Unsolicited

Yesterday I got not one, but two e-mails from perfect strangers wanting to know if I'd like to get to know them better. The first was from a young man who found my profile through my e-mail provider, the other from one of those networking sites that I'm only on because a friend invited me to participate. I literally never go to the thing, and I certainly don't send people I don't know messages seeking friendship or any other type of relationship, so it's easy for me to forget that I have it. Anyway...

The first guy was, how shall I put this...? Overzealous. And all of 26. He provided some height/weight specs and padded his missive with CAPS and exclamation points!!!

It all adds up to: Um, no.

The second man, to his credit, sent a much more casual note, but did manage to work in some important details. For example, he has a house that he likes to work on in his spare time. And... he used a somewhat non-cliched word to describe my smile, which will not yield him a date, but did get him a few points from the editor in me. No picture, though, and no specs.

It still all adds up to: No

I decided, a few months ago, against meeting a potential romantic partner via the Internet. It's just not my speed. In addition to the fact that everyone who is looking to date via services like match.com, EHarmony, etc., seems really desperate to me; I never find that the kind of man I want to meet is the kind of man who wants to meet me, based solely on a photograph.

And while these two gentlemen from yesterday meant well, I'm sure, hearing from them was disheartening. Am I being totally unrealistic? Is it wrong to think that I can have the kind of man I'd really want to be with? Or, is it time I realized that guys like the overexuberant 26 year old or this 38 year old who didn't post his photo on a photo-driven site, are as good as its going to get?