Online Dating

I had to give it a try.  I’ve heard/read so much about it in this past year, there was no way to truly have an opinion about it unless I had experienced it myself.  And if I want to be a good journalist, the first step is to get the information and then report your findings. 

Last month, I did just that.  There were a few ladies in my widow’s group who had signed up for a free online dating service and actually met a few men, went on a few dates, and during the last meeting seemed to be walking a little taller, smiling a little wider, and carrying on a different conversation.  Was I jealous, maybe, who wouldn’t be?  I keep telling myself that I am not ready for this, but the idea of having someone else to love and love me back is hard not to miss.

I began the online profile.  I had no idea the kind of information they want from a somewhat anonymous site.  I gave as little personal information as possible.  I put up a recent photo as to not give the impression I was younger, thinner, or had any less wrinkles or grey hair than any other 55 year old woman.  Then came the questions that I never in a million years thought they would ask.  My drug preference, really?  Whether I enjoyed to take drugs before, during, or after sex.  What positions of sex did I enjoy, did l like to use sex toys.  Would I consider having sex with the same sex?  I passed on all of these questions, I also passed on all questions concerning religion and politics.  Seriously, what person answers all of these questions?  I had to answer one hundred questions in order for the site to set me matches.  It was a painstakingly long ordeal and a few times when the freaky sex questions came up I considered just backing out and leaving it alone.

Okay now I am on the site and getting emails, hundreds of them came in a span of probably less than an hour.  Well maybe not hundreds, but it sure did seem like it.  First thing I did was turn off my email notification.  Too much for me, I hate to see unread emails, there was no way I wasn’t stopping whatever I was doing to read them.  Luckily I was at the tail end of my semester and had some time to go through them. 

There is a great deal of men looking for love and the perfect woman.  All I could keep thinking was, I sure do hope these guys find her.  I wasn’t sure the best way to go through them, but I decided if they sent me a match with someone who wasn’t at least over 70% he was eliminated.  Then there were the screen names, any guy who had a reference to his junk was immediately eliminated.  Now, I am a flower child of the 60’s and 70’s, so long hair was the norm for my high school year book for the boys and the girls.  But a 50+ year old man with long hair is just not the same.  My husband was a long haired hippy before he joined the Navy and even after he retired, he never wanted to grow it back.  I love a clean shaven, clean cut man.  So of course those long haired men were eliminated.  Location was also a deal breaker, anybody outside of the central Florida area was not getting my attention at this time.  Lastly if you had a great deal of miss spelled words in your bio that was a great big deal breaker.

Okay, so I had dwindled it down to a few, then I started getting the messages from some that I had not seen on my match list, but when I pulled them up were pretty close to the high 90’s with a few exceptions.  The men who sent me messages that said they read my bio and loved the way I looked were already suspect.  Reading their bio, their likes and dislikes I learned that they were pretty much predators because if they had taken the time to look at my picture, I am nowhere in the description of a woman they were looking for.  By now I was getting discouraged and feeling like maybe I was being too critical.  It took me about a week of logging in and out and reading, passing, deleting messages when two different men caught my eye.  One was a local man who said he was a widower with a 22 year old son.  The second said he was from Atlanta, but had a lot of the qualities I was looking for.  So I reached out to both.  I got a message from the first person almost within a day.  He told me a little bit about himself, was an architect, had his own firm, owned two cars, liked to travel, was dedicated to his son, and loved the beach, and so on and so on.  I was intrigued.  The second guy responded and said he was not too keen on a long distance relationship, but has traveled to Orlando in the past and was willing to give it a try.  Guess which guy I decided to communicate with?  You got it, the local widower, thought I would have a chance because he would understand my emotions a little bit better.

I began my information, started with my status as a widow, how long I have been widowed, how long I was married, about my children.  Then I explained that I was not sure if I wanted anything more than a male companion.  Someone I could spend time with, talk to about issues I have to get the male perspective.  Someone to have dinner with on occasion, maybe do some traveling, but was sure that I wanted to make any kind of commitment of any kind any time soon.  He responded a few days later, he told me what he was expecting out of a relationship, and his biggest concern was honesty.  He did not want to deal with anyone who was going to lie to him.  He also gave me his personal email and phone number and asked if we could maybe start talking on a more personal basis as he works a lot and is not able to access this site all the time.

Okay I thought, not a big deal, I have several email accounts, I will just give him one of my non-descript emails and see what happens.  Was not ready to give him my phone number, it had only been two messages.  I responded and ask him to tell me about his wife, how long he was married, if he would tell me how long ago she had passed.  He replied by telling me about his childhood and where he was from.  It was different, but I thought okay I can do this.  So I gave him a short synopsis about where I grew up and then again asked him to tell me about his relationship with his wife because I had told him about mine, and also added that I believed not telling someone something is exactly like lying.  Next email was pretty much more about the qualities he wants in a relationship, never answered any of my questions asked in the past two emails and bonus, he ended the email with “With Much Love.”

Creep me out or what.  Third time is a charm as they say, so I asked once more for him to tell me about his relationship with his wife, I got a response the next day.  I opened it on my phone, it was actually on Saturday evening.  To my surprise I read the first line, “My Dearest Barbara” then the rest of the email telling me how much he loved me, my messages were inspirational, and when can we see each other.

I had just been scammed, by a moron apparently.  He didn’t check the font on his form letter before he sent it to me.  I read the email several times after that to make sure I was not just seeing things. In the morning I opened it up on my computer and knew for sure he had sent me a prewritten “Insert name here,” love letter.  So I decided to Google him.  When I put his email in Google up popped a company name.  His name, he had created a website recently the ©is dated 2014.  So he must create a new company site every year or maybe has different sites for every email he uses, to keep the ladies on their toes.

I immediately blocked all emails and communications with him on my email accounts.  All of them just to be on the safe side.  I also went back to the online dating site and deleted my account from them.  I learned my lesson very quickly, I am not only not ready to do online dating, and it is not going to be the avenue for me.  I know what you are going to say.  It was your first time and they aren’t all that bad, don’t want to chance it.  I know widows are targets for every kind of scam under the sun.  Maybe I shouldn’t wear my heart on my sleeve, but that is who I am right now.  Can’t change it, don’t want to change it. 

I had just completed an online course in Chemistry and actually received an “A” for that course, and this one experienced reminded me how stupid I can be. Can it be that I had my one chance for love?  I know a relationship is very hard work, I worked my ass off for 34 years with Mike and he did that same.  Will I find someone like him that is willing to work his ass off for me?  Time will only tell.  Right now I am okay with being jealous of the widows who find their next true love online, I will just keep on going to school and learning things like Biology, and Spanish online and leave the rest to fate.