There are two times that now exist in my life. My life before JDate, and my life after JDate. Most people would say, that's pretty sad. But it's true. Now when I see someone, I wonder if they're on a dating website, and it has shifted my focus when I see a couple. I often wonder if they met "organically" (which I mean I guess the Internet could be considered organic these days) or via a site. According to Match.com's annoying TV ads, 1 in 5 couples now have met on a dating site. But then again, 56.7% of statistics are made up on the spot.
One distinct difference in this new phase of my beautiful existence is that I constantly think I recognize people I see on the street or in bars from the site. Any ambiguous looking Jewish boy I think to myself, is that LUVSSPORTS or WELLENDOWED8? It very well might be.
I was at a party with a friend and I did in fact run into a boy I had yet to meet but was supposed to go out with. It was mortifying on several levels. One, because I recognized him, and two, because he didn't recognize me. I hadnt felt like that since when I first had Facebook friends from college I had never met and then ran into them in actuality. It's sort of a little dance, you recognize, but would never ADMIT you recognize the person, lest you humiliate yourself and say something like "oh yeah, I've seen you on Facebook" and be relegated a loser for the next four years. Like when you leave for college and constantly think you see people from your home life on campus, or vice-versa, except with Jewish dudes. And half the time, I guess it's true.
One boy I went out with told me he was out one night and there was a girl across the room waving "sexily/creepily" (fine line here) at him. I'm not sure what a sexy wave is, probably somewhere in between a pageant wave and a thumbs up, if I had to guess. She flagged him over and he asked her where she knew him from. She went, "from the Internet," in her best phone sex voice. That girl's getting a lot of action.
But seriously, that guy next to you on the subway whose armpit you bump into awkwardly during rush hour, I'm pretty sure that's MENSCH22.