Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Great Cosmo Challenge: Amusement

Today I'd like to write a post full of lists of dating advice take an opportunity to talk about a "find fun people!" extravaganza I signed up for, which promptly started

a) (surprise, surprise) spamming me with daily e-mails
b) pestering me every 3 days to pay a membership fee to join at a higher level and
c) is starting to grow on me, despite a) and b).

Since I have no doubt exceeded my allotted goodwill for talking about being melancholy, let me today reverse course and introduce you to:


Cosmo says: "Men with fun date ideas do exist, and howaboutwe.com is the fastest way to find them. Instead of posting a profile on the site, users explain their ideal date (e.g., 'How about we take a sushi-making class together?' or 'How about we kick ass at trivia night?'). When you see a date idea you like, just message the guy to make it happen."

Karin says: I put an inquiry into this site on March 14. Since, my Gmail account gets a daily blast telling what any random 5 men in the Greater Boston area have signed up to suggest.  Here's today's:
From a man who says his occupation is "monkey": How about we .... climb a tree and chill.
From a man who says his political views are "anarchist": How about we ... Go for coffee and see if we like each other, then I take you away to a secret museum and after we have crepes. Finally we have a drinks as I tell you another secret. Finally I do a tarot reading and find out if everything I imagine about you is true!
From a man whose profile pic is a pencil sketch of a smiley face: How about we ... gdgdg.
From yet another Jewish software engineer in Cambridge: How about we ... Invent names for abstract pieces of art at the ICA.
From a man whose profile is relatively nondescript: How about we: each pick a place that serves mulled wine, try 'em out, and see who made the better choice."
That's just today. Since I've been hanging around chatting with Piano Man pretty regularly the last couple weeks (which, I both anticipate and fear, is turning into a long story with uncertain ending) and otherwise maundering about, I haven't answered any.  Which maybe I should ... especially since a glance at past offerings shows a large number of men proposing to take yoga class together, and I have not been getting my yoga on lately as I should.

(Which might help with that whole maundering problem I'm having.)

Incidentally, I didn't mention my offering from the day I signed up which didn't get any hits before it expired:
How about we... ....enjoy the glory of Bach's incomparable B-Minor Mass as sung by The Cantata Singers and do a post-event critique over cocktails in the South End. (Which I ended up not even doing myself. In fact, that was the night of the Meet-Cute at Symphony Hall that ended with me crying in my beer for an hour.)
So Howaboutwe.com is also spamming me with bi-weekly advertisements for another feature of their website, "The Date Report." Usually these things annoy me more than tartar-removal sessions at the dentist, but I'm actually enjoying them. I'm thinking it's the no-nonsense unsentimentality of it, like today's heading:
10 Adventurou​s Boston Dates, Morning-Af​ter Etiquette, + How to End a Short Relationship
Which brought me links to advice titled
How Do You Break Up with Someone You're Only 'Sort-of' Dating?
Oh Sh-t! Is This a Date? 6 Strategies For Coping with Awkward Situations.
Dating Tips from Awkward Tween Pop Star Hopefuls
Which brought me views to links of past articles which such titles as:
8 Things to Wear on a Date to Impress a Geeky Guy
Vocab Lessons: British Dating Slang We'd Like to Adopt
Tell Me If You Think This Is Weird: I'm Totally Ok With Being Single And Know Valentine's Day Is A Made-Up Holiday But I'm Still Depressed
How Do You Know If She's The One? Watch Her Eat Corn.
I don't know what to do with it all.  But it's all very amusing.

1 comment:

klk said...

Gosh, I want to sign up so that I can have some fantastic and fun date ideas with my darling hubby! Have fun, my dear!