Sunday, January 22, 2006

"Risk" for 20-somethings

Yesterday was a refreshingly quiet day spent sipping coffee, reading, and making myself a yummy dinner. Later on, my 24 marathon was interrupted by the chime on my computer that indicated that I had an instant message, and before I knew it I was deep into a very meaningful conversation with Troy. As conversations often go between single people, we started discussing the opposite sex, getting dates, and what it takes to turn those dates into an actual relationship.

One thing led to another and before I knew it we were trolling Friendster looking for someone in the Richmond area who we thought would be appropriate for me to go out with.

Soon he had come across someone who seemed to be the perfect bachelor for me, and we set about coming up with a game plan for the initial contact.

Now, there is certainly a strategy involved in the sending of an online message, and since Troy and I spent much of our college years sitting around a coffee table playing either Risk or Trivial Pursuit, it is safe to say that we thoroughly enjoy sinking our teeth into any battle, then figuring out and executing a game plan.

Needless to say, this pretty quickly took on a life of its own and became not so much about the other person that I was trying to connect with, but more about the excitement of trying to get it just right.

First, my profile would have to be tailored, and the perfect picture selected. I got to work trying to make myself sound smart, yet not boring, cute, but not dumb, while he perused my photos and picked the best one. One that would make me look attractive, yet retain a bit of mystery.

Perfecting the profile took about an hour. (I told you we get all geeked out about strategy.) Then it was time to compose the message. Now keep in mind that in addition to sending a message to a complete stranger, we also had to battle the fact that it was a Saturday night that I was doing this... tricky. If he's open minded it's no big deal, but it could easily spell out L-O-S-E-R. It would have to be dealt with in a way that says "I'm comfortable being home on a Saturday night, and you should be too."

After 15 minutes of close deliberation, Troy sent me his first draft. It was pretty good. We spent the next 25 minutes or so poring over it, changing a word here or there, catching spelling mistakes. Finally we got it worked into what was virtually a three sentence opus combining every experience and assumed expertise that each of us thinks that we have amassed in the dating world. He gave me a drum roll and countdown and then....

SEND.

There it goes. Out into cyberspace. Troy and I then signed off, both of us excited at the masterpiece of carefully executed moves, writing, and strategy that we had just performed.

Now the question remains: Will my seemingly perfect bachelor respond? Are Troy and I as good at attracting attention of the opposite sex as we were at pseudo-world domination and accumulating pie pieces?

I guess you'll just have to stay tuned...

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know how I feel about you trials and tribulations of friendster. But I wish you luck. I must say I don't put nearly that much time into my approach, perhaps I too should employ brian.

1:05 PM  
Blogger Erin said...

Ha! Even if he responded, I definitely wouldn't expect anything to come of it. The point is more about how much fun Troy and I had strategizing about the whole thing.

1:47 PM  

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