Dating at 52

So, for the last two weeks I've been a member of Match.com. In searching for possible men to date I notice a lot of them want women several years to 20 or so years younger than they are. Some of them have headings like, "TurkeyNeck" or "DivorcedTwice" or some other heading that does not entice you to check out their profiles. Some of them say only a few things about themselves, for instance, "Sweet attentive man trying to find a best friend". That doesn't work for me. Why advertise yourself using as few words as possible?

Now, on the positive side, some men write at least a paragraph about themselves, want women within their age group and don't have chaotic facial hair or are posing bare chested (the only two men who have messaged me are the one named "TurkeyNeck" and someone who looks like Yosemite Sam).

I'm wondering if I should put on my profile that I only like short facial hair that is groomed, no bare chests in photos and don't contact me if have a freckle fetish -- yep, that's happened to me before too.

Dating sucks. It's hard for me to have any enthusiasm about going on dates. I am on Match.com because I moved to a new city and don't have friends who can hang out with me more than once every couple of weeks. Loneliness is very difficult and I don't want to stay in its grip. Trying to find someone on Match.com is a last-ditch effort by me to have companionship. Maybe it's the platform, but I haven't seen anyone I'm attracted to and seems interesting. And maybe my self-esteem isn't that great right now either, which means I'm not confident that I can hold a man's interest.

My friend Karen tells me I should just go on coffee-dates with a few of the Match.com members and maybe I will. I'd rather meet someone at the Y or at PACC or any of the other places I frequent but the women outnumber the men by a wide margin at most places I go to. Why is that, I wonder? Are men sitting at home watching TV or working or ?

To be continued....