Online Dating at 36 - The Good, the Bad, & WTH?

I have said this before, and inevitably I will say it again: I am a woman of words.  On top of that, I have been told -- and I tend to take pride in -- my penmanship, which is a dying art form (in my opinion).  One of my greatest pleasures is to actually write out a meaningful card or letter long-hand, with carefully chosen words and usually a poignant quote or, depending on the recipient, Bible verse. When it comes to romantic relationships, can you get any more "old school" than a handwritten letter?  Be it an actual love letter, or something less intimate, the fact that one person took the time to write out their thoughts on a piece of paper has meaning. But it is 2012.  When you want or need to communicate with someone, we text, email, Facebook.  We might,  but probably not, even use our cell phone as a - gasp! - phone.  The handwritten letter is becoming a thing of the past, a quaint thing our grandparents did because they didn't have their ow...

Good evening, all.  I'm here blogging because, honestly, I need to air these thoughts somewhere. Yesterday was 7 weeks since my first date with P.  Good Lord, where has the time gone?  And in the past 7 weeks, I thought I'd just about figured out communicating with him, at least via text. Ha. I've mentioned before how P doesn't really do small talk, chit chat, whatever you wish to call it, via text.  Being a typical verbose woman, I will send him a text when a particular random thought crosses my mind or something.  I have come to the point where I know I will not get a reply, and I'm okay with that. Apparently, at some point in the past 7 weeks -- more like the past 2 -- one or both of us has entered into a different dimension.  Bizarro world. Lately, if I text a random comment, one that I would never expect a reply to... I tend to get a reply.  Say what?!  However, if I send a question, something that asks for a response... silence. ...

There's a pretty good chance I'll be taking a hiatus from this blog for a while.  No, I'm not dropping off the dating radar like I did a couple months ago, on the edge of disillusionment and burn-out from multiple bad dates and emails and the like.  This would be for a different reason. I started this blog initially as a way to chronicle the various dates I went on and the men I "met" through the site.  I envisioned this to be a series of humorous, snarky posts about the bad profiles, the cheesy pick-up lines in emails, the mediocre coffee or drink dates, with maybe a bright spot or two along the way.  Frankly, because of my history with men, I flat out expected my 6 month membership to Match to run its course without me finding anyone.  I'd struck out with a local online dating service in Houston, and again a decade later here in KC with eHarmony.  Why should Match be any different, thought ever-cynical me. Then I got a "wink" from P, which chan...

Sonnambulexting (verb) 1. the act of sending text messages while asleep with no recollection of it in the morning.   Origins: totally made up by me about 2 hours ago. I did a Google search on "texting while asleep," wondering if there was an actual term for it.  No specific term popped up, but hundreds of news stories and medical studies did.  The short of it is that it is a "new" sleep disorder, and it is believed to be caused by stress among other things.  Go figure. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.  Let's back up to about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. It was a long day at school.  I hit the ground running and I never stopped.  Usually I have one or two classes that are "easy," but not yesterday.  All of my plan periods & breaks had me running around like crazy.  Topping that all off was that I was a little sleep-deprived because of the hour-long overnight sexting with P.  I had to stay late to make an appearance at the ...

...because sometimes, the universe gives you exactly what you wish for. As we all know, I'm overly analytical and have enough angst about my dating life to give some of those popular teen books a run for their money.  So when the texting conversations between me and P went away from the sexting and into normal territory, I was happy.  Maybe we could have an actual relationship, not just bed-buddies!  And then when that continued for several days, I gradually went from happy to concerned. Was he cooling off on me?  Was the second round not good enough for him, in spite of what he said?  Did he no longer find me physically desirable? Cue building panic, based on years of singledom and prior rejections after only a couple of fun nights. I was admittedly missing the sexting.  I was also missing, believe it or not, the 3:00 a.m. text messages.  Crazy as it is to be awakened in the middle of the night, I oddly find it comforting or flattering...

Two days a week, I am in a classroom at a parochial (Catholic) school, teaching music to about 135 students aged Kindergarten through 8th grade.  And while my subject area is indeed music, I'm also teaching concepts related to math, English, history, and life lessons -- things like how to be friends, sharing, how we behave, saying you're sorry.  My classroom may be my domain, my kingdom to rule, but there are times where my students teach me.   Today was one of those days. It started with my first class, which is 7th grade.  What I didn't say about my coffee date with K was that as we were placing our order, there was a tween-aged girl ahead of us paying for her ice cream.  A tween-aged girl that I knew.  Because she was one of my students. Awkward. It wasn't the first time I've run into one of my students outside of the classroom, and when it happens, I'm usually regarded as an animal on a safari.  The idea that teachers shop, go to restaurants,...

Good evening, friends!  Just a quick update since I haven't posted in a couple of days. First of all, I have not heard again from K.  Admittedly, I haven't emailed him, either.  While it's a little perplexing that I haven't heard from him since he seemed all into me and all that, since I'm not really interested in anything further with him it's okay that I haven't heard from him.  It keeps my life simpler. When it comes to P, that is moving along as it has been.  We've actually been able to go now several days with decent text conversations that have been ultimately devoid of sexting.  Crazy, I know!  And while I might be making a mountain out of a molehill ( me?! ) there have been a couple of texts from him where he's lifted the shield just a wee bit. See, he's not big on talking about himself, letting other people in.  He doesn't talk about his day other than general non-sequiturs like "It was a sh!tty day at work."  Again, ...