I have a date!

On Saturday! Yay! Carl seems awesome and I can't wait to meet him. There are so many good things going for him, but I think one of the biggest is that he isn't from here. He's from clear across the country, meaning that we probably have absolutely zero shared acquaintances. (Having now had two bad experiences dating guys from here who both went to the same schools and know many of the people I know, I've decided that I should strive to date non-locals.)

More later.

I don't know if this counts

but I've been on Yelp a lot in the last month and have started going to events sponsored by Yelp or arranged by other Yelpers. Anyhoo, I've been meeting some new people this way, including a few cool guys. I've met them in person but we were brought together by the internet. Online dating? Perhaps not. What do you think?

Also, I was asked out by someone (I'll call him Carl) on the dating site. I think this might actually work out. He seems nice and he doesn't drink. Yay! It's so awkward trying to meet guys, since either the meeting places or the date spots often involve alcohol. So this is very promising.

Craigslist, zines, and an ex

When last I wrote I was trying to decide whether or not to e-mail the guy from Craigslist. I might never have gotten up the gumption to do it had *ily not pointed out that CL listings expire after a week (meaning I wouldn't have any way to contact the guy). So I did. I waited nervously for a while to see if I'd get anything back…and I did! He sounded cool and he thought I sounded cool and he told me a bit more about himself. I wrote back…

A little more than a week later, I've still not heard from him again. Oh well. At least I gave it a shot. I'll probably be a little more comfortable e-mailing people from CL now (I found two more promising listings over the weekend), so perhaps something will come from this.

Over the weekend, I went to the Zine Fest and checked out lots of independent magazines, books, art, etc. I mention this because there was one guy selling a zine called The Bad Date Zine. Anyway, I started talking to him and he said he's taking submissions for the next issue. Needless, to say, the Groundhog Day date is going to be submitted. (I'll be sure to let you know if he decides to publish it.)

Finally, I volunteered to be an extra in an independent movie yesterday. I was told to show up at 2 and prepare to be there for the next 4 hours or so. When I walked in, who should be a couple ahead of me at the check-in desk? My very first boyfriend, Scarf-boy (as he was known to my friends—he gave me a nice scarf for Christmas). Aack. I was a bit of a stalker in high school, and that was part of what led to the downfall of this relationship. Needless to say, I was not about to identify myself to him if I could avoid it. When it was time for the shoot, the producer started pairing up the guys and girls as if we were on dates and it was all I could do to think happy thoughts and not be paired up with him. I wasn't, thankfully. However, over the course of the afternoon, it became apparent that a) he recognized me and b) he had said as much to the woman he'd been paired with. She then told me and all was revealed. As it turns out, he's grown-up to be a very nice guy (not that he wasn't to begin with) and we ended up sitting next to each other and talking for about the last hour. The best part about the whole thing: I have absolutely no feelings for this guy anymore, which meant that I could have a great conversation with him without feeling nervous or silly. It's too bad, really, as he's making oodles of money as an engineer and wildfire-fire fighter and looks pretty good to boot. That said, he now lives in another state (he was home visiting his parents), so even if we had wanted to date, it would be pretty impossible.

Superquail asked

In response to my last post, Superquail asked what is keeping me from e-mailing the Craigslist guy:

Is it that you feel unsafe? Are you worried that you just don't have enough information to screen out a freak (or a guy with a groundhog)? What are the kinds of things you would need to feel more comfortable making contact with this person?

I guess it's that the dating site has all sorts of additional information on it, stuff you are asked to fill in when you start your profile (of course, all of that could be fake, but I like to think that it's mostly truthful), plus pictures. I didn't realize that when Craigslist personal ads are listed as having pictures that the pictures are usually of anything but the person in question. In this case, it's a (rather nice) drawing of a classroom—he's a high school teacher, supposedly.

I know that when you meet someone for the first time, say at a party or pub quiz or whatever, that you aren't going to have all of this background information; but at least you can see and talk to them in person. The gut feelings I get from an initial meeting are invaluable and I can't really get these online without much information.

I'll undoubtedly debate this in my head all day, but I'm thinking I might go ahead and e-mail Craigslist guy. What's the worst that could happen? Right?

I've been Yelping…

a lot more than I have been looking for a date online. Well, sort of. You see, there's this guy I found on the dating site a little while back who seemed pretty awesome. Problem was that he was not immediately in town, but rather a two-hour drive north. However, he works in town and said he was planning on moving here in a few months. He also said that he spent some time on Yelp. Not wanting to start anything with a guy that far away, but still interested, I messaged him and asked for his Yelp address so I could read his reviews. He sent me it, I read them, and that was that.

Then, about 10 days or so ago, I became, overnight, obsessed with writing reviews on Yelp. After writing about 20, I wrote the guy back—on Yelp—and asked if he'd like to compare notes with me. I didn't hear anything for over a week, so I assumed I never would. But then, low and behold, today I got a message back from him saying that he had been moving in to his new place here in town and had been a bit preoccupied, but that he would like to compare reviews once he was settled.

So we'll see. Perhaps something will come out of this.

In the meantime, I decided to check out Craigslist again. Tonight, being a Sunday, I figured I might have a better chance at finding legitimate postings, rather than the "are you free tonight to come over to shag" kind of posts I'd seen on a Saturday night. Sure enough, I found some, including one particularly good one. I know I wrote that I need to stop second-guessing myself, but, in comparison to the people on my regular dating site, I don't feel that I really know much about this guy (other than that he has an awesome sense of humor). What do you say? Should I message him?