" I'm sorry. I just can't do this anymore."
The apartment darkens as the computer screen shuts down.
Those were the last words she ever spoke to me. They still haunt me even though it has been over a year. Everyone agrees (myself included) that I should move on. Everyone agrees that the best way to do that is to find someone new. Okay, here we go.
A little history. A few months after I was divorced a friend convinced me to join an online dating service. Your first matches are free. I was immediately enamored with a trapeze artist in New York City. I mean, she was a trapeze artist. Actually, I think she was some guy who works at eHarmony.com. Can you say bait?
Well, anyway, I signed on. It was actually fun. Many of my matches were in New York, so I would take the train to the City. It was all rather romantic. I would have a drink or dinner and meet some of the strangest people on the planet. One was a Brazilian-Haitian Mormon. That's right. There are less than four of them on the planet. She was very pretty and fun. I finally asked her how she became a Mormon.
"They came to my door."
Conclusion - you never know what is going to work. So when I saw an ad online for Koreancupid.com I joined. A little more history. My Freshman year in college I wrote a 'dating' program to match people up in our dorm. Some guys on my floor had the idea and generated a questionnaire with simple questions like 'what color eyes do you like?'. The response was rather impressive. If I had any business sense... oh, well, Facebook wasn't to happen for another 20 years.
These guys had no way of matching the responses, so they asked me if I could write a program. That was way beyond my ability (and still is), but I had a program that could grade tests. By using one questionnaire as the key we could match the people that had the most similar answers. Of course, that meant matching guys who liked red heads to women that also liked red heads. Not perfect (they had something in common), but I think it is better than Koreancupid.com.
Indeed, Koreancupid.com is basically random. For instance, I am looking for someone between the ages of 35-50. Most of my matches are 28-32 who are looking for someone 25-38. Okay, I'm looking for someone who can speak English. A large percentage (maybe 40%) have no English skills. Okay, I guess I'm just looking for interesting profile pictures. The winner was a very pretty young lady with a tattoo on her arm that read 'Respect Grandma'. I know this culture respects its elders, but really?
Another winner was an extremely attractive lady who wrote one sentence in her bio. "I am transgender." My first thought was one of thanks for saving me the embarrassment of contacting him/her. My second thought was one of fear, not knowing if all transgenders were so forthright.
Oh, the joys of dating. Don't worry. It gets better.
