(even with a Catholic Priest!)

Zing!

Anyway, regarding online personals... I gave them a shot about three years ago when I moved back to the Philly area after graduating from college. Back then, they were all free, and not just free to try for two days and not be able to respond to any ads without paying. I think if more of them were still free, I'd try it again just for the hell of it, but the money they're asking for them nowadays is insane.

My results were very good. I tried it for about three months before I lost interest when I found a better situation with a girl I met via more conventional means. Online, the quantity was definitely not there in the 20-25 age group (most girls at that age won't let themselves try an online personals site, for fear that they're throwing in the towel on finding prince charming.) But the quality of the six or seven girls I ended up meeting in person from the online personals was very nice. I think if you're in the 30+ range you're probably bound to find a higher percentage of females. I just think that while there are exceptions (including several female friends of mine) most 20something women have a tough time making the decision to post an online personal ad, or even to respond to any (though I'm sure many browse them for entertainment purposes.) So it tends to be a very large number of dudes competing for a very small number of chicks. You're better off at the local bar, or even the laundromat.

But the online thing definitely allows you to weed out girls you would never even consider talking to in a bar for physical reasons. It also has the great quality of letting you *kinda* get to know the girl and what she's about without the stress of a face-to-face meeting. You can sit around in your apartment in your underwear, drinking beer, watching TV, and chatting with chicks, trying to find one that interests you. God bless the Internet!

But seriously, it's got its advantages over "traditional" pickup places like bars, but as long as the pickings are slim in my age group, and as long as the sites charge an obscene amount of money, I'm going to stick to conventional dating. In the meantime, I'll check in on the personals sites now and then, but unless the woman of my dreams jumps out at me, I'm not ponying up a red cent for that privelege.

Nothing wrong with being single now, either!