I will not hit "delete profile" until I've had ONE date

I did it.  I went online. And I bucked convention - I skipped jdate and went straight to OKCupid.  Caution to the wind.  Seriously.

For those of you married folk who are living vicariously, OKCupid has these tests you take... like purity tests, personality tests, what kind of geek are you tests, and all kinds of weird user-submitted tests.  And it's FREE.  Before I even completed my profile, I had my first "wink" -- and before I finished it, I had my first email.  "You're gorgeous.  What's your name? Do you have a racial preference?"  Sez he.   He has no profile, just a picture taken in the mirror in some military uniform that has so many medals on it that it he would have to be twice his age to have earned them.

I am still dinking around online.  Fifteen minutes later, he instant messages me.  "Why didn't you answer me?"  It's a brief conversation, during which I learn that he is IMing through his phone, which is sooo much easier than the computer, except that's why he hasn't filled out his profile.  Did you make sense of that?  Me either.  

Another one emailed, but he gets high occasionally and that ain't me.  He wrote back "you smoke."  which led me to find a very important error on my profile.  Under smoking (as in cigarettes), I had marked "trying to quit" -- OOPS!!  He couldn't spell on his own profile, but he found an error on mine. 

While reviewing my matches, I found one I wouldn't even look at. His profile name "2cheap4match" -- as if putting yourself on OKCupid isn't a sufficient declaration.  And why exactly would he brag about this?  It just struck fear in me that I would, in fact, find men who were cheap versus the men who paid the matchmaker big $$$.  You would think there is something to my rationale here, but maybe applying logic to use of dating "help" is a lost cause.

I did find two seemingly ordinary, interesting men.  Jewish even.  I emailed them, bland, one-liner emails that clearly showed I actually read their profiles.  One I asked to play Scrabble since he likes board games (among other thigns).  The other I asked about the carved Halloween pumpkin in his photo.  

Believe it or not, I did use much of the profile I put in the other day.  But shortened to a "10 things you need to know about me."  And took out the stuff Joe College told me was overkill.

And I promise, despite the flotsam now filling up my inbox from guys I never want to meet, I will not delete the profile until I've gone out on a date with a least one guy from OKCupid.

The irony of my timing in going online, is that my Latin Lover called today and the Matchmaker coughed up a potential new match (after I left her a message to ask her if she was going out of business).  

I might have forgotten to mention the Latin Lover. Last Saturday I went to a bar with my friend M -- she's a lovely women, svelte figure, Israeli looks, which strikes a sharp contrast to my fair complexion, straight strawberry-blonde hair and curves.  It's fun to go out with her.  And for whatever reason, at this one bar, we caught a lot of attention.  The Latin Lover is actually a distinguished man in his forties, with an interesting career involving the environment.  I'm about to head off to my hometown for ten days, but we'll be heading out on a date when I return.  

When it rains it pours.