"Eharmony is free until Sunday." The only text message my friend A received all of New Year's Eve 2009. The kicker was it came from her engaged younger sister. The next morning- hungover, bleery-eyed, balancing delicately on a half blown-up air mattress-we decided to set up a profile. 45 minutes, 18 pages of questions, and a hundred giggles later, my questionnaire was officially coursing through the electronic matching system at eHarmony central. On a scale of "not at all" to "very likely" (with a well-placed "somewhat" in between), was I: likable? attractive? organized? and my personal favorite...stable? (Answer: a notch below "somewhat") How important did I consider my match's height? income? level of education? What are the qualifications of my ideal date? What do I do during my leisure time. Free-form essays (of 20 words or less), to be revealed to my potential matches about the top three things that "I'm thankful for."
To back up a bit, this isn't my first foray into internet dating, despite my aversion to the overall concept in general. One exceptionally poor summer interning (for free) at a magazine in New York, my roommate and I completed the time-sucking process "as a joke" one night over our typical dinner of a shared can of baked beans and Hostess cupcakes. While I lied a little (I believe I was under the youngest age available), overall I answered truthfully about my personality quirks. After the 45-minute survey was complete, I received a form-letter instructing me not to bother submitting my credit card information, as they didn't have a single match in their database for me. Dejected and confused (this was prior to the helpful Chemistry.com ads specifically targeting the apparently large population of eHarmony rejects), we invented a grossly fake Match.com profile. The profile still exists today, and a visit to my out-of-date AOL email account shows my profile has been viewed 866 times over the past 6 years, with no additional activity above-and-beyond the initial account setup. The college-aged photo of me in a fraternity social strappy black dress probably helps. The account name we assigned, btaylor4life, and my body description of "big boned and beautiful" probably did not.
But back to New Year's Day, 2010. Why would I dive back into this crazy digital world when I still have no warm and fuzzies towards the process? And furthermore, why would I blog about it? In the spirit of new beginnings, new experiences, and new laughs, why not?
The "free communication" weekend ends Sunday. Bring on a weekend of love...
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Hah! You're all so witty and funny. :o) You crack me up! Keep up the blog ladies!
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