Oh, the things I've learned

This whole online dating thing has been very interesting. I think I've had far greater success with the ad I posted on Craigslist (CL) than being a member of eHarmony or Match.com or PlentyOfFish.com. I've found guys still like to be making the first move. If I initiated communication via those other online sites chances were very good that I'd never hear back. In my CL ad I posted a simple message of who I am, no laundry list of what I'm looking for, and the implied 'bring it on, show me what you have', but not so much in the literal sense, if you know what I mean. And I've gotten quite a number of responses (both of the figurative and literal *rolls eyes*) and have had a few first dates from it. In fact I had one last night after I got home from the race.

I'd been talking to this guy since I posted my first CL ad, I've posted the same one twice now. He seemed very nice and not bad to look at. We were having nice e-conversations and I'd told him I'd try to call him on my way back from Portland and depending upon how late I got home and how tired I was perhaps we could meet Sat evening. I called him around 5 pm and we arranged to meet at 6:30 pm at Mad Pizza on Lake City Way.

On first introductions he seemed nice. I quickly concluded the photo he sent me was not a particularly recent one. He has a fair bit of grey in his beard now as well as in his hair, none in the photo. Not so much a bad thing, just not really truth in advertising. I love Mad Pizza, so I knew that portion of our evening was a guaranteed hit. Once the pizza arrived I fished out an antibiotic to take, still working through that sinus infection and I told him as much. Didn't want him to think I was some wanton drug taker!

Please, be honest with me... Is it ever a good idea to discuss your colonoscopy during a first date?!? He was also telling me too many details about his work, he's with the department of corrections, and the line about monitoring tides and currents in the Puget Sound you can calculate where a body was dumped! Eww! Also, not really first date conversation material. Again, eww! My brother tried to convince me that if I were a fan of CSI that I might find that kind of interesting. I am a fan, I didn't find it interesting. I continued to make polite conversation and realized that my eyes were closing, so tired, must go home to sleep, soon. He knew I'd been driving all day, had paddled that race, and undoubtedly looked like I could hardly keep my eyes open, it was an easy way to excuse myself from the date. Now all that's left is to write the tbnt note. Sigh.

Another thing I realized is how important a good sense of humor is to me. I don't expect every moment of every day to be filled with laughter. But I do expect the occasional funny story or play on words. I want to find someone who will enjoy my absurd take on things and laugh at some of the things I find funny and I'll do the same for him. I went out with Diane and her boyfriend, Dave, Friday night. We laughed so hard about the strangest things there were tears in our eyes, my abs hurt, and we were on the verge of wetting ourselves (me and Diane, I can't speak for Dave)! It wasn't any particular joke, it was mostly context, but damn it was funny as hell (details upon request). I laugh like that when I'm hanging out with my friend, Maria, too. I love it and miss it and wish I had more of it in my life.