Let's Pwn Those Newbs!

So if you haven't guessed by the huge gap between this entry and the last, things have slowed down a little. After messing things up with Frenchie, and after the catastrophic Security Guard date, I decided to step back and reconsider my approach. I changed my profile a bit. I took out some content and added some pictures. I remarketed myself. I relearned to boil an egg... and slowly but surely, things started to happen. Guys who I actually found attractive began to email me. Two, in fact, have particularly caught my interest, and I've been emailing them both for a couple weeks now. Allow me to introduce you:

First, let's meet Gilbert. That's not his name, that's his lizard's name (or at least it was until he found out the lizard was a girl... then he changed it to Gilberta). His first message to me was very straightforward. In my profile I mention one of my favourite places to walk, so he messaged me, said that he lives near there, and suggested we go for a walk sometime. This caught me off guard a little - I've gotten pretty used to the unwritten rules of The Site, and one of them is that you email each other a bit first before you agree to meet in person. But I thought about it, and decided that it's just as much a crap shoot either way, and I had nothing to lose by going for it. So with a witty reply email, I agreed that a walk would be a great idea.

Problem is, he's in the Czech. That's right, the Czech Republic. He's there on business. Turns out he'll be there until May 28, so we've ended up having quite a bit of time to get to know each other pre-date. His emails are great. We seem to share a lot of the same interests, and he has mentioned that he plays the guitar, which we all know is a big bonus for me. And for the record, he has put a handful of pictures up on his profile, and he looks totally cute. So that's pretty exciting. I look forward to seeing where this'll go...

The second e-man, for the purposes of this blog, will be dubbed Broker. He's not actually an insurance broker, but he does work for an insurance company, and I just think that'd be a pretty cool name. Maybe I'll name my first son Broker. It sounds solid.

So Broker was a bit of a hard nut to crack. He did seem interested at first, but he was kind of shy. He could carry a conversation enough to keep it going - he would ask at least a couple questions per email - but his questions were always rather dull and uninspiring. At least, they didn't make me excited to talk to him. It almost got to the point where I didn't want to bother anymore, but I guess that's the point when you can pull out all the stops and allow magic to happen.

I asked him to tell me a story; one that would teach me something about the person that he is. I know it's kind of an unfair question - it's pretty tough to summarize your whole persona into one anecdote - but I asked it of him anyway. And he responded. He responded well. He told me a story about a time when he borrowed his parents' car in university and the plates got stolen. It wasn't so much the story that impressed me as it was the fact that he stepped up. And for some reason, after that story email, his whole demeanor changed. He was a bit more confident, a bit more warm, a bit more real. I liked it.

So he asked for a story back, and that's when I realized what a difficult task it was that I had given him. I finally settled on a story about the first canoe trip I ever went on. It was long (I'm sure you've all figured out by now that I can be rather long-winded), but he seemed to like it. At least, he liked it enough to ask me out! I got an email from him tonight, asking if I'd be interested in going out for a drink or something. For a guy who lists "shy" on his profile as one of his characteristics, I'm kind of flattered, impressed and excited that he's wanting to pursue me. I will respond tonight in the affirmative, we'll choose a day for the date, and I'll keep you posted.

There's also another guy, but I'm not so sure about him. Let's call him Face: I made the first contact because I thought he was hot in his pictures. Shameless, I know. But he also seemed pretty cool, and he mentioned a couple things in his profile that resonated with me. So I sent him an email. Thing is, he spells the word "through" like "threw," and the word "know" like "no." Now for the record, I am totally happy to befriend poor spellers. I ignore the spelling mistakes of my friends (for the most part) and certainly don't let them change my opinion of them. But I'm really having a hard time getting past it in this one guy. He also spelled "sporadic" wrong, but really, who spells "sporadic" on a regular basis? He can't really be blamed for that. I don't know why it's bugging me so much. I made up a story in the shower this morning about what it would be like if we ended up dating, and how he would react if I made up a song to remind him how to spell the word "through." Then, of course, I proceeded to make up the song. It's pretty good, actually. Maybe I'll use it in my English class...

After rereading that last paragraph, I'm really not all that shocked that I'm still single. Oh gosh...

So anyway, that's what's going on. Those are the newbies: Gilbert, Broker, and Face. I promise, I'll write far more frequently now that I've got some fodder. Maybe even sooner than you think, if all goes well!