Ulterior Motives

05 Jan 2013 1 Comment

by okmatch in Deal Breakers, No thanks, You know your date is crazy when... Tags: , , , , , ,

The first time he mentioned the program I said, mostly joking, “That sounds like a cult.” I think it was the name of the method or the idea that a five day course could have cured him of his work stress that made me suspicious. Or it could have been his oddly calm demeanor and long-lashed blue eyes.

He laughed and said that if I looked it up online a lot of people call it a cult, but it’s not.

For the most part, it was a pretty normal conversation for a first date, though slightly boring and no chemistry, despite his good looks and the fact that on paper he seemed like a good match. I wondered if I should give him longer to become interesting. Then he mentioned his libertarian leanings. Oh, well, I thought. Not a match, after all.

Not having anywhere else to be tonight, I made the argument that it is both compassionate and fiscally responsible to take care of the members of society who cannot take care of themselves. His response: He hasn’t thought about it enough to come up with any solutions. This from a guy with a graduate degree in Engineering? He also feels like people should be pushed to reach their highest potential and if we give them handouts, they won’t even realize what they could succeed in doing. At the time, I thought this was just the typical Libertarian dogma.

The program he found so helpful came up at least two more times in our hour-long date. Then he had to leave early to take a phone call–from a member of the program. As we stood to leave, he invited me to an introductory program in two weeks.

Of course I looked up the group online when I got home. The first Google result was an article in a regional paper comparing the charismatic leader of the group to David Koresh. The lengthy piece detailed various lawsuits against the businessman who attracts a large following, some of whom were pressured to satisfy his sexual needs and feared leaving the cult. Yes, all the bad cult stuff you read about it. That’s the program this guy tried to get me to join.

So that was my Friday night: date with a guy who tried to recruit me into a cult. Makes me nostalgic for dates who just want to get into my pants.

Breaking Up Isn’t Hard to Do

20 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by okmatch in Dating Etiquette, Getting Dumped Tags: , , ,

Recently, someone I’d only gotten as far as talking on the phone with (partly because he was too far away) wanted to know why I “broke up” with him which made me wonder if it is possible to break up when you haven’t ever seen each other. Don’t you have to be dating to break up? And don’t you have to go out to be dating?

That’s when it occurred to me that online dating has some different methods of relationship dissolution that the old in-person model didn’t have. And by relationship I mean everything from a casual exchange via email to…well everything else.

1. The noncommittal email response…so that you aren’t sure if he was making a bad attempt at continuing/starting a conversation or if he was saying “no thanks”

Here’s an example of an exchange (which also illustrates why I rarely initiate conversations: when a guy is actually interested, he usually makes the first move.)

Me: Hi there. I liked your profile…particularly your snarky answers:-)

Snarky Guy: Well thank you. I enjoy treading the line of snarky and acceptability haha

Of course I noticed he did not say he also liked my profile. But maybe he just didn’t know what to say? I decided, having nothing to lose, to attempt to clarify.

Ha, well, you managed to do that. You also managed to respond in such a way that it is difficult to tell if you are starting or ending a conversation…

He responded by…not responding. Which brings me to…

2. Messages suddenly stop. Could be after a brief exchange, or emailing back and forth quite a bit, or even, once he’s asked you out and you’ve set up a date and he “had to reschedule”. Or it could happen after the first date and a few messages and you’re not sure if it’s because you’ve given him your google voice number which just doesn’t always work or you hinted or admitted to him you might want to be “just friends.”

Or you’ve been messaging pretty regularly, you’ve had more than three dates, and at some point it seems to have ended though you cannot figure out when. He’s even come over your house for dinner and seemed to be wanting to settle into a relationship . You weren’t not sure if that’s what you want so maybe you made that clear somehow. Perhaps you indicated you were still seeing other people. Or it was that moment when his spending the night came up and you sent him home instead. And now you rarely hear from him. You can tell you are no longer seeing each other, but you can’t put your finger on when or how exactly that happened. You also can’t figure out if you’re the one who dumped him or vice versa.

Hell Bent

19 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by okmatch in Dating Etiquette, No thanks Tags: , , , , , , , ,

409861_8476

i guess your hell bent on finding a relationship and are too scared to be ith someone who thinks your beautiful but might not want to have a relationship with you

This was from a guy whom I already told I didn’t think we were a good match. It kind of speaks for itself, I know, but I can’t resist taking this one apart.

I’ll set aside the fact that I just can’t date anyone who doesn’t know how to use an apostrophe as a given and move on.

“Hell bent”…swoon! He sure knows how to sweep a lady right off her feet!

Perhaps somebody in his life told him that if you want to turn that rejection around, try going on the offensive. If she turns you down, call her out for being “stubbornly and recklessly determined” (hell bent, according to Miriam Webster).  Trying to follow his logic here…I am foolishly desiring a relationship…that makes the choice to be with someone who doesn’t want a relationship, prudent?

Not to sound too vain, but he seems to be suggesting that “someone who thinks your beautiful” makes him uniquely qualified to go out with me. If I were going to respond to his message, maybe I would point out that a) the fact that he is only interested based on liking my photo is not really that flattering and b) pretty much every man who contacts me on a dating site is at least somewhat attracted by my photo. I don’t get a whole lot of come-ons that begin, “I think you’re kind of homely but I thought I’d try to have sex with you anyway.”

