Neenah, you go girl! Go on over and take a look at what Neenah is doing to find love.
New Jersey Woman Launches Web Site to Find Husband in ‘09
Off-beat news.
Neenah Pickett has a unique New Year’s resolution: Find a husband, or quit dating for a year.
The 42-year-old Somerset, N.J., woman created a spin on online dating by launching a Web site, 52weeks2findhim.com, on New Year’s Day.
Pickett told Gannett New Jersey that she’s not looking for someone to support her, but she would like to find someone to settle down with.
So what does she want in a mate? Pickett said a sense of humor and laid-back attitude are important.
If Pickett doesn’t meet Mr. Right by next New Year’s Eve, she’ll take a year off from dating.
Cereal daters
By Rod McPhee
Finding a partner over breakfast - it’s the next big thing, apparently. Rod McPhee dropped in on a Leeds event to find out how it works and, more importantly, if it works.
MARIE is eyeing up the staircase bannister which is smack bang in the centre of the bar.
“I love going down on them backwards.” says the 45-year-old divorcee and mother of three. “It’s my party trick. I was half tempted just to leap up during one
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of my dates and do it just to break the ice, you know.”
Marie isn’t over-impressed. Not because three minutes wasn’t enough to get an insight into the men who attended this breakfast speed dating event but because it was sometimes too long.
The 13 women in attendance are seated around The Living Room bar and the 15 men who’ve also come along have to switch tables every time the organisers ring a bell.
“I wish they’d put a bell on my table,” says Marie. “I’d have rung it myself after about three seconds with some of them. God, some of them were so boring, just not my type at all.
“That said, I was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of people here, if you know what I mean. It’s not a sleazy thing at all, which is what I sort of expected it to be, if I’m honest.
“It’s all very civilised really, even if I didn’t actually like anyone I met, and I have to say I would give it another try.”
Quality is pretty much a given at these events since all those taking part have signed up with the organisers http://www.datingdirect.com who’ve organised three breakfast speed dating events around the UK.
Leeds was chosen, alongside Birmingham and London, because it’s one of the cities which boasts the highest number of subscribers to their online service.
But why speed date over breakfast?
Katie Mowe is the company’s lady with the bell. “Well, it’s the complete opposite of an evening event if you think about it. We’ve held some of those before and whenever there’s alcohol involved it gets to the point where we turn up the lights at the end of the night and there are couples snogging in the corner!
Less pressure
“I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that from our point of view, but other people don’t necessarily want that kind of environment. With breakfast it’s much less pressure, much less intense.”
That sentiment was echoed by Mark, a 29-year-old hospital worker who has come along with best friend Marie to offer some moral support.
“I think it does work, actually,” he says. “And I think it works because you have a set period of time in which to talk to everyone so you know that if you don’t like someone, or anyone, you can just go through the motions and leave, or if you do meet someone you like you can arrange to meet again.
“Whereas if it’s in the evening, or even over lunch it feels much more formal and you can sometimes end up with the same kind of atmosphere as going out to a bar or club or something and that’s exactly the kind of thing I hate.
“The whole reason I’d consider doing this is to avoid a situation where you’re trying to get to know someone by shouting over thumping music, getting pushed around by drunk people.
“The only reason I haven’t met someone here today is because there just aren’t many around my age.”
Professional
The age range does vary substantially. The youngest is 28, the oldest 48, with the majority in their 30s. And, if appearances are anything to go by, the majority look like professional people and a quick check of the datingdirect.com’s list confirms that in attendance is a teacher, a surveyor and a handful of self-employed businessmen and women.
Among them is Lisa Randerson, a 35-year-old who runs a business in Wakefield handling accident claims. She’s been divorced for eight years, during which time she’s rediscovered herself but now wants to find herself a suitable man too.
“I know it sounds a bit funny,” she laughs, “but looks aren’t that important to me. I need someone who’s a professional so I can feel they’re on some kind of level with me. I want someone I can talk to and have a laugh with.
“I thought I’d stand a better chance doing that through something like this because it has something of a structure to it and you know you’re likely to meet a particular type of person.
“I’m a very sociable person and go out all the time. I even let guys give me numbers and stuff but it’s all so random you never know who they are, what they do, what they’re about before spending any amount of time.
“And what’s great is, I’ve actually spoken to a couple of guys here I’d really like to get to know a bit better.”
So, at least one satisfied customer. But why not more? More pertinently, why didn’t more people attend?
“There is still a bit of a stigma attached to it,” says co-organiser Daisy Swan, who’s been ensuring every man gets to meet every woman during the two hour event. “Up until about four years ago internet dating and speed dating was seen as something for losers
“Which is strange because in Europe online dating is seen as something on a par with going on Facebook really, but over here it’s still something people want to keep secret, even though that’s changed a lot now.
“So getting people to attend something like this can be tricky, but it’s definitely growing in popularity. In London we had something like 35 people attend and in Birmingham there were some absolutely gorgeous people a couple of the guys I wouldn’t have minded going on a date with, but I couldn’t, obviously.”
