Dating - could I be arsed?

I wonder should we get fussier about who we date as we get older or simply throw caution to the wind and grant a meetup to anyone who has the conviction to go ahead and ask for our number?

This afternoon fell into column B for me. Knowing I wasn't attracted to my date, I had nevertheless given him my number last week because, well, he asked for it. I then very quickly found myself in a situation where I had a date pending that for most of the week, I was less than enthused about and after waking up with a hangover this morning, these mediocre enthusiasm levels had dropped to record lows. In fairness to my date, he was perfectly nice and normal and we had a fine time. Decent chats and the like and no awkwardness. But 2 hours of my life was enough and home I went after lunch.

So the afternoon went pretty much as I expected it to. No great surprises. No thunderbolt moment where I felt that my initial opinion of the guy was way off and that actually, he could be the love of my life. And at this point, after 33 years on this planet and lets face it, all 33 of them spent sussing out men, my initial evaluation of them tends not to change very much. Give me less than half an hour with a guy and I will have formed an opinion that, rightly or wrongly, 99% of the time is likely to stick.

So hence my question. Should I just put myself out there and go on all sorts of dates with randomers when my gut tells me that after an hour I'll be looking at my watch and fabricating an excuse to leave? Or should I just be a little more discerning in my quest for Mr. Right and not waste my time with a man that can't even stir a modicum of excitement in me at the prospect of meeting up?

Any experts out there care to share a thought or 2? Because I honestly just don't know the answer.

Chubster Dating

So I've just been on Fatbook, logging the mountains of food I've eaten today and all the exercise I subsequently  had to do to burn it all off and I saw an interesting question posted in the forum.

"Are any of you currently single & holding off on dating until you lose more weight? I am. Some of my friends & family keep encouraging me to go out on dates & I've had some offers from guys on online dating sites. But...I just haven't "dared" to yet because I'm just not feeling very attractive right now. I think I might continue holding off on dating until I lose at least a little more weight first. Anyone else in the same boat?"

I have to say, that question made me a little sad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to argue that in my more porky days I had much more confidence than the elephant man, I most certainly didn't. More often than not my confidence levels still verge on the shitty, but I can't imagine that I'd postpone dating because I wasn't yet thin enough. After all, the likelihood is that I may never be.

It's like this, life is really bloody short. And the more I aimlessly wander through it with no sense of the future, the more I realise it. So why on earth would we want to be putting such a short life on hold just because we still have a few lbs to lose?

All I know is that if guys were going around asking me out I certainly wouldn't let a my wobbly bits put me off. It's hard enough to find someone without taking a little break from it all because we're feeling like a bit of a chubster. Besides, if I waited till I was 100% happy with "project Cathy" before going out and living my life, I'd find myself in a big box, being lowered into the ground wondering where it had all gone and what I missed out on.