Okay Stupid

I was trying to broaden the circle of women I was meeting for dating. It seemed like I kept meeting the same four single women everywhere I went. A friend of mine met her girlfriend on an online dating site and, she convinced me to give it a try. Timid at first, I didn’t want to put my picture up. What if someone recognizes me? But, if I’m advising others to get out there and take risks, then I must too.

So, created an account on OkCupid and spent some time writing my profile and choosing photos I thought represented my personality. Late one night, with a bit of trepidation, I finally hit publish.

The messages started coming right away. “Cute dog.” “I like the hiking and the Indigo Girls too! Wanna meet for coffee?” “I adore butchy girls!” At first it was exciting. Wow, look at her. She’s cute! Ha, ha, she made me laugh, I’ll send her a message. You’re a stone femme top, more power to ya, but no thanks.

I wrote to a few girls. A few wrote to me. Some I recognized from around town. I had a few happy hour dates. I wasn’t finding a lot of love connections, but I did meet some great women. I was having so much fun, I convinced a friend of mine to get online. She too, started to get messages right away.

In December, MountainAir sent me a message. She was cute, earnest and funny. And she was obviously new to it all because she sent me her name and her phone number right away. I was touched by her naivety. So I responded back. After a few messages back and forth, we made a date.

Then I saw a profile of someone I’d seen around town. She was tall and thin and into yoga and well, I don’t know if we had anything in common, but she was kind of sexy. Butterflywings. I sent her a message. We made a date.

I had my first date with MountainAir. Although new to the site, she’d been on a few dates and was seeing someone named CatchMe. That’s the point right, to get out and meet people. I told her about my upcoming date with Butterflywings. She smiled. “That’s the other girl CatchMe is dating.”

I called my friend to tell her about my successful date with MountainAir. “How’s it going for you?” I asked. “Great,” she said. “Some girl named CatchMe just asked me out and I have another date with this tall girl named Butterflywings.” I about spit my coffee out. So much for expanding my circle. Maybe there really are only four single lesbians in Portland.

*Names have been changed, but true story.