Things are going swimmingly when controversy arises someone, at some point, has decided they really rather liked one of their brief breakfast dates and gone back for seconds, knocking the order of rotation out of kilter.
It seems it will take more than orange juice and pastries to negate human nature, but the organisers don’t seem to mind too much. They ring the bell, clear the plates and quickly check the corners of the room, just in case.
Now here are two folks who know how to get lucky. If you want to get luckier, I can show you how. Try my self-study course Get Lucky at Love!
Newlyweds scoop £1.9 million on National Lottery
By Mirror.co.uk
A newlywed couple who met on a dating website have continued their internet lucky streak by winning £1.9 million on the National Lottery by playing online.
Ed and Michelle Edwards from Yeovil had been living on a shoestring before scooping a share of Saturday’s Lotto jackpot of just under £8 million.
The couple, who have four teenage children from previous relationships, currently live in a rented two-bedroom cottage in Yeovil.
They are on a list for a shared ownership property but now have their eyes on buying their own detached five bedroom house in nearby Sherbourne.
Mr Edwards, 43, who had originally deleted an email from the National Lottery notifying him of their win, managed to keep it a secret from his wife for three hours last Sunday until he was sure their numbers had come up.
The day before the couple had been celebrating winning just £7 on the EuroMillions.
Mrs Edwards, 39, who has already handed in her notice as store manager for Edinburgh Woollen Mill in Sherbourne, suggested they chance their luck on the Saturday night draw with three lucky dips and two rows of birthdays.
She has already bought a new Mini Cooper convertible after having to sell her last one to bay the bills after her divorce.
“We were standing in a field with our two dogs when Ed told me and I jumped up and down, screamed and said I didn’t believe him, I thought it was a joke,” she said.
“The first person I told was my sister, you’re told to keep it to yourself but its very difficult, you just have to share that kind of news.”
Mr Edwards, who works as a computer engineer for Avon and Somerset Probation Service, is taking a month of work to decide his next move.
But the family are determined to go on holiday and buy a bigger house in time for Christmas so that all two of the couple’s children who still live at home can have their own rooms.
Mr Edwards said: “Everyone has an idea of what they want to buy if they ever won the lottery but when you do all those ideas seem silly and you dismiss them.
“I always thought I’d like to go to the North Pole and run around naked like Billy Connolly.
“All of a sudden you have this great amount of money but you have to invest it and look after it and your family.”
The couple met through an internet dating agency two years ago and a week after their first date realised they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.
They married six months ago in Chantmarle Manor, in Frome St Quintin, near Yeovil, where they announced their win today.
Mrs Edwards said: “You don’t go on Internet dating sites to meet your husband, I went on to find someone I enjoyed spending time with but when we met that was it and 18 months later we were married.
“It has been hard the past few years, we were always in our overdraft and relying on credit cards, living from week to week.
“But we have worked through it by making the most of what we have, we could never have got together a deposit for a house and I have worked my whole life so it’ll be nice to have some time off.”
Mr Edwards said: “But we want the children to realise that we were lucky to win the lottery and that you have to work hard for your daily bread.”
This morning, I am feeling incredibly lucky. Drew (my Match.com hubby) and I are at our home in Maine. It’s on an island, and last night we had a fierce rain and wind storm. Then in the middle of the night, it cleared and the nearly full moon shown through our bedroom window and right on our faces. Did you know that sleeping in the light from the full moon can make you loony? Maybe you thought I was anyway.
So here this morning, the air is fresh, clear and cold. We’ve got a fire in the wood stove to warm us up, the sun is shining, and we are watching the birds gobble up the suet, peanut butter and bird seed sandwich we hung for them from the maple tree out front.
So yes, I am feeling lucky. But I got lucky by DOING, not just by crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I built this house myself, literally, thirty years ago. I carved the woods back, planted, painted, and pruned. Now Drew does most of the heavy stuff and I get to try new recipes. Last week we made grape jelly—I’ve made jam plenty of times, but never jelly. It was a first.
I’m with Drew because of what we did, both of us. We were lucky to meet, but we made our own luck. Luck does not just happen. You make it.
If you want to get luckier, you might want to try my ecourse Ten Days to Get Lucky at Love Try doing something right now and see if you get luckier.
Here are two guys who are trying interesting techniques for marketing themselves to women:
Dave Greenberg of Waltham, MA, is circulating fliers offer $1000 to the person who sets him up with the woman he will eventually marry. Greenberg seems like an okay guy, but has two stipulations that seem to be warding women off: he wants to move to San Diego and will not fly, so wants a partner who will do (or not do) both.
Brian Wolf at http://settleforbrian.com/ has put up his own website with his worst possible photo on the front page. He candidly has listed his pros and cons. 56,833 people (at my last visit) had viewed the website, he’s gotten lots of supportive emails, and is dating someone now, according to the NPR interview.
While both men say they had “no luck” with Internet dating, I am a firm believer that you make your own luck. And regardless of their lucklessness on the Net, they certainly are making their own luck now.
From Your Romance Coach, Kathryn Lord
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