It's Not Easy Being Green

One thing about getting older that can be very problematic is meeting others, making new friends, perhaps even developing a solid relationship - dating, as it were, you know. One of the major drawbacks there is the older you get, the smaller the pool of available people becomes too.

Where I live, and also, due to my own particular circumstances, this is something that really presents many problems. I live in a rural area, low population, and I am also somewhat restricted in getting out, going places where one might be able to meet people. So, what's a person to do to counter with this problem anyway.

When I saw this particular website - DateHookup.com -was advertising for people to submit applications for their services, my initial reaction was "No way! I'll not try that route again."

I had signed up a few years back for one of these places – an online dating service – one that touts itself as being of the highest caliber, guarantees results -just fill in the form, pay your dues and they survey your personality, every other aspect about you too and then, supply you with potential matches. THEY make the choices of who THEY felt would make an excellent match for you and then, you're given a means to reach out to make that initial contact.

I paid the dues for a year's membership and sat back to wait for any response. And I waited, and waited and waited! After a year, this organization had found a total of five men they determined would be a good match for me. I had taken the next step to make the initial contact with each of these gentlemen too but not one of them had ever responded to me.

So, when it came time to renew my membership there, you can figure out, I'm sure, that I sure wasn't going to shell out even $10 much less a lot more to be matched up with guys who wouldn't even respond at all. Because of that experience it also left me with a lot more insecurity with respect to the potential of meeting someone even just to establish a friendship, not necessarily a full-fledged relationship.

When I heard of this online service, it took a bit of thought as to whether or not I really wanted to take this one step further and apply for membership. After what transpired the first time, I really wasn't sure if I wanted to take a risk like that -and it is a risk too when you think of it - for the rejection potential that exists in meeting anyone the first time, much less introducing yourself via e-mail.

I decided though, since they were asking people to submit honest opinions of this service that maybe I could do someone else a favor by submitting my application. After all, had I had access to information I learned the hard (and expensive) way to the service I'd tried before, perhaps I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation and damage to my already somewhat fragile ego, as well as a good deal of money.

That's what gave me the impetus to submit my application to this service - the idea that maybe I would be able to help someone else, maybe even myself - you never can tell, you know. I filled out the profile form, made my submission and then did my initial search. I can honestly say I was very pleasantly surprised by the results I received there. From my initial search, I received profiles on 250 men, all within the age range I had specified on my application! Wow! I was impressed right there with those results.

Reading through these profiles can be a bit of a challenge - time consuming, to be sure. But even after perusing these and making the preliminary exclusions - some looking only for petite women, others who are interested in tall, slim, svelte females -and yes, a couple here and there who were pretty up front in the description of the type of relationship they wanted right from the get-go, I was still left with a fairly large group of applicants to consider further.

There were a couple problems too in that unfortunately, there were only two men of that group who live in the state of Pennsylvania - where I reside -and that no doubt will impact on potential responses I might receive if I decide to make a contact there. Also, whatever this site is using for the mileage calculations of applicants -where I live to where a potential match resides -is often way off the mark. But that's not necessarily a total drawback as long as one realizes how far it is between point A and point B is somewhat further than the site states it would be, you can work around that I'm sure.

The biggest drawback for me right now is that although you don't have to have a photograph attached to your profile to sign up, it is recommended that you do. And, a decent, recent photograph of me - well, that's gonna take some doing to locate one, for sure. It is understandable that most folks would prefer to have some idea of what others look like or they would be worried they might be getting "a pig in a poke."

But overall, I was very impressed with this service -and if I were living in California, Arizona, Texas or Florida, I would probably be ecstatic to see that many available men looking for someone to strike up a friendship, perhaps a good relationship that could develop over time too.

I still feel kind of like Kermit the Frog though as he laments in his song, "It's Not Easy Being Green" in making a move like this to try to meet someone who likes some of the same things I do, who might possibly be interested in meeting someone like me. But I do think of the sites I have seen, even tried before, I think this one actually has some very good potential to give decent results.

Now to find a camera and get a photo I can use that won't show every wrinkle, fat cell, but will make me look somewhat attractive, intelligent and not portray the really green side of me as a newbie to this particular scene.