Monday, December 30, 2013

90 Days of Online Dating: My Sister's Friend

One of the anxieties that I've had during this online dating experience was seeing people whom I went to high school or college with or that I knew from the real world. I'm not sure why it would bother me so much but it just did. I did see a few familiar faces and I have exchanged a few emails back and forth with two (nothing to profound, just a "Oh my goodness, how are you? So good to see you!" like we had run into each other at the Target or something). There was one email that knocked me off balance, though.

I received an email saying, "You're Rebekah. Emily's sister."

That was all that the email said.

I read the guy's profile, I looked through all of his pictures but nothing rang a bell.

Though my sister and I share similarities, I really don't think we look alike. We both have large personalities and people usually notice when we walk in the same room, but over the past few years, we really haven't run in the same circles. I was very confused.

I responded with a simple yes and was hoping that would be the end of it. He replied, "I thought so! How are you?"

It's one thing to start a conversation with a clean slate and get to know someone via online messaging; it's a completely different ball game when they've got an upper hand on you and you have no idea how.

"Before I answer that, who are you?" I replied.

"I went through school with Emily."
"Yeah, I figured that. Who are you? Have we met?"

"No. We've never met. I was a few years younger than Emily so you and I never went to school together. I remember you coming around, though."

I found it (still do) interesting that this guy is probably within months of my brother's age but for some reason it seems thinks he only went to school with my sister. It's even more interesting when one considers that my brother and sister basically did everything together my brother's freshman year -- you really couldn't know one without the other. But, I digress.

As he was replying to me, I was reading through his profile. He's currently spending his time as a pizza delivery guy. He had hopes of either getting into a well-known music program or joining the military next year. He loves his family. Apparently one of the things he "can't live without" is a mint mojito.

If he's "a few years younger" than my sister, he's not legally old enough to drink.

I asked him about his drink of choice and he responded, "Oh, yeah! Love those!"

"But you're not old enough to drink," I emailed back.

"Well, no, but the ladies don't have to know that." He inserted a winky face for good measure.

"It says your age on your profile."

"Right. I had forgotten about that."

We had a few more one sentence emails back and forth which all consisted of me calling him out on different things on his profile. He eventually stopped responding. I still don't know his name or recognize his face.

This reminds me of my first year of teaching. A few friends and I went out to a bar in downtown to go dancing. I spotted a student of mine (he was a junior in high school) across the dance floor. Thankfully, I knew the bouncer from an environmental science class in college and got the situation taken care of. The kid was still talking about "finding whoever ratted him out" when he returned to school on Monday.

Some people. They're just simple. Bless their hearts.

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