Cupid Please Play Nice

I did it. I caved....
I joined the online dating world.

I'm still torn on how I feel about the whole thing. I like to read people first, pick up on their energy. That, and I have a terrible time holding a conversation with someone I have no interest in. If we have zero chemistry, I have about zero patience for you.

My general thoughts of the people on the site since I signed up 2 weeks ago have been pretty consistently as follows:

1. You like comic books and Star Wars.
2. All of your photos are terrible. Learn what a decent photo of yourself looks like
3. Group shots are stupid. I have NO idea who you are.
4. You take yourself WAY too seriously. How long did it actually take you to fill out your profile?
5. You are a nerd
6. Contrary to popular belief, that photo of you and a small child is not adorable. It makes me want to run for the hills. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not looking to be called mommy any time soon. So unless it is well captioned with exactly whose child it is, and it's not your own, please know I will be skipping over your profile immediately.
7. Your life is too busy to actually go out and meet somebody?! Lets be honest, we are all busy, lame excuse. Truth is once you hit your late 20's meeting new people sucks and it's hard!
8. Please come up with a better introduction than "Hi" or "Hey gorgeous"
9. If you can't hold a semi interesting conversation with me, why in the world would I ever want to meet you in person?
10. Oh look you have abs, thanks for that selfie of you lifting your shirt
11. You are either pictured with, or have listed in your profile at least one of the following - a beard, tattoo's, decent style, an instrument/musician, or you travel. You have peaked my interest. Let's be honest, my expectations are not that high.
12. An actual cute photo - oh wait you are 24. Seriously, what is with all the hot 24 year olds?! Someone please save me before I become a permanent cougar

Despite my overt judgement, I have survived my first date from the site. And no he was not an awful person. His profile had good photos, he was attractive and held a good conversation. My hopes were high that maybe there are some decent guys on dating sites. We met, he looked just like his pictures, and spoke just like his messages. The thing I forget about though is expectation. You start to form a picture in your head of what this person is really like. And expectation ruins everything. You can't prepare yourself for a persons energy, or their mannerisms. How someone carries themselves, how they interact with you, their body language... For me, these things are easy deal breakers. Mannerisms can either drive me nuts, or make the person more attractive. And chemistry is obvious, but for that to happen you have to meet the person. And almost immediately you know if there is chemistry, but it's impossible to know online. Its a tough balance. But you never know unless you try.