Dear JDate,

Because there is no such thing as too many happy stories, here is another JDate success story for your archives.

In late 2008, Lisa was getting frustrated with the whole internet dating scene after trying several different websites without much luck. I, on the other hand, had resisted ever signing up for anything, much to my sister-in-law’s chagrin. Finally, I gave in, and since I tend to be one for instant gratification, immediately got frustrated after about a day. Little did I know that it wouldn’t take much more than a week to yield positive results.

I logged in after work one day and found that Lisa had placed me on her Hot List. I was immediately drawn to her magnetic smile and sent her an email, which she apparently never received. Even though I had not heard from her, I logged in the next day to take another stab at it and found that she was online. We exchanged IM names and had a few conversations over the next two weeks before deciding to meet up (my first JDate) at one of my favorite bars in New York City: The Other Room. Lisa immediately offered to pay for a round of drinks (a win in my book), but her attempts were thwarted by the cash-only bar, leaving me to pay anyway. After a three-hour conversation, we left our next meeting open ended, and we went out about two weeks later.

The night before our second date, I went to an extremely loud concert in Brooklyn, and as a result, could barely hear a thing at dinner. At one point, Lisa asked me something about my job, to which I replied “No thanks, I’m not hungry.” You see, for most of the date, I was successfully guessing what she was saying and the appropriate response, but after that, the cat was out of the bag. Lisa took it all with her trademark good humor (another win in my book), and I was sold. From there, we began “seeing each other” but did not become boyfriend and girlfriend until New Year’s Eve, when a friend of mine “outed” us by telling someone on the phone that “Seth and his new girlfriend are here.”

Our first weekend trip together was in late February when I took Lisa to visit her old college stomping grounds in College Park, Maryland. We went to the Maryland vs. North Carolina basketball game which featured a dramatic double-digit comeback by the Terrapins. It didn’t take that much longer for me to realize that I would never need to go on another date again. 

On February 6, 2010, about half an hour before Lisa’s surprise 30^th birthday party, I came over to pick her up for “dinner” at a Cuban restaurant in the East Village. My heart was pounding and my throat was dry, but I managed to squeeze out something nice (it was a blur, you’ll have to ask Lisa what I actually said!) and got down on my knee to ask her to marry me. She said yes, but was, in her words, so overwhelmed, that she asked me to do it a second time, which I of course did. From there, I told her that the restaurant had champagne waiting for us, and we went to the East Village. Before we went to dinner, I told her that we should go show my cousin (who owns a bar near the restaurant we were supposed to be dining that evening) that we were engaged. We walked in and all her friends and family yelled “Surprise.” I made a quick announcement that we were not just at a birthday party, but also an engagement party. Most of Lisa’s friends yelled and screamed and started crying, so I knew I had done a good job!

The wedding is scheduled for May 29, 2011 in New Jersey. Thanks to JDate!

Seth and Lisa
New York, New York