Guilty Pleasure: Reading The Personals

When I was growing up, I was never into reading the newspaper. 

Not because I didn't have an interest in the world.  I did.  And do. 

I didn't read the paper because it made my fingers dirty.

Yes, I am just that shallow.  And to this day I feel exactly the same way.  The internet was invented for people like me.  (Well...and other people too...but it's my blog so let's go with it was invented just for me.)

But on occasion I had one exception.  Not the funnies.  I never ever cared about those.  Cartoons?  Puh-leeze. 

My delight was always in the personals.

I was never cruising them.  I was amused by them.  From a young age (like high school) I found them completely entertaining.

And remember before the days of internet when that was the only option for folks?  Those little tiny adds that included every possible abbreviation under the sun (some of which I never figured out...probably because they were dirty dirty and I was oblivious) were packed full of information.

Enter me at my dreaded office job eons ago in DC and the discovery of Craigslist.  I could entertain myself for days with Missed Connections (is that even still on there...it's been at least six or seven years since I last looked) and the Personals.  All those hopeful people.  All those bad photos taken in ugly bathrooms with a camera flash over half their face. 

These days I look very rarely.  It became less entertaining when the majority of the ads became sex-seeking instead of awkward coffee shop date seeking.  But every once in a blue moon, I will hop on to see who is hoping to meet his Mrs. Right at the ripe old age of 22 or who is looking for a second chance at love at the spry age of 60. 

I have buckets of friends who met their match online but to date, I've never heard of anyone meeting on Craigslist.  While not something I would do, I'm curious to know if any of the hopeful daters (vs. looking for a one night standers) ever find their forever on there.