Online virgin

I have always turned up my nose at online dating. For years I told my best friend Rebecca* that I wouldn't even consider it until I turned 26. Well 26 I am, and online dating I am too. I was in Kigali for the first 2 weeks when I started getting messages, which wasn't a huge deal - it takes a little while to get through the messaging phase, right? And this fellow started messaging me - Darius.* We had a little banter, and he soon started im'ing me when I would go onto the website (it's one of those where you are automatically signed onto chat). I hate the chat function, so I never reply. Then Darius asked for my skype name, which I ignored for a couple more messages. I told him the bandwidth was slow in Kigali, and I couldn't use the im feature... which was true. But eventually, I relented and gave him my skype name. Oh Penny, what was I thinking?

Darius skype called me immediately. I'm talking, within 3 minutes of me sending my skype name. It was 8 a.m. Kigali time, 1 a.m. D.C. So we chatted for a bit... he kept asking to video chat. Did he think I was crazy? Even if that weren't weird, there's no way I was presentable at 8 a.m. on a Sunday. And again, Kigali bandwidth would never have supported that.

So we hung up, and I went about my day. Darius starts skype calling or chatting me every 6 hours. I told him, "I stay on skype so I can talk to people (i.e. friends) back in D.C., I really can't chat right now." Good old Darius, kept right on chatting me. I told him, "I'm really busy at work, how about I message you when I get back to D.C. next week?" No good.

Finally I was so annoyed that I blocked Darius on skype. He sent me a chat on the website and then 2 messages, "I'm so sorry - I know I came on too strong, but give me another shot." Unlikely, Darius.

I might have considered - if I hadn't gotten a new skype request of a slightly different name, a LinkedIn request, and a facebook request! Donezo. Lesson learned, no skyping allowed!