On Rocking, Wondering and Taking Applications

I don’t get it. I really don’t get it.

He responded to my blasted Yahoo Personals ad weeks ago. We swapped emails and chatted online and spent hours on the phone together. It’s clear there is a connection between us, and yet I can’t get the guy to agree to meet me. He just won’t commit to it.

At first he claimed to be busy. Then his tune changed and now he says he is nervous. He doesn’t want to “muck it up.” As far as I can see, there isn’t anything to muck up if he refuses to meet me face-to-face. I’m not going to have a relationship with someone I’ve never met. And I fail to see how something that is nothing can be mucked up.

I also fail to see why anyone would bother creating an online personals ad, answer another single person’s ad, spend hours getting to know someone and then refuse to go on a date. Where is the sense in that? If you aren’t willing to meet someone in person, why waste everyone’s time to begin with?

There worst part is that I really liked this one. He had a lot of potential. Most of the time I have to talk myself into being interested in the men I meet online, but there was no need to convince myself with this one. But as each day goes by and we don’t have plans to meet, it becomes more and more clear that he will just be another in a long line of men to disappoint me. And that is really sad considering I am not asking for much in this case. I’m just asking for a dinner date with a man who sought me out on a personals site. Is that so crazy?

Clearly I need to do one of two things. I need to either a) go back into seclusion and completely give up dating or b) figure out a better way to meet men.

I like the first option because it’s easy. It’s not a challenge to just shut down and forget about dating. I’ve done it before for months on end and survived. I’ve no doubt I can rock the strictly single life again if I need to. But if I am honest with myself, I don’t want to do that. I’d rather rock the world of some really great guy.

And so I am left to figure out other ways to meet men. The problem is that I don’t do my best work in person. I tend to clam up and assume no one wants to bother with me. The whole public pickup game is way beyond me. I’ve got no skills, people.

I’m thinking the real solution here is that someone needs to set me up with the next great love of my life. Anyone know any single gay men in the Chicago area who wouldn’t mind a date with little old me? Or perhaps you are a single gay man in Chicago who is reading this and thinks it might be fun to have dinner with a slightly famous blogger. Either way, I’m game.

I’ve got an open position and I’m taking applications.