Randomness...

As you know, I am an online dater. If you weren't aware of that for some reason, check out the title of this blog. Nevertheless, someone who is actively searching for a mate (me) spends a fair amount of time (ok, too much time) thinking and wondering about how and when this part of my life will fall into place.

I am lucky enough to be surrounded by terrific people in my life. Despite the fact that they are happily involved in relationships and I am not, I love them anyway. Each of these couples has met in such random ways...

My parents don't count. They are from a totally different generation where people marry their high school sweethearts. He was a basketball player, she was a cheerleader. The rest is history.

My sister met her husband on an elevator. AN ELEVATOR. How random is that? If she or my brother in law had gotten on that elevator 60 seconds later, my nephew would have never been born. Unfathomable.

I know someone else who reconnected with her then-acquaintance-and-now husband because she picked up a hometown publication and, happy for her "old friend" that he was achieving a professional goal of his, e-mailed him to wish him congratulations. I was their Maid of Honor this past October.

I am not saying people don't meet their soulmates through the online dating forum. I personally know some happy couples who have. But, the contradition to this is that people always tell me, "you'll find him when you stop looking." Here's the thing: the times I've been out of the online dating world and was "not looking", no one knocked on my door to ask me out on a date.

So, I stay online and keep looking and hope that I have my own "random" story to tell at some point. It may go something like this: 'I was JUST about to logoff and an IM from him popped up, and we typed 'til the sun came up. ' A little different from the basketball player and cheerleader story, but, hey, it'll be my story.