I Don't Think So

So, in one of my moments of desperation I thought I'd try internet dating again.

I did it a few years ago and despised it. 500 men e-mailed me in a 6 week period and only 10 of those had enough in common with me / seemed nice enough to warrant a phone call.

One guy - ONE - was a definite good guy. He met me at the Montage for coffee, the view was beautiful, he was intelligent and well-mannered, there just weren't enough sparks on either side for it to go anywhere.

The rest ? Nope.

But I digress. So time has gone by - 3 1/2 years maybe, and I thought I'd try again.

BIG MISTAKE. It sent me into such a depression (temporary, thank goodness.)

I was VERY precise on my profile : Early morning person, exercises 5x a week, rarely drinks, doesn't smoke, doesn't take drugs, doesn't gamble except for lottery tickets, loves to read, likes to cook, religiously indifferent and politically incorrect, wants someone who shares the same lifestyle, within 5 years of my age and lives within 10 miles of me.

Seems pretty straight-forward, right ?

Okay, in 5 days, 25 men wink or e-mail me. 23 of them either don't live anywhere close to me, or they have ZERO in common with me in terms of their lifestyles or interests.

Do you think they could have BOTHERED to reads my profile first ?
I guess not. How disheartening, and a waste of time.

Then there's one man who I actually ended up speaking to on the phone and his profile was intelligent, his e-mail comments to me were interesting, and I thought okay, maybe he'd be fun to go to get some lunch with one afternoon next week.

Until we were on the phone making arrangements for where to meet.
And I said that the girls at _ _ _ _all know me, so when he walked in, he could just ask for me, and they'd bring him to the booth where I'd be sitting.

So he laughed and said "you're known at _ _ _ _ and I'm known in bars."

And immediately he became a "NO" with a capital N. Give me a break. Why he would think I would find that attractive is beyond me.

Especially since Tammie at only 47 just died a few months ago from alcohol poisoning, breaking her mom Dee's heart, her two teenage daughters' hearts, her ex-husband Chuck's heart, Mike's heart all over again because he tried so hard to save her so many times, and trashing Tom's life forever because he was the one that found her after he came home from an AA meeting.

Her death was such an unnecessary tragedy.
She WAS loved, she DID matter.
And yet, she had such deep pain from something that it never left her.

And in her self-destructive misery, she negatively affected everyone who tried to care about her, to no avail.

I know a red flag when I see it. I'd rather be single forever than get involved with anyone who has an intimate ongoing relationship with a bottle.