Instant craigslist gratification

While at Hula and Drummer's the other night, we witnessed one of the newer facets of single life (thanks to the Internet).

As I've said before, my circle tends to be a fairly conventional, down-to-earth group of people. C3 found out about a friend visiting town for the long weekend. She invited ShopQueen over to visit.

We were given a little background on her. She's had an unfortunate run of events in her life recently. Her family learned that they carry the gene for Huntington's disease. The disease has affected her mother and sister. The question for her is whether she will suffer the same fate. It's also obviously a difficult question because such diseases mean that carriers shouldn't bear children. That's tough, especially for women.

One can only imagine how it forces a person to re-examine priorities in life. Also, C3 mentioned how ShopQueen worked hard and studied for many years, never going out like her friends. It would seem now she's making up for lost time.

As she played board games with us, she also fumbled with her Treo. She was scanning craigslist for any guy posters who wanted to meet up for a drink at a bar in the city. This is something I've seen on craigslist but never understood. It always sounded kind of sleazy to me.

She managed to find a handful of men to e-mail. Within 20 minutes she had two responses. We were all rather intrigued and excited. The next question, of course, was whether these guys were decent. One guy sent his picture. It was actually a rather good looking man.

We quickly organized to help her create a good picture to send back to him. It was hilarious. We stopped playing our games to choose a the ideal location in the living room where the lighting and background would be most favorable. Just imagine six people standing behind a camera as ShopQueen posed calmly on the PB couch holding a glass of wine. Everyone kept trying to give advice, and it just made her laugh. It was hard to be serious with all the soap opera-like drama.

ShopQueen had four photos to choose from. After picking the most flattering photo, Drummer cropped it for the optimum effect. She sent it off within 10 minutes along with her phone number.

Unfortunately, nothing else happened. We all anxiously expected her phone to ring. Alas, the guy never called. Either he received a response from another woman before she was able to reply, or he didn't find her picture appealing enough. I didn't dare say the latter theory out loud. Our excitement deflated rather quickly.

It was great living vicariously for that brief moment. Observing craigslist in action was a treat. The idea that people can now hook up in a matter of hours is amazing. ShopQueen said that the majority of men she's met using this method have been decent guys. It's rare their scary or trouble. It's not for me, but it's darn intriguing. ;)