all right... so, just when i thought i was gonna give up on the online dating thing, trinity convinced me to do, "one more search." that's right. that's the online cattle call practice of specifying preferences on some search engine and seeing what comes up. it's so similar to playing the slot machines i guess. i had been complaining all day about the slim pickin's on the internet and how i dreaded receiving messages from mr. "not in your lifers." but then, i found one guy. a south bay guy. a south bay filmmaker guy. so i winked (this is on match.com, fyi). twenty minutes later, he winks back. and then... dilemma. i don't have a paid account on match.com. in order to send him a message, i'd have to pay, or sign up for a free 3-day trial. i'm terrible with trial memberships. i always forget and then i get screwed with having to pay. but, trin, here. she's the savvy one who signed up for the trial. another option could be that i wink again and hopefully instigate some morse code communication (in the event that he, too, is just as cheap) and we hopefully can wink out each other's contact e-mail address. or... phone number. but, that's too much winking and i don't know if he has high-speed internet access to accomodate all the virtual nictitating. (kudos to jeffrey eugenides for introducing this lovely word to me. this book is a KEEPER!)

my plan of action: tomorrow morning, (tonight would be overly eager, at this point), i will use trin's free trial email option and send him a message giving him my real email address. and from there, who knows. thank god, he's not some 50 year old looking for a young, asian thang. more later...