This guy messaged me, but I wrote back I did not think we were compatible. His response, "sigh." Really buddy, really?  Another guy messaged me and again, not really gonna work out. His response: "Define what turned you off?"  Wait. What? You want me to tell you why? Why? What is the purpose of that? Are you going to attempt to convince me otherwise? Actually, it might be worth it to respond and let that conversation play out. You know me, I am always willing to push things a little just to see a reaction. Another guy took a more direct approach. Told me I was beautiful and then asked me to lunch. I don't necessarily find this bad. I wonder how much that directness has actually worked in his favor though.

My favorite message of the night was the guy asking me if I really was a virgin. In theory, I don't mind the question I guess. Its not a big deal, I am not ashamed. It is a fact. A personal fact, yes, but not something I consider a secret or anything. It was more the way he asked...."Sorry to be rude, but are you really a virgin?" No. No you are not sorry to be rude, because if you were sorry, you wouldn't preemptively apologize. You probably wouldn't even ask the question. So don't say your sorry. Either take ownership for asking a rather personal question or don't ask it. I did answer his question, btw. Because while I know this guy blew his chance (yeah, sometimes I am harsh like that), he doesn't know that yet and some of the time I think of OLD as one big social experiment. I like to see what happens. So he asked why and I told him I just hadn't found the right person yet. His response? "I see. I hope you aren't building it up too much in your head." Ummm.okay? Somehow, I just think this is a conversation you have after you've known someone for more than 5 minutes. The whole point of messaging in the beginning is to impress the other person. This...not so impressive. I also think saying, "I've tried dating and it's gone terribly." well...it's not really inspiring a lot of confidence here. 

I have been thinking this over. The initial message. Every single message (or those that were not single worded or 'hey whats up') has some reference to how __________ I am. Put your favorite adjective in: beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, sexy...etc, etc. Don't get me wrong, flattery is nice. But, I don't know, I find it kind of insincere. Maybe it's just the way they say it or the fact they start out with it? And the fact that most of them fish for a compliment back. If I didn't find you attractive, I wouldn't be talking to you. I hate fishing. And also, I hate text speak. U R Beautiful. How are u? Drives me crazy. But that is just a me thing...or maybe an intellectual thing. I don't know...it just irks me. Not enough to not talk to you. I am not that unreasonable. 

But if I am to mock the bad, I should, at least, applaud the good. 

This is the best pick-up line I've heard in a while: "Do you know what my shirt is made out of...boyfriend material. lol. How are you? I'm [name]"  Cheesy? Absolutely. But it made me smile. And that is someone I think is worth having a conversation with.

Lesson of the Day:

You know, people always think they are so mysterious. What people don't realize is that the pictures they choose, the words on their profile, the messages they send...all of those things pretty much spill most of their secrets for them. We all unintentionally give out information we thought we were hiding. Last night I had one guy tell me he had secrets and he is very hard to crack. He was not so hard to crack. On the other hand, this other guy was very open about himself and his life. I find honesty like that refreshing.While dark and mysterious may work on some level, it just simply does not work with OLD. And

For the first day back in the game, it hasn't been so bad. Really, it hasn't. I have actually had a couple of good conversations. Where will they lead? Who knows. But at least my only message wasn't from Mohamed looking for a friend.