Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa men have named you. . .

The search for a worthy single man anywhere these days is near impossible.  It’s like looking for the Holy Grail.  Now let’s add a couple of barriers to this search; these barriers being age, children, and living in the Big Apple.  Welcome to my world.  Luckily, I am not alone in this manhunt.  Two of my girlfriends are in exactly the same boat.  Slowly, others are coming out of hiding to reveal themselves.  Who are we?  We are young, well fairly young (in my eyes anyway!), attractive, intelligent, independent women who are hunting for the perfect man, or as close as we can get - we’ll take it at this point!  But seriously, nobody wants to settle.  We did that the first time around!  They say the first time you marry for love, the second for money.  Not us!  We are woman, hear us roar!  We can take care of ourselves!  Not gonna lie, money would be nice, but I digress!  The second time should be for happiness.  I’m okay on my own, why spoil a good thing?  Because it’s lonely.  I’m looking for a companion, an equal.  But how?  Where to begin?

I decided to go all out and celebrate my 37^th birthday with a bunch of friends.  Hard to believe I had never done this at the ripe age of 37 but I hadn’t and this night we had a blast.  At dinner my friend, Peggy, was filling me in on her latest relationships.  We had both been pursuing out of state male prospects.  Unfortunately, although mine was perfect in every way, he was not interested in a relationship.  Peggy’s guy was great besides the fact he was married.  She was done.  She decided it was time to pull out the big gun.  The big gun being a popular website known to “make love happen today!”  I’m afraid of this website.  I know quite a few people who have met their spouses here.  Now I know I said I’m looking for a companion but since my divorce I’ve become a bit of a commitment phobe.  As soon I even think about dating I feel trapped, owned, possessed!  I push through those anxieties and go through with it anyway.  I try to look at everything as a growing experience and what I’m feeling are just growing pains.  Like when I was a little girl back in the olden days playing video games on my IntelliVision game system (I know, who had an IntelliVision back then?!  It was either Atari or ColecoVision.  Nope we had the bootleg version, IntelliVision-again I digress!)  I’d level up every time I beat the previous level.  That’s how I try to view experiences in my life, as leveling up.  I get an email from Peggy two days later asking me if my ex-hubby is a member of this particular website.  My first thought was no way!  No way, no how!!!  He still wants to get back with me although there isn’t an ice cubes chance in Hell that will happen.  Nah, uh uh, not him.  Then I scrolled down the page and lo and behold, there he is!  He even has my neighborhood listed as his although he lives in another borough, the nerve!  Well that was it, Peggy was cancelling her subscription (or so I thought.)  She wasn’t going to take a chance of getting paired up with someone like my ex.

The next time I hear from Peggy she has downgraded to a free dating website which I hadn’t heard much about other than some appearances in popular music videos.  I shoot her the “Are you serious?” look.  She proceeds to text me a picture of the 25 year old eye candy she met through the site who she has been playing around with.  Holy Enrique Iglesias- with an accent to boot!  If Peggy was snagging that kind of tail, I would be right there beside her.  I signed up for an account that night.  At first glance it seemed like any other free site, nothing to write home about.  I attempted to delete my account within half an hour of creating it.  These people are tricky, they know what they are doing, they do not allow you to delete your account until twenty four hours after signing up.  Ugh, great!  Now I’m going to bed thinking about all these weirdos checking out my profile.  Where’s my bed?  I’ve had enough!

I wake up the next morning all set to delete my account.  I feel all kinds of embarrassed, a walk of shame of sorts.  I open up the app on my phone to see loads of emails from potentials.  Hmmm, my interest is piqued, I must look further.  Overall, it was just as I thought similar quality as most free dating sites but this one is sprinkled with professionals and some cuties; enough to take a further look.  My inbox was also peppered with married men, one or two couples, and I think one gay guy?  If nothing else it was a great ego boost hearing how beautiful I was and how nice my eyes are.  I think I’m gonna keep this account a little longer.  It will be our little secret. . .