the joys of internet dating

This may not necessarily be about the joys found in the day, but it is about the day.  Read this from All Over the Map a few years ago, and this passage sums up the past couple of weeks:

...dating online; there's no context for the person you're meeting in cyberspace, no longtime friend to assure you that he's a nice guy, not a psycho.  The process is much more emotionally fraught and time-consuming than it would seem, just browsing a Man Catalogue, clicking on the witty architect who loves skiing and Italo Calvino, and having him delivered right to my door.

I already know from numerous attempts that I'm not very good at meeting strangers on blind dates.  It's even worse than being in a small group and going around in a circle explaining what you want from the experience.  You show up for a simple glass of wine, and for the next hour a guy evaluates all the ways in which you don't measure up to his ideal female.  You walk in thinking that your various quirks and attributes~pug nose, edgy humour, smile lines, healthy ass~are all part of a package that makes you irresistibly loveable.  You walk out, just one drink later, with a magnified awareness of your many defects.  Eventually it all gets to be pretty defensive, not a great forum for showing what a giving, sweet woman you are.  You arrive at the appointed time having not bothered to brush your hair, and right off, your attitude is, You want to have a drink with me?  Well, fuck you.

There has to be a better way to find a partner, but I have no idea what it is.  I suspect it's not going to be a simple numbers game, a matter of sifting through enough online profiles....     ~Laura Fraser