The End of an Era

I made a milestone this week.  I deleted my online dating profiles.  I did it for a couple of reasons, but my main motivator is the fact my psycho ex-fiancee has been slutting it up on the Internets.  I can only take so much of seeing her bare-shoulder headshot with the headline "Wanting to Cook for Mr. Right."  How am I supposed to move on looking at that?  I don't want her back, and she can marry her heartthrob Ryan Reynolds for all I care, but I don't want to have to look at her face and get pulled into the hell that she made my life.

The main reason why I opted to delete my online dating presence is because I've never developed a meaningful relationship off of a website.  I joined these sites back in 2004, shortly after I left my ex-wife.  In that time, I've met my fair share of women.  Of the women I've met, one of a few scenarios ensued.

1. I'd meet someone and be interested in them, only to have them fall of the face of the earth.

2. I'd meet someone and not have any interest in pursuing anything further, only to have them stalk me.

3. I'd meet someone, we'd both realize we had no interest in each other, and we'd go our separate ways.

4. I'd meet somone, we'd have an instant connection, get hot and heavy, and have it blow up in my face.

5. (and my personal favorite) I'd make a friend out of it.

I will say, though, that I have developed relationships with women from #5, but those relationships didn't actually develop until months, or even years (in one case 10 years) after initially meeting.  With that in mind, I'm going to take my search offline for a while for reasons I will get into later.