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

Oh, Lord. Tinder. I made the official plunge a couple days ago, after I called it off with "The Marine". I renewed my Match and joined Tinder. Match has so far served up a continuous stream of "nope". On Tinder, I felt like an elderly grandmother trying to figure out Twitter or Facebook, the kind whose posts show up on "Fail" sites because they accidentally used the status bar like it was a search engine. It's been about 48 or so hours, and I've racked up over 700 likes. Don't get too excited for me, though. If you are unfamiliar with Tinder, take a meat market bar, put it in decent lighting, and then upload it to the internet. Eh, voila! Tinder! I have seen primary profile pictures that were only (mostly naked) shoulders to knees with the profile "just looking for friendship" with no additional pictures. I have literally seen primary profile pictures that were a Subway sandwich. I was "liked" by a guy who listed amo...

Most of you know about this blog from Facebook, so you are probably up-to-date on all my drama. If for some reason you are not, here is a brief recap: - “met” hot Marine online - fell hard, and he claimed to as well - initial background check of Marine was clear - Marine’s story began to fall apart as he started demanding money - I called out the Marine on his lies and called off the relationship  - he began harassing me online & via text, threatening to post NSFW pics of me online and send them to my employers if I didn’t pay him - I filed a police report, and as per the officer’s instructions told the “Marine” that I had - harassment escalated (he started using a different phone number); scammer used the word “blackmail” - scammer has been blocked everywhere he finds me and my online security has been significantly ramped up - a friend found the REAL Marine in the photos, whose rank and first/last name match what the scammer gave me; my friend contacted ...

When I started this blog over 6 years ago, I did it because I had joined Match, gotten a date, and the date was such an epic and hilarious failure and so many people wanted to hear the story that I found started a blog was the best way to disseminate information. Over the years I’ve shared some very personal things here, and quite a few funny stories. I’ve had trolls comment and threaten to “tell my church leaders” that I was having sex outside of marriage, claiming they would “get [me] fired” and calling me all sorts of uncouth names. I’ve run this blog behind a veil of secrecy, never naming the men I’ve dated or sharing information about them that could get them identified in real life. What I didn’t anticipate was a loss of a certain amount of privacy from my friends. I’m guilty of sometimes over sharing, both here on the blog and on social media. But oversharing doesn’t equate an automatic right to be able to pass judgment on my life choices. I understand my friends are con...

I haven’t reactivated my Match account yet. I did set up a new one and it has gotten quite a bit of attention... but I haven’t yet plunked down the credit card. I’m ready, this time for sure. So what is holding me back? Honestly, first it was surgery recovery and now it’s simply the question: “do I have the time for dating?” Then again, I’ve asked that question of myself for 20 years. And here I am at 42, 6 years after starting this blog, still single. Oh, there have been ups, definite ups. And there have definitely been downs. And there have been the just plain weirds, for as we all know this blog wouldn’t exist without those! The latest chapter of the weirds comes to us from “Words With Friends”. I’m a huge nerd and I love word games. I love Scrabble, and I’m a competitive person. For a long time, my WWF profile picture was actually me. Then, the sketchy game requests started coming in. I’m not a stunner, but who doesn’t make sure their internet profile pictures are their absolut...