Still crazy single after all this year

It was nearly a year ago that the Online Dater’s Club was conceived, as I licked my blizzard-time romance wounds over beers with friends doing likewise, discussing the prospect of collectively joining Match.Com and other dating websites. Despite our promises made over a drunken toast, only half of my snow-weary companions followed through that day, while the other half managed to work things out with their current companions from real life, evading this fate.

In the space of 12 months, the way I’ve described my relationship with Internet dating has evolved from anthropological study, to hobby, to actual tool for meeting potential life partners. In other words, I’m a lot less embarrassed now to be doing what I’m doing. While the original intent of this blog was to offer my friends a corner to discuss their dating exploits in a club-like atmosphere, it quickly became apparent that it was a solo mission. However, the act of online dating has made extraordinary strides in social acceptability in the space of a year, and I have become not so lonely in this universe as more of my single friends than I had ever thought possible have taken what I once referred to as “a headline plunge into the masochistic abyss”.

Still, I can’t believe it’s been a year since I sat on the couch with my mother, evading the smoking question on my JDate profile while she watched over my shoulder and put away her freshly used credit card to buy me the potential to go on dates with guys whose last names bear the suffix Stein. As evidenced by her enthusiasm that evening, I imagine her dream for me resembles this tableau:



Unlike many of its contemporaries, ODC had no defined goal, just a vague interest on my part to deliver my thoughts on a modern form of courtship with experiential research as my fodder. While its true the consistency of my writing here has faltered as I've become employed, gone out with dates with men from real life, and have had the opportunity to reach a wider audience, I remain loyal to the forum where it all began.

Whether single and clicking buttons on websites to express interest in other humans, or romantically attached in that superior way of yours to someone met in the real world, I want to thank all my readers . It was you who I thought of and held dear to my heart when on the very worst dates of my life.