Today, my best friend presented me with a possible book idea.  She thinks I should sign up for “Match.com” and go on a date a week, chronicling every date in the “Kelly” style of storytelling–which my friends seem to enjoy. 

I have to admit, it is an intriguing idea.  It is very “Sex and the City.”  But alas, I am not the real Carrie Bradshaw–even though I can relate to her on some levels.  And I learned from my own Mr. Big that men don’t always like it when you blog about your relationship.  Now granted, many of these would probably just be “one-date” kind of guys but I’m not quite sure I want to go there.

Now my best friend, still wanting to sell me on the idea, said it would be even more interesting if I let my friends pick my dates for me.  I love my friends, dearly, but I think they would pick someone they find interesting (or would make a funny “horrible” date type story).  My friends have never understood my choices in the past.  But if I am doing this as an experiment for my writing, then I guess it would be more entertaining to an audience if my friends did the picking. 

If I don’t think of this as a real “dating” scenario, it is merely research for a book, then I can wrap my mind around the idea.  But I do have some concerns–is online dating safe?  How do you know the person isn’t secretly a “Dexter” wannabe?  My best friend assured me that I could tweet through the entire date so she knows exactly where I am and who to go after if I wind up missing.

Well, if my best friend is going to support me 100 percent on this, I should try it right?  So I logged onto Match.com and started to fill out a profile.  I had trouble really getting into it.  Could an online matchmaker program actually work or am I supposed to wait for Fate to intervene?  What if I piss off Fate by doing this?  And how much is this going to cost me?  It appears that the cheapest Match.com service is $20 a month.  I could renew my gym membership for that. (I have never had trouble meeting men at the gym in the past, my trainer usually had to fend them off). 

So is this “experiment” on the trials and tribulations of online dating worth $20 a month?  And is this even a worthy experiment?  Is there an audience for a 32-year-old woman who lets her friends pick out her dates from an online dating service?  You tell me, audience of my blog.  Should I do this experment?  I will post a poll so you can tell me what you think.

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