Strange Bedfellows

18 Dec 2012 1 Comment

by okmatch in Deal Breakers, Dear OkMatch, No thanks, Online Dating Advice Tags: , , , , ,

Dear OkMatch,

I don’t know if I’m being too picky, or not picky enough. Here is my current list of deal breakers:

  • Listens to Rush Limbaugh and/or Fox News
  • Thinks skiing is too cold (or hiking too buggy or camping too uncomfortable)
  • Considers hanging out next to a pool an exciting vacation
  • His idea of outdoor sports  consists of hunting and snowmobiling
  • Online dating is his hobby
  • Smokes
  • Works minimum wage job
  • High school education
  • Doesn’t read books or only reads Ayn Rand
  • Eats a lot of junk food or mostly meat and potatoes
  • Is overweight, under 5’6″  or otherwise physically unattractive

Sincerely,

Up Late Talking to Unsuitable Men

Dear Up Late,

It’s good to know what you want, but don’t you think you’re being a bit too critical? You couldn’t fall for a guy who likes to snowmobile? And, if you have so many deal breakers, why are you still going on so many dates with unsuitable men? Perhaps you should whittle this down to five deal breakers and stick to them.

Best of Luck,

OkMatch

:p

29 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by okmatch in Disturbing Text Messages, No thanks, You know your date is crazy when... Tags: , , , , ,

Update on Date Sucked:

So, I didn’t respond to his 🙂.

His previous message said “Have a great Christmas.” Sure, that’s more polite than “Have a nice life” but with Christmas a month away, it’s definitely a blow off line. As in, don’t expect to hear from me before Christmas…or ever.

In that context, what exactly does the smile mean?

“Just kidding about never wanting to see you again. I’m having another mood swing and have decided I can’t live without you.”

Or maybe:

“Let’s be friends. I don’t have anything to say so I’ll just grin at you.”

I realize, if I continue a conversation with mood swing sober guy, I’m definitely the crazy one. I ignore the smile text.

The next day, he texts :p

Some possible translations:

“In elementary school, when I liked a girl, I stuck my tongue out at her. It totally worked!”

“Wanna have sex?”

“Words fail me. I am awed by your beauty and grace, your cool responses to my manic highs and inexplicable lows. When I said I wasn’t ready for a relationship, that was just fear talking. Now I’m ready to be brave and pursue a meaningful relationship. Are you willing to give me a third chance?”

“You…complete…me.”

Date sucked

27 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by okmatch in Disturbing Text Messages, No thanks, You know your date is crazy when... Tags: , , , ,

The first thing he told me was that he was six years sober but he wanted to buy me a drink. What exactly was I thinking? I don’t know. He was cute and earnest and I was bored. At the end of the night there was some very nice kissing, and some annoyingly persistent attempts to get me to take him home “just to cuddle” and to spend the next day together.

The next day, we exchange the following texts:

There’s a pause between my two messages when I considered how obnoxious the first might have sounded, especially considering I had a date myself the next day. There’s no pause before my next text:

There’s a space of an hour or two between his apology and his “date sucked” message. I didn’t respond. Another half hour or so later, he wants to come over. Later:

At this point I’m already thinking I oughtn’t see this guy again. He’s between fawning all over me and cold. But we flirt some more that night. He can’t stand to be without me, blah blah blah. The next morning:


Oh, but it’s not over yet. The next day (today) I get another message from him–just a smile. I contemplate sending back just a question mark or even asking if he means that as just friends or what. Or just responding so I can finally be the one to dump him. But then I decide not to mess with crazy.

 

Share the Thought

20 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by okmatch in No thanks, Worst Opening Lines Tags: , , , , , ,

From the “uh, no thank you” files, received this message:

“Just say something,anything..speak from your mimd,share tje thought..”

That was the entire message. Not a word of introduction and no obvious reason for this beseeching tone. I mean, “say something, anything” is kind of plaintive on its own, but the “just” in front makes it seem like pleading. As if we’ve been in a relationship and I have been denying him my words and “tje thoughts.” Too desperate to fix typos, even.

And what’s with the punctuation? Not satisfied with a period, unwilling to commit to ellipses?

do u like older/younger guys?

01 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by okmatch in No thanks, Worst Opening Lines Tags: , , , ,

I think if you are leading with this question, you noticed you are out of my age range?

A recent date told me the formula for the youngest you can date is (n/2)+7. That puts 21-year-olds beyond my socially acceptable range, but that doesn’t stop them from contacting me. They show up in my inbox with their mostly blank profiles and cell phone in front of mirror or webcam photos. They say they think older women are hot. I’m guessing they don’t plan to be around when they’re 30 and I’m nearly 50.

A 24-year-old reached out via instant message (“hi there how are you”). His profile highlighted his interest in video games and his two minimum wage jobs. I’m thinking that probably would’ve been cuter when I was in high school.

Older men tell me they are in great shape and very active for their ages. One described himself as “well preserved.” Like a dried fruit?