Part of the Journey

Since I'm away to Utah, and in an effort to thank my wonderful husband for this very fun birthday trip, I thought I'd entertain my 5 faithful readers (maybe there's more... but, I don't want to get my hopes up) with just 3 of the 618 bazillion reasons why I knew Brian was the one for me. (Plus, this way he knows that although I'm having fun while I'm away, I do miss him terribly.)

As many of you may or may not know, Brian and I met online... I was living in Mesa, and he was in Denver. Ours was a fairly short courtship - I wouldn't let him meet me in person for the first 6-7 weeks (this was my potential safeguard against a really bad date), so we spent nearly every evening chatting online or on the phone, getting to know each other better. He came out to visit me in Arizona on a weekend in May, and before he left for home, I knew he was the one. We were engaged in July, and married that December.

Prior to dipping my toes in the insane world of online dating, I was living in Provo, and growing tired of feeling like an old maid in my mid- to late-20s. I had moved to Provo for school right after HS graduation, and then stayed and worked full-time for many years. While I was never looking to get married young, I always figured that the chances of me finding him were going to be higher, living in Utah. Years, and years went by. Sure, there were plenty of boys my age and older around, but the problem was that every September a fresh new crop of very young females (18-19 yrs) moved into town, and there went all the boys' attentions. Sad, but true.

So, I pimped myself online for just a couple of years, generally having fun, but mostly going on really bad dates. At least I was entertained... as was my good friend, Andi, who helped me screen many potential suitors.

I'll admit, pickings were pretty slim online. Occasionally, there was a prime candidate... one who had never married or had any children, was active in church and possibly served a mission, had an education and a good job, had at least a moderately attractive picture and was taller than 5'9", and had a well-written profile with an evident sense of humor and mental stability. That was an ideal suitor, and only describes about 2% of the profiles I saw online. Most of the men, in the age range I was seeking, had at least been married before and maybe even had children. These were things I decided I needed to be open to, especially if I wanted to give the online dating thing a shot. Geographically, I was open, but mostly focused on those in the western US. I suppose I figured that the more open I was, within reason of course, the more likely I would be to find someone with whom I would be compatible.

Just before I (Aimgrrl) met Brian (Brian72), I was on the verge of giving up the whole shebang. It was getting really old, and the bad dates were starting to take their toll. While I had only "advertised" myself on church dating sites (like LDSMingle, and LDS Singles), it was surprising how many seemingly eligible, worthy men really just wanted to hook you into a chat to try to have online cyber sex... yes, disturbing, I know. A few, however, didn't seem to have those nasty intentions, and made the cut to a face-to-face meeting.

I must admit, I was also a little inspired to finally post these stories after seeing this article on People.com last week, about how Kate Hudson once was on a date so boring, that she got up and left (shocking!). Boring? That's all you've got, Kate?? Boring, I could handle... horrific, well that's another story... ;)

Stay tuned in the coming days for
Aimgrrl's Top Three Worst Online Dates Ever!
(I think you'll be pretty entertained... at least, I hope so!)

And if you have Dating Stories from Hell, too...
(yours might even be worse than mine...)
I wanna read all about them!! :)