It's a Small World After All

Many of you may be interested in my dating status and how my online dating ventures are faring. In my previous post, Online Dating 101, I mentioned that I was seeing someone. That has since changed.

We were talking every day, and seeing each other a couple times a week. But I got the feeling we weren't progressing forward as we should. We had a hard time making conversation in person, and the distance began to grow between us. I am in this online dating “thing” for the real deal. I am serious about it, and am looking for someone to be in a long-term relationship. These bumps in the road to me were minor, and I was willing to fight through them if we could.

That process was put on hold when he told me he would be going out of town. That Saturday he sent a text, hoping I was having a good weekend. I replied that I hoped he was having a good trip. That same night I went out with a girlfriend in Buckhead. We were talking with a group we had met at the bar and for some reason I felt the need to look to my right. There he was. Not out of town at all, but scurrying out the front door because, I assume, he saw me beforehand, and was making a break for it.

First and foremost, why lie? But secondly, what are the odds? Out of all the bars in Atlanta, or even in Buckhead, how did we end up at the same place? To me, it was meant to be. He was doing a great job of sweet talkin', and, because I am so dedicated to having success, I was emotionally invested. Everything happens for a reason. It was something I needed to see with my own eyes, otherwise I wouldn't have seen his true colors due to the blindfold of lust.

That leads me to the topic of the fact that online dating in Atlanta is truly a smaller world than one might think. In the past year-and-a-half I have multiple stories. The first was when my friend wanted to hook me up with her boyfriend’s roommate. She showed him my facebook picture and he immediately confessed we had been emailing on the dating website. My friend hadn't even realized he had a profile. It was a relief to meet by our friend’s set-up, rather than having to go through the torture of a blind date, though.

On several occasions, after adding guys to my facebook, I found with the “mutual friends” feature that we know some of the same people. In a way, having friends vouch that the guy isn't a total weirdo helps take away from the negative connotation behind meeting people from the Internet. However, it’s a little awkward when you find out he had a “thing” with your friend back in college.

Another story was when I had this "muscle head" emailing me like crazy. I don't mean any disrespect by using that term - I prefer when a guy’s shirtsleeve looks as though it's cutting off his circulation. Gives me a sense of protection. He was just a little older than I usual date, so I kept blowing him off. Eventually we became facebook friends, but I still wouldn't meet him in person.

When I began playing in my spring sports league, I added all the people from the team to my social network. Next thing I know muscle head is messaging me asking how I knew one of the other players. Turns out, they were roommates! After blowing him off for months, now he'd know where I was once every week for games.

The most awkward situation was when a gentlemen and I realized while getting to know each other via email that we work in the same office! It is a big company, and we work in different departments, so based on just his pictures I didn't realize it. But, once the discovery was made I did recall seeing him around. Now we bump into each other from time-to-time, passing with only a friendly “hello.”

Online dating has really turned out to be quite fascinating. I'm not embarrassed by it, so these small-world stories haven't fazed me. In fact, I am thankful for the situations where mutual friends are involved, or my latest upset of having the opportunity to catch Mr. Sweet Talker in a lie.