Guest Blogger Alert: Julia, Part One~

I love guest bloggers for many reasons. One, I love other people's stories. Two, I love when my friends and family get involved in my stories. And three, sometimes I am lazy and it is nice to just write this little intro paragraph and be done. This guest blogger is Julia, who is a friend of mine that is a few years younger than me. We had very similar kinds of stories except I married my high school sweetheart and then got divorced while she was spared that final part. But we have similar backgrounds and viewpoints and I kind of feel like she could be one of my little sisters. She just told me that she is trying out online dating and I peer pressured her into guest blogging about it because it is funny and relevent and, as previously mentioned, sometimes I am lazy. Enjoy!
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After three and a half years of being single, and having the ability to view my ex’s recent wedding pictures on facebook, I have taken a giant step in the direction of romance, dating, and dare I say it…love. I have joined an online dating site. I have never done anything of the sort before, so I was a little apprehensive at first, but during the past few weeks, it has definitely proven to be – exciting, to say the least.

The first day I joined, I chatted online with a guy for over four hours. I am not usually one to spend very much time on the net, especially during the daylight hours, but this guy was really funny, witty and charming, so I said ‘What the heck, I don’t have anything better to do!’ (and, he was really good-looking). We had what I thought was a really nice, intellectual conversation…and I never heard from him again. Slightly bummed, I logged in the next day, to find about ten messages from various men residing within 50 miles of my small town in the South. One guy was 29, really good looking, sweet, and lives four hours away from me, in S.C. (Oh, and he has a temporarily gimp leg with a titanium rod in it from a wakeboarding accident the beginning of August). I liked him though, so I decided to message him back. He and I e-mailed and IMed for the next four days, and later exchanged phone numbers. He had taken to calling me every evening for the next week and a half. Enter two weeks later, and he has had what he called a ‘bad’ weekend, and was acting stand-offish and weird. I was a little perturbed by this, but thought ‘Oh well, just a bad couple of days.’ During the next week, we talked less and less, but since he lives about an hour away from Charlotte and I was heading there that weekend to get a girlfriend, he and I made plans to meet up. Saturday evening before I got comfy, I sent him a simple text asking what we would do the following morning, and he responds that he hasn’t any ideas. I tell him to get back with me when he has a plan, and that I am up for anything. So, I don’t hear from him all night, and I’m on my way to Charlotte the next morning and I get another text that says ‘Sorry, I went to bed early. We’ll just have to hang out another time.’ Now, I am a pretty understanding gal, but I was irritated at this, so several hours later (so to not text and drive), I message him back saying that this clearly isn’t the right timing for us and we should just be friends for now. He gets upset and responds ‘Ok, goodbye Julia.’ I laugh it off and pick up my girlfriend and drive three hours back home.

As I am settling in that night, I receive an e-mail from this guy saying that he is sorry he failed me and he thought we had a real future, but he felt really pressured to meet me, and it made him very uncomfortable since we’ve only known each other for three weeks. I was like WTF!?! I responded far more nicely than I believe he deserved, but the ending result is that I am “deleted” from his life.

And, all because I was honest. Let me say this, I refuse to date or become romantically involved with a BIG baby...and I will repeat it for you, I REFUSE to DATE or BECOME ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED with a BIG BABY! To Jeff, in S.C., grow up! On a happier note, I found a guy who is my own age, is living in Raleigh, and is originally from Grand Rapids. He and I met just last weekend and although I am not physically attracted to him (yet?), we had an awesome time, and we are going to hang out again. And we had only just met the weekend before via e-mail correspondence. I’ve also talked with a few other potentials, and plan to meet as many non-creepy, non-stalker, non-overbearing, established, sexy, grown-up men as I can.

I had decided shortly after my last birthday (in June) that I was going to take advantage of any and all opportunities that present themselves to me, and I think this is one of those times. So, I’m not sure if this online thing is going to work out for me, but it’s worth a shot, right? And thanks Steph, for letting me be a guest-blogger!