Online dating is like shopping at Forever 21. You have to sift through a bunch of crap before you find that one cute dress. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently test-drove HowAboutWe – a site that lets you suggest a date idea or tell someone you’d like to join them for their suggestion. Scanning dudes’ posts, I found a few, um, gems. HowAboutWe …
- “Stay in and take in a good movie while we take in each other.”
- “Go get stupid drunk and have blast. I only drink once a month so that one night is always fun.”
- “Both dress up as Snooki and make out.”
Reading these suggested dates depresses me because it makes me the majority of people online are only looking for casual sex. As you likely already know, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with consenting adults hooking up. It’s just that I don’t need a website to get it. The “send” button on my cell phone works just fine. So, if I’m online dating, I’m looking for something a bit more than strictly sex. To be fair, some of the dates posted sounded interesting, including HowAboutWe …
- “Go to the Sleep No More afterparty at the McKittrick Hotel on Sunday at 11pm. The timid need not apply.” (NOTE: You could argue this is as suggestive as ‘come to my place and make out,’ but I disagree.)
- “Spend a Saturday afternoon at the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. I hear they carved a 2,000 lb. pumpkin.”
- Walk the whole High Line Park and take pictures of the city views.
- Try one of New York’s Most Insane New Bacon Dishes as recommended by EaterNY
- Do a meatball challange, check out Meatball Shop and Meatball Factoryand see who is best
Any date that involves me ripping meat open with my incisors will always sound like fun. I can’t help it; I’m Midwestern. So, a few weeks ago, I gave HowAboutWe a try by contacting dudes who suggested meatloving dates. Online, like offline, when dudes ask me out to a restaurant, movie, museum, bar, or whatever, I often let them take the lead on suggesting the venue. I’m easily entertained; I usually don’t care what we do. However, a friend who attends Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts suggested I should make a list of everything I want to do in New York and, whenever someone asks me out, see it as an opportunity to cross something off my list. (Mama Gena’s is a New York institution as much as a part of the city as yellow taxi cabs. If you’re not familiar with her, listen to a free audio sample that promises to fan the flame of your desires. You’re welcome.)
Anyway. Where was I? Oh, yes, online dating.
In addition to link up with a  few HowAboutWe guys who intrigued me with their date ideas, I posted a date idea or two of my own, including: How about we watch people skinny-dip at Carsten Höller’s “Experience” at the New Museum? After living in New York nearly 7 years, it’s one of the few museums I had yet to visit. To my delight, a dude said he would like to join me. I was even more surprised when I found out we actually already knew each other through a mutual friend. We went Dutch at the museum and hung out for the day. I had fun! (NOTE: The exhibit’s slide is more intimidating than you’d think. I screamed like I motherfucking banshee on the way down.)
Cutting through the bullshit, online dating is often about finding someone with whom you can share your time, touch, lick, kiss, and/or possibly sleep with. So, yeah, if you’re interested in trying something different, I’d suggest giving HowAboutWe a try. After the free trial they gave me expired, I didn’t renew it; but, the experience was well worth it.
