I joined OKCupid in the fall of 2005, when I was a really bored college freshman. I was not interested in dating anyone from a website. I just wanted to take mindless internet quizzes for a couple hours while all my friends were off having sex.
So I did. And then forgot about it. And then every few months, I would reach the depths of boredom, and the process would repeat itself.
In the summer of 2008, I went to NYC for an internship. My good friend Jezebel was one of the few people I knew in the city, so I spent a lot of time lounging in her apartment. One day, she complained "I'm bored". And then... the saga began.
Since I am really just a thirteen-year-old at heart, I said "Let's take internet quizzes!". Except Jezebel wasn't so much into the quizzes as she was the free dating site aspect. She created a profile, and then nagged me into filling out mine. We looked at the young men of the city spread out before us... it was like looking at a boy catalog! How could we resist?
Okay. I admit it. I was the first one to go on a date. I found a hip, smart Japanese boy in Brooklyn who gave me a pretty good rating. He invited me to see a show at the Whitney Museum, which naturally appealed to me. We met up at Starbucks. He was barely taller than me and had a wispy goatee. I rolled with it. We went to the museum and he had all sorts of interesting things to say about Buckminster Fuller, and we kept up a steady conversation all the way through the museum. Eventually we ended up outside and continued our stroll through Central Park, where we stopped to watch the birds and talk about Apple's business plans. He seemed incredibly knowledgable about a lot of things. He was also a college dropout about six months younger than me. I was intrigued. We walked halfway across Manhatten before we decided to hop train back to Brooklyn and have dinner at a little place he knew in Williamsburg.
Dinner took a long time. We shared a few appetizers and had a few drinks, and the sky was dark by the time we left. We were still keeping up the conversation. I mentioned a friend in passing who loved Ayn Rand and didn't believe in evolution. The Boy's eyebrows raised. "Well," he said, "I mean, I think there are some valid points there."
I was drunk. Part of me said "Uh oh" but I breezed over it and went on.
Eventually it was about 10 pm and we had spent the last 7 hours together. Epic date. I parted with him at the subway station, ready to head back to Jezebel. He gave me a peck on the lips and I left with a smile on my face.
Soooooooooo
I saw him once more a week later and found him weird and supremely annoying. I was leaving NYC in two weeks, I was completely broke, and our great conversation had stalled in the face of my stress. Who was this weird Randian college dropout? Why did I kiss him? What on earth happened? This whole boy catalog thing wasn't as great as I had hoped.
Thus ended my first (and only) experience with OkCupid dating. Jezebel has many more interesting stories to tell on that subject. I can only take credit for getting the ball rolling.
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