I met a boy......sort of

About a month ago I posted an ad on NY Craigslist. I wrote that I was a single female just looking for conversation over coffee or wine. I went on to say I was well-traveled, well-read and slightly overweight, even though I did go to the gym.

I got only 2 responses, 1 from a 50 year old man and 1 from a 30 something guy recently released from prison. Needless to say I didn't respond to either.

I told a co-worker who is also originally from the Midwest about my experience and she made a comment about how if I had posted in any other city in the country I probably would have had an entirely different set of responses. I decided to test out her theory. I posted the same ad on the Chicago Craigslist, just adding a line about how I'm from NY but travel frequently to IL (among other places).

The number of quality responses I got was astounding. Mostly men who are required to travel frequently for their jobs and who have trouble meeting women because of it. After some email exchanges with a few, one started to stand out, a guy who works as an IT consultant for a large company whose job requires him to travel M-Th each week. We've been emailing and talking on the phone now for about 3 weeks, and I am starting to really like him. He's sweet, makes me laugh, we can talk for hours about everything and nothing, and from the numerous photos I've seen of him, he's cute. The downside...he's only 22. Most of the time I try not to think about it....until it hits me that he's only 14 months older than my sister....or the thought crosses my mind that when I was learning to drive he was 10. We've been talking a lot lately about meeting up when I'm in Chicago for Labor Day weekend, but I'm nervous about it. Our conversations are great, we talk for hours a day...I instantly become in a better mood when I see his name on my caller ID....I feel like meeting up will change all that. I've met people from online before....and the outcome is hardly ever good. You meet up, you have dinner and then you never hear from the guy again. I guess it all comes down to that I don't feel pretty enough for him, even though he said to me the other day that "it's past the point of me caring what you look like, I already know I like you". I just don't want to lose someone who I enjoy talking to....I guess though if he does disappear after meeting me then he wasn't who I thought he was anyway.