There have been a few “winks” (match.com’s wussy way of letting someone know you’re interested without actually throwing yourself out there), but those have mostly been of the “what the hell are you thinking writing to me; did you only look at photos???” variety. Fortunately, match also provides a single button to click that responds with a (in their words) “polite thanks, but no thanks.”

Got Maya to bed, and found this note in my inbox:
I swear, I won’t be posting ALL conversations here, but this one interested the social psychology buff in me.

From: (username)
To: me
Date received: June 21, 2005
Subject: Hello

Hi, I thought your profile was really interesting for many reasons…

I reallly like to unwind over a microbrew(Warehouse, Bristol, or Phantom Canyon are some favs.) and good conversation or game of pool.

I’m the kind of guy who CANNOT control himself shoppin at Home Depot. Kind of a Tim Taylor thing, I guess.

I tend to be bold too. Which is why I’m replying…Hope to hear back from you.

username

That in and of itself isn’t anything special or out of the ordinary — just a nice note. BUT, when I read this guy’s profile, I found this:

Dating someone with children and an ‘EX’ hasn’t worked for me. Like Seinfeld says. “…Not that there’s anything wrong with that…” I honestly don’t think its good for the kids. I just don’t like those challenges right from the start. Sorry.

As it happens, there’s no ‘EX’ to deal with in my case — but there’s no way this guy would know that. So why the heck did he write to me? Maybe not a red flag, but definitely a yellow one. Here’s my response:

Hi — thanks for the note!

I’ll respond to more of your profile later, but
first wanted to bring up one part. You said

“Dating someone with children and an ‘EX’ hasn’t
worked for me. Like Seinfeld says. “…Not that
there’s anything wrong with that…” I honestly
don’t think its good for the kids. I just don’t
like those challenges right from the start.
Sorry.”

As it happens, my daughter’s bio father isn’t in
the picture in any way, shape, or form — but you
wouldn’t have known that. Why did you decide to
write anyway? I’m curious to know.

(And there I go being “bold” … heh, heh, heh.)

Allison

It’s entirely possible that I’ll never hear from this one again, and if so, I suppose I’ve learned something. If he does respond, I’ll be *very* curious to see what his reasoning for writing me was. Either I’m just *that* outstanding (but of course, dahling…LOL), or he doesn’t read.