Well, what else is new?

Oh hey.

It's me again.

I'm going to sincerely try to be better at blogging this year. This could be another of those well-intentioned New Year's resolutions that tapers off by mid-February, but my life has spiced up in some new and interesting ways, so I think I have more to write about, which will hopefully help.

For one thing, I finally signed up for online dating.

I know.

*GASP!* YOU DID WHAT??

That's a slight exaggeration of my parents' reaction. ;)

It's taken me a long time to come around to the idea because, I'll be honest, I was totally one of those people who thought that online dating was for desperate losers who couldn't catch the attention of anyone in real life. Considering the status of my dating life the last four years, that might not be too far off from the truth. :P

Kidding. Totally kidding.

The idea has been growing on me ever since my best friend from college met her husband through online dating. She's definitely not a desperate loser, and she had a really good experience with it. Then it seemed like all of my friends were getting married that way. (The ones who weren't were marrying people they knew from high school and that is not an option for me.) And all of these people getting married were amazing, socially graceful, intelligent people. Huh. Maybe there's something to this online dating thing after all. But I still put it off for over a year. I finally signed up in November.

And guess what?

It's been pretty cool, actually. I like that the whole concept of online dating is that you have a lot of information about the person right up front, and it kind of facilitates a more open conversation about expectations. I like cutting through the mind games and the weird back-and-forth dynamics of trying to show interest without showing interest that we do so much. For example, I've had a couple of first dates where the guy was like, "Well, this was fun. How are you feeling about a second date?" And I was allowed to decline a second date (or encourage one) without him getting all weird about it. The honesty is refreshing. (It has blown up in my face a few times, where someone takes my difference of opinion personally and gets all mad, but those just make good stories later, and it doesn't happen that often, so I don't care.)

So I'm having some fun with that. Plus, I just went from going on one or two dates per year to having one or more a week, and even though it gets a little overwhelming sometimes, I don't mind having that problem. It's nice to be meeting new people and occasionally making new friends out of it.

Out of respect to the guys--because who knows whether any of them may or may not find this blog--I'm actually going to be a little close-lipped about the specifics of my dates. I'm not going to use them as fodder for blogging material (unless I get a story that's just begging for it). It's also better for me to keep my interests and hopes about specific guys a little more private. Trust me, if I find a good one, you'll hear about him eventually. ;)

So yeah. Online dating. It's not that scary. In fact, it's actually been really nice for my self-esteem to discover that there are guys who will pick me out of a sea of faces and pursue me because they think I'm worth getting to know (and the occasional doofus who's like, "Ur hott, want 2 go out?" is kind of nice, too. As shallow as it is, it's just a teensy bit satisfying to know that I'm pretty enough for some of those super shallow guys who don't care about a girl's personality. I would never date one, obviously, and I might be a bad person for enjoying the attention, but there you have it. I'm just a little bit shallow sometimes).

Overall, I'm just happy that I have lots of opportunities to meet good guys. It's very possible that I'll still meet someone at church, or at work, or serving in the temple (how cheesy and adorable would that be?). I haven't given up on that at all. But if by chance my man is living a couple of cities away and wouldn't bump into me on a normal day, well, now he can still find me. That's worth the effort of online dating, in my opinion.

And I guess I'll have to give more updates later. I rambled longer than planned. :)