I'm definitely someone who is open to trying new things. Sometimes I wish I hadn't planted a strange seed in my mind after I'm knee deep into whatever crazy idea I've challenged myself into, but most of the time things work out well. When I moved out to San Diego this past summer, my sister suggested the fantastic idea of creating a Match. com profile in order to meet new people. Having been the fearless girl that I am, I proceeded onto creating my profile. I went on countless dates with many guys who must have been eager to get me caught-up-to-speed on the one thing that Match fails to ask when filling out your page information......,"Why is your ass REALLY single and looking for love online?" It never failed, within the first 20 minutes it was as clear as Bahama waters as to why these poor saps were on Match. Typically I'd say to myself "just sit here, nod your head, slap a slightly fake smile on your face and enjoy this free meal, dammit."
After coming home with hilarious stories date after date and sharing these comic episodes with my roommate, I finally expired online and got away from the internet dating scene. Then one afternoon, about 3 months later, I received an email from my good friends at Match.com. It was like receiving an email from Cupid himself!! They offered me a free month to come back and attempt to find "true love" once again, as if the first failed attempt wasn't enough of a let down. The only love I had been finding through these dates was buried at the bottom of wine bottles and coffee mugs!! But I said "What the hey...do I really have anything to lose?" Little did I know....my dignity was going to be on the line shortly after this thought.
I received a message on my profile page from a guy who shared with me that he and I had something in common, we both thought my pictures on my profile were pretty. I took some time to stalk his profile, read his bio, check out his pictures and then wrote him back saying that the feeling was mutual. A couple of days later I received another email asking if I was going to join him for wine tasting at said given date and time. This kind of approach caught me off guard. The "so are we gonna do this or what" tone seemed to grab my interest and I responded back saying, "Yes, I'll meet you there!" We met up, complimented each other on our scent selections for the evening, similar to the way dogs smell one another for acceptance verification, and the night commenced from there. After a couple of glasses of wine, my guard came down and I felt that this guy was not going to be like the others. He was interesting, well spoken, and managed to keep a smile on my face for a good duration of the evening.
Many "firsts" were shared with this guy, not only on the first date, but throughout our entire cupid connection. After wine tasting we walked the streets in search of more adult liquid refreshments, wound up at a hole in the wall karaoke bar and shared a cigarette (which is not a common thing for me according to my Match.com profile). This night was the first date to a series of interesting events.
On date number three I was invited over to his place for wine and a movie. I got dressed up all cute in my favorite black and red dress that does interesting things to the opposite sex. After I showed up, we sat on his couch, listened to an awesome selection of music and managed to get through a bottle of wine that allowed for conversation to flow just as quickly. We decided to take a trip down to the store in order to condone one another's alcohol consumption for the evening. On our way out of the door, we manage to laugh ourselves down the walkway while migrating to the car. Whatever it was that we were laughing at must have been so funny that it distorted my 20/25 vision. I completely missed the bright red paint that coated a curb which hugged the parking lot we were walking towards. Not only did the red paint fail to serve it's purpose with me, but my dress being so long didn't assist in my venture. As I stepped from the side walk to the parking lot pavement, I failed to realize that there was a difference in height. I must have traded the wine in for my depth perception, because I ended up tripping and falling all the way down to my knees. My "match" instantly came to my rescue and helped me up. I couldn't stop laughing once he pointed out to me that I managed to fall an entire 4 feet off of a curb that literally was no more than 3 inches high. We brushed me off and continued on our wine mission. What my "match" didn't know, was that I was in extreme pain from my knee down to my ankle and then on to my toes. Having already shown off my walking skills and the lack there of, I couldn't dare put my low tolerance for external physical pain on display. Plus, what kind of a Marine would I be if I can't drink, walk, fall and then get up and act as if nothing hurt me in my dramatic sidewalk scene?
Luckily blood was not drawn in this fatal embarrassment and we spent some more great dates together afterwards. I've never shared so many firsts with someone who I met off of a website and had no background information on prior to the first date. Things tapered off as quickly as they developed, but I can honestly say.....there were more laughs shared in our staggered dates that make me very glad to have met this one.
