meeting online

I was surfing around and decided to read some more into Joey's blog today. Low and behold - gossip. I was disappointed she didn't have a PG story for mr.hurc (who I must say is not blogging much these days -come on, tells us how you're feeling) but I was amused with the subject at hand, meeting people online. How many of you have?

If I'm not mistaken, of the most bizzare coincidences, I believe mr.hurc himself was initiated into our group of ex-marianopolites through the computer science servers. We somehow integrated this confused, nerdy, sit at the front of class fracophone into the brazen, studly, man that we know today. This is probably the one case in my life of an online relationship which transitioned succesfully into the real world.

On the other hand, for the sake of completeness, I will admit to my own dabbles at internet love. The first person that comes to mind was some girl I met on a BBS. (yeah, that's right, that's pre-WWW) Blah blah blah I ended up going to a high school dance at... ECS. That's right, the girls' school near Marianopolis, the same school we pass everytime we do a club workout on Summit Circle. To top my feelings of oddness (I was at Marianopolis at the time) I ran into a girl I KNEW at the school. (ie. I was embarassed as her parents sort of know me.) This girl took photos of me with nameless girl. There's evidence out there...

I remember being invited to a party by a fairly cute, older girl - but all I remember from that night was playing "bearball" on the street with a baseball bat and a stuffed teddy. (Maybe that's why I never heard from her/don't remember her.) Oh, oh, and I remember another one. I met this "person" on a BBS and we started chatting and then I realized that this person knew a friend of mine... with a login name "christy" or something I assumed it was a woman... NOOOOo not only was it a MAN, it was my friend's DAD! WTF!@*#&

What did I learn from experience? The world is too small. Men love to fantasize, especially by picking up other personas online (ie. women). If they send you a picture that's too good to be true, it probably is. Lavalife doesn't work. (Or at least not for me.) This isn't Cyrano de Bergerac, a woman isn't going to marry you for your words; its best sticking to meeting people the old fashioned way. First impressions are critical. I'm not Sherlock Holmes but clothes, mannerisms, appearance (clean cut, no gunk under fingernails, clothes etc.) say a lot...