True story: I once signed up for eHarmony. Well, let me clarify—I never “dated” using eHarmony, but I did create an account. But I had a good reason.
Once, not so long ago, when I was single, I was driving down the road and heard an ad for eHarmony on my car radio. I heard all about how they were offering a “free, no-obligation personality profile” where I could take a relationship questionnaire with over 250 questions and they would give me a complete profile of who I am, the type of person I was, and a list of all the single women using eHarmony that would be a possible match for me. All for free! How could I turn that down? I was fascinated to find out what “kind” of woman would be a “fit” for me. I certainly hadn’t found any among the plethora of single friends I had at the time.
Well, I wasn’t about to start dating anybody online and I wasn’t interested in dating anyway. But I took the test and got a complete picture of my supposed personality type. But Neil Clark Warren’s amazing personality-matching technology failed me, big-time: I received an apologetic email saying that they’d searched their vast network of millions of eligible women and couldn’t find a single match for me. Zero. Zip. Not a one.
As I said—I wasn’t going to use the service anyway, but wow… what a blow to the ego. The world’s most advanced matchmaking software couldn’t find anybody on planet earth to match me with. If I’d put any stock into this sort of thing, I might’ve been disappointed.
Fast forward a few years. I’m still single, still not looking for a date, and now working as a soda jerk at a 1950s-themed diner. One night, when closing up the restaurant, I struck up a conversation with a co-worker and invited her to run to IHOP with me and get some pancakes. Bingo! We hit it off, became friends, then married each other. We’ve been happily married every since, and I didn’t even have to use a silly website to find her. She was just down the block.
Where eHarmony failed, the local diner succeeded. Technology still has its limitations and it looks like even though it’s the 21st Century, people can still hook up just fine at work. Either that, or I just happen to make an irresistible Cherry Phosphates, and that’s something you’ve just got to see in person to appreciate.