I recently took myself off the ‘market’ which is kind of a big deal, at least that’s what I tell P3 (my nickname for him). Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that I have commitment issues.

Being in a relationship is tough, but dating is equivalently stressful. Why is it so difficult to find a cool person who will treat you with respect? Ideally, I’d love for my single friends to hook up, but that never happens. I’m an excellent wing woman, but a lousy matchmaker. Or perhaps it’s because my friends are either extreme players or nesters.

So, why is it so difficult to find someone? Perhaps the problem lies in that most people I know, including myself, meet people wasted at a bar. In fact, this is how P3 and I met. Now, friends are looking for alternatives. Meeting people online seems to be a popular choice these days. Some people now have entire relationships online. From introductions to sex to breakups.

I went to dinner for my birthday with a friend recently. Here’s a conversation we had, while sipping champagne (okay, so we downed three bottles…but, who’s counting):

“So, I did it. I responded to a Craigslist post. We really clicked, emailing back and forth. Exchanged IMs and had a great time chatting. As far as you can tell over email/IM, we had good chemistry, we were flirty. We decided to move it to the next level by talking on the phone. He seems pretty cool, except that he sounds like my cousin….my cousin Kathy. Once I got past that, we had phone sex. Now, he IMs me all the time at work. Now, we’re on to cyber sex, which is problematic since I’m at work.”

“Yeah, that can be tricky. I’ve done it though.”

“He’ll be all into it, but meanwhile you’re on conference call while your typing how much you want to fuck him.”

“And you have to be careful when other people start IMing you during it all. You don’t want to mistakenly type “I love sucking your cock.” to your boss!”

“Yeah, and what if some other dude wants to start up another cyber sex chat with you?”

“Copy paste, copy paste, copy paste.”

“Hah! It’s like an IM gang bang.”

At this point, I almost choked on my champagne. Wow. The IM gang bang. what a new new concept!