Thanks to Taloan for writing this blog entry, although she doesn't strike me as particularly mutant-like :)

I never dated in high school. I went to my senior prom with a foreign exchange student named Barbora. I like to say it was because I am a mutant. According to everyone else its because I’m too damned picky. I’ll concede that the truth probably lies somewhere in between, but mutants just can’t afford to be that picky. And yet as the years passed and my desperation grew I refused to consider the possibility of online dating, my reasoning being thus; anyone on an online dating site would have to be just as desperate and pathetic as I was. But with the end of high school, a drastic move to a different state and the acquisition of a full time job (essentially adulthood hitting me with all the force of a logging truck) I found that my opportunities to meet available young males had shrunk from slim to none. So, despite my misgivings, I decided to give online dating a shot.

Making a profile took no time at all. I already had folder upon folder of “here I am, so pretty and seductive” photos (taken during fits of boredom), and it was simple enough to load them up on the site. Writing the “about me” was a little more difficult and after some debate I decided to opt for the truth: “I am a mutant, here are the reasons why. But hey, look at my pictures, I’m cute”. And with my newly formed online dating account I set out on my hunt to find a date.
As a would-be writer I’ve had a lot of experience with sending out query letters, and I took much the same approach to finding a date. Browsing through the extensive lists of single males I was stunned at the number of seemingly attractive, normal men. Where were all the other mutants? I had fully expected to find page after page of desperate losers, but here I was pleasantly surprised. So, with the utmost enthusiasm I began to send out masses of dating “query letters”, which, as a friend of mine so aptly put, consisted essentially of “you’re hot, I’m hot, let’s be friends”. And like writing queries I figured all I needed was just one positive response and I would be set. And that’s where I got myself into trouble.
Never in my life had I imagined there were so many men out there genuinely interested in meeting me, mutations and all. Of course the pretty, young blonde aspect probably helped, but a surprising amount actually found me witty and interesting. I was baffled, yet overjoyed by the overwhelming amount of letters I received. I guess it must have gone to my head. I began making dates left and right; if there was free time in my schedule I swiftly filled it with a new engagement. This frenzy of dating lasted a few weeks, until it got to the point where no one-including I-could keep track of all the men I was seeing. It got so bad that I would find myself in the middle of a date thinking “what is this guy’s name?” or even better, unable to even remember who he was or what we had ever talked about.

So I had to reign myself in, clamp down on my enthusiasm over finally being desired, and start actually turning down invitations to go out. I’m still working on that; its hard to say no after spending so long as a dating pariah-especially when so many of the invitations include some sort of effort to feed me-but I’ve realized I don’t have to just take anything I can get, I actually have options. Pages and pages of them. I can get to know the guy first, learn if we have any sort of rapport before ever going on a date. What a brilliant concept! I haven’t found “the one” yet, but I’m still looking, and I can’t deny that I am fully enjoying the process.