Finding a Date

I have been happily out of the dating game for over 34 years and, before that, I was just a kid. Back then your dates came from those you knew from school, church or work. There were friend "referrals" and you could cruise bars in the quest to find the perfect mate. Of course, I wasn't aware of anyone who had lost their spouse or significant other by death or divorce in middle age and, I suppose, back then the above mentioned places were the only options possible to, again, find love.

There were the personal ads, a concept dating back to the thirties. I think they were viewed as a desperate and not well thought out.

Enter the Internet, chat rooms and, the businesses that became empires just to hook people up. Flash forward thirty years when my friends divorced or widowed are well into middle age. What to do? Sure they can troll bars when they haven't been in one in decades. They may have spent more than a few Sunday's absent from church. They work with a group of people who are married or not of the same sexual orientation. They've long been out of school. And, it becomes harder for them accept friend recommendations. They don't want to hurt any one's feelings..........So, you Baby Boomers seeking a date, you are blessed. It is now much easier to find one.

I have numerous friends and family members who are happily in a relationship because of a chat room, dating site and, now Facebook. In our age chocked with gadgets to make our lives easier, why wouldn't we go online to build and develop a relationship?

You can't lie about your age, height, weight or hair color. You can't falsely deem yourself a millionaire, athlete or a god in general if you ever want to meet the person you've been talking to face to face. It won't take long to figure it out. You will know if they are educated because a complete butchering of the English language or being too stupid to know that there is "Spell Check" will be a dead giveaway by the notes you've written. And, let's face it, do you really want to meet someone who doesn't know their way around cyber space?

I saying to all of you "Boomers" seeking love again, E X E R C I S E your options. Getting to know someone through written words seems like the perfect thing to do. You can do the prep work at your leisure and, when you obligate yourself to a meeting you already so much about the person.

I am certainly not saying this is the fool proof way to find true love. If my husband and I filled out profiles, chances are that we would not be a match. However, signing up gets you that much closer to finding the perfect one. Just do it!