Ready for this? I’m doing a “man audit” of all the boys I’ve dated since I dove into the dating world last July. This oughtta be fun, right?! I figure I’d go back and pick out the things I liked and didn’t like about each, and what I can take away from that and add to my list for the future man of my dreams (teehee).

Here goes!

  • Boy #1: The first boy I went on a date, started at a semi-chance meeting at Starbucks and to one date (there was supposed to be a second, but uh, HE stood me up! Never heard from him again.) after that. He was nice, but looking back, I think I really opted to go out with him because he was the first one to show interest on match.com. He wasn’t my type looks-wise, we didn’t have a heck of a lot in common, and he was pretty boring (funny how hindsight is, isn’t it?!). Fail.
  • Boy #2:  He was a cutie, was into MMA and boxing, had a good sense of humor. Good chemistry on our date, and we were going to have a second, but alas, an ex reappeared in his life and – thankfully – he was honest about it. No hard feelings. I liked that he was into being active, however, he was more on the scrawny side, and I almost felt bigger than him! As odd as that sounds…and I’m not really into that. So, while cute, nice eyes and smile, he sorta had small hand syndrome and for some reason, that skeeves me. Just sayin’ 😉
  • Boy #3: Not much to report here – he ended up being a non-starter. We had a date planned, but then he canceled, as he met someone else two nights before and felt he needed to give that a chance. Again, appreciate the honesty (he was cute, worked nearby, but I was sensing scrawny arm syndrome just a smidge hehe)
  • Boy #4: Had a date planned, he canceled, never called again. He was cute, we chatted once on the phone, and that was that. You win some, you lose some. Meh.
  • Boy #5: K, a little confusion here – some of my posts refer to “diamond boy” as #4 and #5, so I must have confused my numbers in some posts, but we went out once, and he’s still kicking aroumd, actually. He’s divorced, and totally enjoying the single life, so I definitely don’t see that going anywhere, however, he is intriguing and if he were, say, to want to go out again, I would probably go. He was very good looking, loves to travel, muscular (but not in a meathead way), runs, loves wine. Lots of my “list” items physically and activity wise. Too bad he’s got a bit of the playa vibe.
  • Boy #6: Hmm. this is a mystery. I can’t find posts on boy #6. I really wasn’t paying attention to numbers, was I?! Good thing I am not a math major. Stay tuned…
  • Boy #7: This was sort of a milestone one for me. We went on two dates. He was also recently divorced. Very good looking, workout-a-holic (slight meathead, but it wasn’t annoying, like that usually can be) and seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. We had a great first date, and on the second date, we had dinner at his place and there was some activity (I won’t get into details but you can probably connect the dots…) and after, sometime that week, got got weird, stopped calling and left me a random Facebook email, basically ending things. Jerk. What did I learn? Hot guy. Yes. Seemed nice. Yes. Between the lines.  Coupla red flags. You live, you learn.
  • Boy #8: This guy – he’s the male nurse. We went out once. He was quiet, a bit shy, good looking though, VERY close to his brother and family. Really dug that, and would have gone out with him again. We chatted about it a few times, and then it meandered past Thanksgiving, and by that point, I’d met boy #9.
  • Boy #9: Brainy Blonde. Reading through the posts makes me a bit nostalgic, I’m not gonna lie. I liked him a lot, and he was a good guy. He had a lot of qualities I liked – intellectual…a real thinker, close with his family, loves cats, great job, driven, and, to top it off, he volunteers at a shelter. And he was cute, we had great chemistry and conversation. You probably notice some qualities from here on my list. He had quite a few.
  • Boy #10: The Russian! The only guy so far that I’ve dated from OK Cupid. We went on four dates. He was dark and intriguing. We had good chemistry, he liked to work out (however, for the amount of working out he claimed, I wasn’t that impressed. Wow, I sound like my bar is set really high on this physical feature, but it’s really not, I swear!). The only guy where I ended things. We just weren’t looking for the same things long term.

Phew, that was quite the project mining for those blogs (and wow, I’m bad at math and somehow “lost” boy #6! Ha. I think I gave him a number and we never actually went out, but I’m still investigating! Feeling like I missed someone!).

So, what are my takeaways? Being active and having some sense of muscle definition is a little higher on my list physically than I thought. It’s not a make or break, but considering how active I try to be and stay, it’s a huge part of my life and it would only be natural to connect with someone that has similar interests. However, being a muscle-head isn’t always all it is cracked up to be. Clearly, that was the case with boy #7, and I think his looks may have clouded my judgement a little bit. I definitely am drawn to the career- and family-oriented as well as someone I generally feel comfortable with.

Nothing overly earthshattering, but it gives me a snapshot of where I’ve been, that’s for sure! Re-reading those posts felt like a time-warm, from the first date to the last. Wow, a lot has happened, and a lot has changed.  My dating “style,” confidence and general outlook. I love it!