Ryan

To be completely honest, Ryan was the reason I decided to fully commit to online dating. At least the reason I chose match.com. My online stalker tendencies went into full force. I saw his profile and his pictures and he seemed absolutely perfect. I hoped beyond hope that he would answer my plea (my plea was simply asking what kind of music he liked beyond Radiohead and The Dead, but I rather be melodramatic here since I thought he was just so beyond my dream man.) After I sent out about 5 messages to guys on match.com that I thought were cute and interesting (after getting about a million messages and the even worse "winks" from creepers) one guy finally answered. And it was Ryan.

After some online message banter we set up to meet for Korean BBQ and a show near my apartment. I wore my new cute shiny gold skirt from H&M (which would become my default date outfit) and I walked down the street with apprehension, then I saw him and there was that instant thrill, like when you go to the museum and see a painting by an artist you love and you just well up with thought that "this is something great."  In his ray-bans and military-esque jacket he removed his headphones and closed his book; I swooned. He had little grey flecks in his hair, even though he was my age, but it just made him all the more swoon-worthy. He was dressed impeccably well (meaning, that is how I would dress if I were a boy), probably because he worked at J.Crew, which would normal be minus points, but he couldn't find a job as a construction manager yet, so I gave him that break. He was from Georgia but his whole family lived in SF now. Unfortunately, he lived with his parents at the time but again, he couldn't find a job! and had only just graduated college! thus, still perfect in my head. I was surprised how easily I could converse with him. We had a few awkward moment involving some tough meat, but that was entirely on his part, as I was barely touching our strange array of dishes because 1) I had never had Korean food before and frankly it was scaring me, and 2) I didn't want be get sick as I usually do with new foods and my temperamental stomach, so the embarrassment was just on him, not like I cared; it made him more endearing. I suggest we go to Fat Angel afterwards (a delightful gastropub, and I love the beer there) and we talked about our love of Party Down and Freaks & Geeks. I was falling, HARD. Then we went to the Boom Boom Room for a Jeff Beck tribute show, though normally wary of tribute bands and having no idea who Jeff Beck was, I went along like I knew until he finally explained to me who the hell Jeff Beck was and why he was important. We really didn't end up watching the show at all but talked the whole time. He revealed that his brother and his fiancee had met on match.com, on their first date. God the pressure was on. At the end of the night he walked me a few blocks to my cross-street and at 1am we kissed on the street corner in the misty San Francisco fog. It was the perfect cliche.

I think I went a little gung-ho after that first perfect date. Early the next morning I sent him a message with every conceivable way to get ahold of me, friended him on facebook, and then persisted in setting up another date. We had a couple great conversations on facebook chat, then finally he agreed to a second date. I suggested we go to the California Academy of Sciences "Nightlife" event about beer brewing since he mention he brewed his own beer. We got Ramen and then went to Nightlife, where we had to wait in a long line to get in. At Nightlife the museum opens up for only 21+ and serves alcohol, which in theory sounds awesome, but it really wasn't that cool when we got there and was super crowded (though I have been back to the museum during the day since then, and it was equally as crowded, but with children and no alcohol, which is probably the time when you need alcohol most.) Though he got really excited about explaining the brewing process to me, he still didn't seem pleased about the whole event. But when he took me home and we had a couple more beers he kissed me goodnight. Apparently that doesn't mean he liked me since I never saw him again. I tried to ask him out a couple more times before finally giving up and getting the hint that he wasn't interested. I finally deleted him from facebook when I discovered he had a girlfriend. They had lovely picture of them hiking. He is probably still perfect, but some other girl is living in the glow of that perfection.

In hindsight maybe he wasn't that perfect. Our interests didn't match up entirely. Wait, who the hell am I kidding, he was great, he was perfect, end of story.