After taking brief hiatus from the dating game to attend a Tweetup (in San Francisco, of all places), I found myself back at square one. I had no dates lined up and an inbox full of neglected messages from would-be suitors awaiting my clever, charming and oh-so awkward responses. It was time to change my approach. Time to get serious. Or serious-er.

Dating is a lot like plate spinning, I imagine. When you’re indiscriminately pursuing all leads, regardless of your actual interest in them, it becomes a bit overwhelming. It takes a lot of work to get them spinning and even more work to keep them spinning. Eventually, it comes to the point when you have to blink. And in that instant, a plate here starts to wobble, a plate there slows down then, suddenly, you’re surrounded by a pile of busted ass plates and nothing to show for it besides exhaustion and confusion.

So my trip to San Francisco was a good opportunity to step away from the plates for a while, and see what, if anything, was left.

I started taking a good look at the profiles of those who expressed interest to see how compatible we could be. What can I compromise on – like a previous marriage – and what’s absolutely non-negotiable – like being a Mizzou fan. And, wouldn’t you know it? Negotiating the sea of singles became much less stressful. I focused my energy on a few people. Through exchanging messages, we got an idea of what the other is looking for, how our personalities might mesh and whether there may actually be a spark.

After some witty banter and fairly deep email exchanges, one fellow piqued my interest. Funny. Smart. Handsome. In the right age range. Local. Flirtatious. And eager to meet me. It sounded almost too good to be true. That’s when the panic set in. All of a sudden, I felt completely out of my league. A total package is totally terrifying.

If he’s the Major League slugger I think he is, what league am I in? Am I a AA ballplayer who could get called up to the majors at any minute? Or am I stuck in the minors or slumming it on some farm team? My first instinct was to flee. He can’t reject me if he can’t catch me, after all. But after some friend therapy, I was convinced to just go try. What’s the worst that can happen? Someone I barely know may not like me? It’s not the end of the world. You just, well, suck it up and move on.

So we met. And it went surprisingly well. Any nervousness I had quickly faded. The conversation was flowing. There was laughter, some serious moments and plenty of flirtation. He even analyzed our astrological compatibility – which happened to be very compatible.

At the end of the date, we went our separate ways – with plans to get together again in the very near future…

Related posts:

1. [date] Meeting My Match: Part Deux
2. [date] Meeting My Match: Deal Breaker
3. [date] Meeting My Match: The Third
4. [date] Meeting My Match: Part 1
5. [date] Online Dating for Dummies