My extremely well thought out reply to her.

The only 'her' in this situation that I could be possibly referring to is the girl who is hooking me up (or attempting) with her friend, unless of course I was referring to her as myself, which would be kind of weird.

So anyway, I took some time today at work to write her back.

The truth is that I really didn't know HOW it would be best to meet him. Meeting anyone this way is crazy enough but to do it at least you know the other person has seen photos of you and has a general idea of who you are. No matter what on this one, I am walking in COMPLETELY blind. And that is scary.

Perhaps I say it to her best: I want it to start with honesty, if anything is to start, and I really have no idea what the best way is to meet anyone. If I did, I probably wouldn't be giving this a shot and considering doing a dating column.

On Jan 4, 2008 1:29 PM, Sarah wrote:

Hi REDACTED,

Thanks for your reply.

As for posting up your friend--anything is worth a shot. I read somewhere (NY Mag I think?) that the best time to post it up is in the evenings on Sundays, that the "best guys" look then, whatever the heck that means. I am sure just like anything else, it really is a shot in the dark. I ended up getting 3-4 normal responses out of over 100, exchanging a few emails ,we'll see what happens.

What I've found so far is that it is really hard to tell who a person is via email, much easier once you actually talk to them (which I've done with two guys--one of them was like a total disaster!), the other one not so bad. You'd think you could maybe sense personality through email and I think you can, but you get the first initial part of chemistry from talking, I guess? I dont know...I could be totally wrong, I am so new to all of this.

As for meeting him--I'm excited too (!) I don't really know the best way to go about it. I would never want you to feel like you had to lie to him, so whatever you are comfortable with. It seems like maybe the wrong way to start anything that could be anything new, with dishonesty, but being vague might be good :) We could always confess later on, who knows, maybe we might end up being friends if things worked out with him and then it wouldn't be such a story...

It is kind of a unique situation, so I was thinking we could either go the email route and you can tell him whatever you think is best for the context (I dont know if he is the "ask a lot of questions" type)? Have you spoken to him about it yet?

I'd be happy to email him and start the conversation or you can give him my email (my real email by the way, is: REDACTED@GMAIL.COM, he might think the whole REDACTED (my made up email address for this experiment) thing is kind of weird). I don't know if he'd be more comfortable talking to me first through email or just speaking and setting up a real "blind" date. I've been setup both ways before and although some of the 'you have to meet this guy' setups that come out of the blue have been awkward when there has only been a phone conversation prior, it is so much easier to tell in person than via email.

Whatever you think is best?

My info, just so you know:

Sarah REDACTED
26
Live in West Village
email: REDACTED
917 REDACTED (cell phone)
I moved to New York from Austin, Texas (1.5 years ago)
No southern accent :)
I am the VP of Business Development for a marketing agency

Don't know any other important things you might want to know? I might have already given you too much information, lol. I'm sorry if I have, I am just trying to cover the bases.

I'm really having a strangely good feeling about this whole situation.

So let me know whatever you're comfortable with, I'm game for whatever introduction you think is the best. I can't wait to meet him! Hopefully he won't see my picture and think that is a bad idea :)

Thanks for doing this, you are a great friend, clearly. And your track record is superb. All of my setups have ended, unfortunately, and none with a proposal. lol.

Sarah