{{{{{{{{{{{cinderella}}}}}}}}}}}<P>Welcome back from your 5 year hiatus from the dating game. It is true, dating someone is a risk. falling in love is a risk. Discovering that you love affection and caring is great!<P>Now, you have two routes, one is to call him and talk with him, the other is not to expect anything and don't burn his bridge.<P>The second is to get your picture into the "cinderella.jpg" format, and get into circulation with <A HREF="http://www.matchmaker.com," TARGET=_blank>www.matchmaker.com,</A> nashville community.<P>With a good picture, meaning one that does the best to highlight your physical attractiveneness, the hits will come, first by email, and you can chat with them to figure out if they are truly interesting. then you can set up a date.<P>The worst situation for you to get into right now is to fear rejection, you have to realize it will happen, but that is the risk you have to take to find your next serious relationship. This is the part that the highschool/college sweethearts missed out, as they didn't go through alot of this.<P>now, how can i help you? what help do you need to get a picture taken? Who do you need to call to get a picture of yourself? what friend has a digital camera?<P>Don't wait, do it now. it is coming up to party season, holiday parties, new years' eve parties, don't wait, do yourself a favor,<P>find those glass slippers, put them on, and get in line to go to the ball!!<P>tom

Tom - so, you really think I should do this? Look, I've survived a date rape and I grew up as the daughter of a medical social worker for a public hospital. I fall somewhere between "I am not going to buy that story" and being dumb as can be. I really don't want to sort through a dozen men who are interested in my smile, eyes, whatever but don't care about my heart and brain.<P>This just doesn't seem like the safest plan of action. But then, how many men did I meet through the safe plans? I met Zip, Nada, and None.<P>Could I use my sense of humor and submit a non-realistic sketch of myself? No, it's not because I look like I crawled out from under a rock. I just don't want some guy who's only out for the exterior. <P>This is just a foreign concept to me. Sort of scary. Talk about a high vulnerability level. Still not sure how I feel about the idea. I remain in "Ponder" mode on this one.<P>

Cinderella,<P>1) they only see your picture, no names, no addresses, etc.<BR>2) you chat via email just like this, and can screen them out.<BR>3) you can then call them and talk before doing anything, screen out some more<BR>4) you can decide to have a lunch date, that lasts only an hour, and be done.<P>and guys that use a computer are probably alot more interesting that ones that don't,<BR>(i say that to protect myself as I use a computer all day! <P>so what do you have to lose? only your hesitation.<P>can't finish the pep talk now, i will type/talk with you later.<P>tom

oh yeah, and keep in mind, men are visual, it is one of the first ways guys think, you gotta accept that, or you are just making it more difficult on yourself.<P>later--------