In my last post I told you I signed up for Tinder – it’s not just for hookups anymore. I did not initially pay for a subscription because its free features are pretty good. But I kept getting “likes” and the only way to see them is to pay for it. I was super curious so I paid for a month. I had 600+ likes and counting from men all over the world! That’s a nice ego boost. Even though I had been on Plenty of Fish since August, when I un-hid my profile after only a month off I got messages from around 100 men (give or take a few) and I’m still getting them multiple times a day.
As you can imagine, with most people stuck at home there seem to be a lot of men with too much time on their hands. That’s likely one reason why I’m getting so much interest, at least on Plenty of Fish. I’m new on Tinder so a rush of men is to be expected, although 600+ seems like a lot. Before the pandemic I really only had extended conversations with men I was interested in seeing. I did not and still don’t want to waste my time. I am focusing on men I actually want to meet. But I’m also chatting with men that for one reason or another I may not ever see.
If you want to look beyond finding someone local, Tinder let’s you search anywhere. As I mentioned, I’ve been contacted by men from all over the world, for some reason more from Italy than anywhere else. Perhaps because they’ve been locked down for so long. Perhaps I’m just more attractive to Italian men, although I never got approached by men when I was in Italy. A friend and I got hit on by 2 Italian men when we were in Paris, but never in Italy. I was in Italy with a large group of people, but on our off time I usually hung out with the same two women. I think I never got hit on because one of the women I hung out with is stunningly beautiful, inside and out. Granted, that was 20 years ago. But she’s still stunning. Of course I’ve drifted off the subject, again (I’m endeavoring to find other ways to say “digress”).
I’ve been chatting regularly with a man who says he’s in Venice, Italy. The Tinder profile shows you how many miles away someone is, but I don’t know if that’s based on the info given by the person or generated with some type of location tracking aka GPS. Tinder tells me he’s 6042 miles away. It’s kind of cool chatting with someone in another country, if that’s indeed where he is. His written English is quite good, and with the types of errors someone for whom English is a second language would make. We don’t chat for very long and about nothing important. What did you do today? What did you have for dinner? What did I have for lunch. Generally the best time for us to connect happens to be around my usual lunch time 12:00pm-1pm, which is just about when he’s having dinner (9 hours later). We may have a video chat at some point. We’ll see.
A few weeks ago I connected with a man in Tucson who in his pictures is very good looking. Based on the issues I’ve had with men not looking like their photos and the number of scammers I’ve encountered, I was immediately skeptical. After chatting for not very long he wanted to meet. I told him there was no way I’m going to meet him right now. We’re obviously in a pandemic and are supposed to be social distancing. More men than I would have thought still want to meet now, but I can’t. It’s not even necessarily about my health. I take care of my 88 year old dad during the day, it’s about his health. Even when I tell them why, usually when I tell them I can’t meet right now they disappear. Not this man. Okay, cool. I told him about the problems I’ve had with men, uh… misrepresenting how they look in their profiles so he suggested a video chat. Okay, cool. So far Mr. Italy, so good.
We did a video chat the following evening. Guess what? He’s actually the man in the pictures! An older version and not quite as good looking, but it was definitely him. He really should update his pictures though. Coincidentally, he’s Italian. He says he was born in New Jersey to parents who immigrated from Italy. He’s fluent in Italian and worked in Italy for 9 years, came back to the States 6 years ago. I love Italy.
We’ve had a few video chats and a few phone conversations. I don’t recall how the subject of clothes came up, but he showed me his closet on one of our video chats, and lord have mercy he’s a man who actually likes to dress nice and wear clothes that fit properly. One of my biggest complaints about Tucson is so many people dress casually all the time. Some people actually wear jeans to weddings, even when it’s not a western theme or casual event. Maddening. I like to dress nice. In order to not be overdressed, most of my life I’ve tried to dress for an occasion here as most people do. In the last year or so I’ve decided I have nice clothes and I’m going to wear them. I’d rather be overdressed. Again she veers off subject…
He actually does speak Italian as he proved during one of our video chats. Did I mention I love Italy? Wouldn’t it be awesome to go there with a hot Italian man? Uh, yeah. Since Mr. Italy and I are still interested in each other, that’s all I’m going to say at this juncture. Nope, sorry. You have to wait.