How did I meet John Mark? Funny you should ask! Well, first
of all, I should mention that I was a professional online dater -- aka an
eHarmony member for 2.5 years. I had 1,100 matches, 1,000 of which had
already been eliminated. I had been on eleven FIRST dates, and I was
convinced I was basically un-matchable, or at the very least, baaaad at
first dates! My membership was about to expire, and I talked myself into not
signing up again; I would meet someone the old fashioned way-- at church, or
the library, or the grocery store, right? April 2007 was my first month on
my own in a long time, and I began to look around and see that my choices
were sparse; after all, I had a big long list of requirements for a guy who
had any kind of a future with me. He had to be a Christian, of course. That
was number one. Also, I really wanted to have a lot of things in common. You
know, religion, political beliefs, he needs to want children, but shouldn't
already have any, never have been married before, wants to live a healthy
lifestyle, would agree to consider home schooling, cannot have a criminal
record, must have a decent career path, not addicted to anything (such as
cigarettes), good sense of humor, likes to ride rides at Six Flags, etc.,
etc., etc. You know, the important things! I decided after a month on my own
to email those eHarmony people and see if they agreed that I deserved some
free time or not. And they did.
They gave me one month, May, and told me to go back through the 100
surviving matches, and look each one over very carefully, then make a move.
So, as painstaking as that would've been, I started from the bottom of the
list and went backward, eliminating even more dudes. There was John Mark.
Number 94, I think. This guy had been on my list since the beginning of
December 2006! I had "requested communication" and gotten no reply. Hmph! Do
I dare "nudge" him, I wondered? I thought it was too forward, but as I
inspected his profile closely, I realized he was the best match I remembered
seeing out of all my matches. So, I "nudged"! I supposed he'd receive an
email saying, "Hey Man! Some girl in Fort Worth STILL wants to talk to you!
Check it out!" And I'll be dog, that's what he did! We "communicated"
through eHarmony for almost a month, until I finally had to tell him that my
membership was about to expire, did he want to go to regular email maybe? We
did, then, finally talked on the phone after that. He wanted to meet in
person. Oh good grief, do I really want to do that yet? I'm obviously 11 and
0 on the first date thing, so I'm thinking, well, we had a good run, but I
guess all things come to an end eventually. because a first date with me is
clearly the end of the line.
We were to meet in downtown Dallas, on June 2nd, and he had planned lunch
and dinner, and stuff to do in-between. He emailed me a map that was so
detailed, I could see the tops of the buildings, so I actually found the
right parking lot without getting lost. He showed up after me, and I had
time to sweat. When he got there, I noticed he was wearing a shirt of my
favorite color, sage green. He didn't need to know at that time that I had
bought a new red blouse since I knew it was his favorite color. We
introduced ourselves, and set out walking. I wasn't sure where we were
going. He had previously sent me menus from the 2 restaurants we were to
dine at, but had removed the names of the restaurants so it would be a
surprise. What a guy! We went into a building and down a long hallway, then
through some glass doors, past a receptionist who looked us over to see if
we had on proper attire (and apparently, we did), then onto an elevator. We
could see out over the street, then over the buildings, then after a whole
bunch of dings, the door opened. I still didn't know where we were (I'm a
doof). Upon rounding a corner, I see all of Dallas, and I shriek, "We're in
the ball!!" You just can't take me anywhere! We had a great lunch, and I
could actually see my job all the way in Fort Worth from our table! It was
awesome! Anyway, we went to a museum after that, then walked around downtown
for the biggest part of the day, then went to a vegetarian / organic
restaurant for dinner. This guy was the most thoughtful guy I had ever met.
At the end of the date, I was thinking it sure was going to be hard to not
see this guy ever again, since of course, it would be over now that we went
out. We were sitting in his car talking, and he got out and went to his
trunk, then returned with a purple orchid which had been in a cooler all
day! Was there some chance here? I kissed him on the cheek before leaving,
and started to drive home when I got his call. This might not be over just
yet! Our second date was going to Six Flags where we rode roller coasters
all day and just about sweated to death! We got out to his car to find his
keys missing, which didn't bother me in the least, because I already knew
that if I had to be stranded with someone in the scorching and humid heat of
June, I wanted to be stranded with John Mark.
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