Well, since others are posting their success stories...
Okay, I've done more than my share of internet dating. I met a couple of women through Usenet, and then Hot or Not appeared and I met a LOT of women through that site, then match.com arrived and I met even more through there. (I would guess that the number I met in person was around 60 or so through those two sites, with about 20 of them leading to more than just a cup of coffee.) Through match.com I met the Travel Agent, who was almost The Right One- if I hadn't had kids, I suspect it would have worked out quite nicely, but such was not to be the case.

After she moved out I went through match.com again, where I met the ex stripper who dumped me because I was too nice (she kept waiting for me to reveal something terrible, and when I instead demonstrated a talent for cooking, the ability to give a good massage and the ability to get along well with her kids she freaked), the Postal Worker who wanted to organize my house and my life and move right in, and the Mad Stripper who got drunk on our first date and told me all about how turned on she got when another girl gave her a lap dance and had me feel her fake boobs within an hour of meeting for the first time.

Needless to say, I ran screaming and belming from this experience. I shut off my profile and huddled in my house, shivering. I had concluded that being single forever was no bad thing, and vowed not to date again.

A couple of months later my kids were spending most of their free hours on Myspace, so I thought I had better get on there myself to monitor them. I really knew nothing of Myspace, so I just set up a simple profile, posted a few pictures of myself and started looking for my kids' profiles to see what they were doing. For my default pic I used the one that's in my profile here, with the cat on my shoulders- nothing too unusual or exciting, really.

Well, within the first day I started to get messages from people who wanted to chat, so I replied to the messages with polite interest- it's always nice to have someone new to chat with, after all. One woman in particular seemed quite nice- she lived about an hour north of me, sang in a band in her spare time, painted when she wasn't singing, and worked in an electric utility in the engineering department. We chatted about quite a bit, so I ultimately gave her my cell phone number and we chatted by phone one night. She had a pleasant voice and was fun to talk to, so I suggested meeting up for a beer downtown, as that was about halfway for both of us. She agreed, and we met the next night.

Bear in mind that I really didn't have any expectations regarding her at all- she didn't have pictures of herself posted at that point, and frankly I didn't care what she looked like as I was approaching this as a platonic get-together-and-laugh meeting. So when a tall, slender woman with very short grey hair and glasses appeared, I was very happy to meet her and we had a great evening together. I left that night glad to have made a new friend.

The next day she invited me to a party at a friend's house. Unfortunately it conflicted with my kids' schedule (they were supposed to visit me that night), so I had to regretfully decline. But then my ex called and wanted to change the schedule to another night, so I was suddenly free- so I called my new friend and told her I'd love to go with her.

It was a house party full of people from about 40 to 60 years old, mostly old hippies and rather odd types- in other words, just the right crowd for me. I met a lot of very nice folk that night, played pool very badly (just like everyone else), and got mildly drunk. My new friend and I ended up sitting together on a couch in the living room in front of a fire, trying to sober up a bit before we drove home- and then she kissed me.

I woke up next to her the following morning in an unfamiliar bed, with a vague memory of having driven to her house through the night.

We had coffee and I drove home with my skull echoing with a constant repetition of "ohmygodwhatthefuckdidIjustdoohmygodIsworeIwouldntdothisanymoreohmygodwhatthefuckdidIjustdo". I was completely freaked out, but at the same time... well, we liked each other's company, she was nice and sane, she had told me that she was on her second divorce and not looking to remarry, ever, and we did very well together in bed. So by the time I got home I had resolved to just go with the flow and see where it led, and just enjoy it while I could.

That was over a year and a half ago. She's been living with me for a year now, and it doesn't seem that that's going to end anytime soon. We still enjoy hanging out together as friends, we still have a lot of fun together, and we're better than ever in bed. We both love to cook, we both give a great massage, and we like each others' kids. Overall I'd say we're very goddam lucky.

How far down the rabbit hole did we go? All the way to the other side. And neither of us wants to go back.

EDIT: Thank you all for your wonderful messages. Although many here would probably never admit it, you're really a very lovely and supportive bunch. I just wish I could meet up with you for a pint...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 14 Sep 2007, 14:03, Reply)