, OKCupid, PlentyofFish and occasionally even the dive bar of the online dating world, Craigslist. I asked for some online dating stories for Valentine’s Day and there is some good, bad and just plain ugly happening below:
“I love online dating- it consumes my weekend. Friday I’m going indoor rock climbing with one girl, Saturday I’m going to sushi and the aquarium (I hope we don’t eat Nemo) and Sunday is a dinner and a comedy club. Every time it’s a surprise, so fingers crossed. Um, you don’t think they’re all going to read this, do you?” -Jared
“Last summer, on a whim, I decided to give online dating a try. It just seemed to make sense for a busy online ad man. I signed up on Match.com and approached with no expectations. The field was pretty bleak, but a few weeks in, one girl appeared in my matches and stood out like a diamond. After exchanging a few messages, we set up a date for brunch and an art show. That time went great and we decided to keep things going with drinks on a nearby patio. We then walked the art show a while longer and decided we might as well get dinner. Our time together felt like catching up with an old friend who I wanted to kiss madly. Ten hours later, we reluctantly ended our first date and parted ways. Two days later we went out again. We never went more than two days apart after that. Two months later we were engaged. Two months after that we were married. This year, thanks to online dating, I’m celebrating Valentine’s Day with the love of my life, my wife Jenna. So you could say it worked pretty well for me.” -Nathan
“I think the best one I have had so far was a message I got from someone which read: ’I’m not sure I’m still moving to Denver as originally planned, but in any case I was browsing around and saw your profile. This may seem out of left field, but I just wanted pay you a compliment: you have truly sexy shoulders! That’s not a common thing to notice, I guess, but yours are really beautiful.’” -Kristi
“I had been on and off Match.com since 2005 and have gone on over 50 first dates in that time. During a period of high activity, I’ve gone on as many as 5 dates in one weekend. This last stint I had just signed back on after a year of trying dating the “all natural” way, and I started talking to several different guys with potential. One in particular struck my fancy because of his great (and a little inappropriate) sense of humor. We met for a drink at 5pm on a Sunday in earl April, which turned into a late dinner and ended in a walk around the neighborhood. I found out later that he, also being a professional online dater, had another date scheduled for later that night that he cancelled when we started to hit it off. Long story short, 10 months later we are celebrating our first Valentine’s Day together. I have lots of crazy and probably more entertaining online dating stories than this one, but I thought for V-Day it would be nice to share an actual success story.” -Tarla
“I had an email from someone recently that I have never talked to before, on the website Plenty of Fish: ‘Sorry about what happened too Steve Erwin… I’ve always wanted to visit Australia and you have an Australian accent so that should be enough to get started I think.. A wine bar would be a perfect place to start. I prefer reds myself but please don’t ask me to give you one off hand cause I can’t remember. Anyway your someone I’d really like to meet and have some laughs with.’” -Stephanie
“I never did online dating, but I did start flirting online with my husband. At my last company, we had to fill out these sheets that listed your favorite movie, restaurant, etc. Troy reviewed them, since he was a manager there (but not my manager thankfully). He noticed that he and I both had the same favorite movie (Fight Club) and started flirting with me via email. For at least a month I had a solid crush on Troy, but didn’t know for sure who Troy was in the office. Every time a really slovenly nerdy guy passed my cubicle I would pray it wasn’t “my Troy.” I was also simultaneously developing a crush on one of the cute managers – thankfully they turned out to be the same person!” -Tara
“I was planning to meet my newest Match.com crush at a quaint little coffee shop. My stomach was aching of both hunger and the gut-wrenching anxiety that one gets when destiny could perhaps…be waiting. Before leaving, I took a quick look over Mr. Dreamy’s profile. Just to give you an idea, he lead with “Yoga is life and I practice yoga every morning. When I’m not in yoga, I hike. When I’m not hiking, I ride”…you get the point. Wow! I think this guy may be a little TOO active for me, but what do you do? I was feeling a little frumpy and out of shape, not only was I skipping dinner, but also my workout. I walked into the coffee shop, and there was only one other person in the whole establishment. It couldn’t possibly be “Mr. GQ I’m So In Shape” from the lengthy bio and fit profile pictures. Behold, it was. The profile pictures were either taken from a different angle or could have been this guy ten years ago. Not only did he not fit the profile or image, but he also dressed to impress. A brown, wrinkled t-shirt that displayed the words, “Beer Cracker” with a picture of a Nutcracker Beer Opener. Hmmm….interesting. We had mediocre conversation and I left knowing that I would probably never see him again. Instead of disappointment, it was more of a lesson learned. Gentleman, please refrain from fabricating or exaggerating your strengths. When you misrepresent yourself, you are stalling Cupid’s efficiency.” -Nicole
“I met Charles on Perfect Match.com. We were not actually matched, I just surfed around and found him. He had such a great smile on the picture and I liked his profile so I emailed him. The email was along the lines of ‘I work in the digital space all day every day so I hate sitting on email or texting after hours so check out my profile if you like what you read then phone me.’ That night he called. For a month we spoke every night for an hour or more. The reason we did not meet was because my visa was being renewed and the last thing I wanted was to meet a great guy and then be thrown out the country. It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know someone. As soon as my visa came through we went on our first date, and have been together ever since and now happily married for four years and have a precious three year old son.” -Samantha