Dinner date in Los Angeles

Finding a place where you can meet someone for the first time can be a bit nerve racking. Finding a place where you can take someone you're dating to a first dinner date can be even more frustrating. After all, you're not only setting a bar for future dates, but you're also setting the bar for the type of quality person that you are. One important thing to keep in mind is that you dont want to shoot too high where everything that follows will fall short in comparison and you dont want to shoot so too low to where you're being perceived as either a miser or someone who isn't well cultured in the dining category.

First off, you'll need to set a budget for yourself. Figure out how much you can spend and determine whether it's a budget that will fit comfortably for future dates.

The next thing that you will need to do is figure out the types of restaurants that you enjoy. With this exercise, you want to keep a few things in mind:

a) List your favorite types of foods (steak, italian, mediterranean, mexican etc).
b) Identify the types of foods that you're most familiar with. This is a great way to show off some of your recommendation skills and sound like an expert.
c) Identify places that you've visited that you find appealing or suitable enough for a first date
d) Figure out which restaurant provides the most romantic atmosphere.

Next, you will want to take a look at your list and determine which of them rank the highest overall. Before you make the phone call to set the dinner date, you can take a look at citysearch and find similar restaurants in the area at around the same price range. You'll have more options and maybe even a new restaurant to add to your rolodex for future reference.

The Pleasures of Online Dating:

Ahh, the pleasures of the internet. Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, HintCafe, Match.com...oh yeah, I've had my share of experiences with each of them. I would think to myself, "wow" all these single men and all of these single women out here and the only thing that brings them together is this platform. Well, let me just say that I find online dating pretty funny at times. I sometimes want to be a personal tutor to the many singles who send me messages that read "hey there sexy, wanna talk" or the other messages "Waz up sexi mama, how u doin n wut is you gon do today". Come on people, learn how to friggin spell. It amazes me how some people cant spell a four letter word but they can type in an 8 letter url. It must be the branding! Yes, I can honestly say that I've dated a few people from dating sites, but for the most part, the success rates have been pretty low.

My first experience was through eharmony and from pretty much the second we first saw each other for the first time, this guy leans over and tells me that he wants to meet my family and he wants me to quit my job because he believes that he should be the bread winner. I mean, I didnt know wheter to take it as a compliment or whether to beat him over the head with my purse. I have goals and I dont need anybody supporting me, so I told him to get me a coffee and think about what he just said.
After the date was finished, I went home and immediately cancelled my subscription. Looking for an alternative and I signed up to Plentyoffish. I joined this site and let me just tell you that it's free for a friggin reason. The guys are disgusting and a bunch of them are married. If you're just looking for a quick round of fun, by all means, knock yourself out. For me however, I'm more interested in dating professionals who know how to carry themselves. Needless to say, I got plenty of messages, but I never dated anyone from here - it just seemed soo raunchy to me.

Anyways, I checked out a few other dating sites and found myself dating a few times. I found that niche sites were actually better than the bigger ones because there arent as many people and the people that are there are serious about finding someone, or at least thats what it seems like. I'm actually going on a first date with someone tomorrow and hopefully, I wont be offered a free pass or find out the guys married. Hopefully this guy is sane and is in the same realm of reality as I am. Que serra serra.

Choosing the right picture for your online dating profile.

I recently joined an online dating site and my experience has been nothing less than hysterical. Over the last few days I decided to look at members in my area. The thing that stood out to me the most was that most singles have not selected a good picture for the profile. I think a good profile picture is the most important part of a dating profile. Let's face it, we want to know the other person on the inside but without physical attraction there cannot be any dating. As it's said, a picture is worth thousand words, a good picture can show a member in a good light. For example, if you are a single doctor or another professional single, showing a picture at your workplace does assert your authority and shows that you have your act together.

Similarly people should choose their pictures based on their interests. For example, a cyclist should at least include a picture on the cycle. Also one should choose a picture where you are smiling or being goofy. A goofy picture actually scores good points in my book because it shows a sense of humor which is often hard to communicate via words on a dating profile. However I would also point out that having a picture of yourself with your ex is not going to help you score any brownie points on the dating profile. Also having a picture of you having body shots off the bartender's body might also not be desirable.

Based on a research, visitors to an online dating profile first look at the picture and then go for the text. Hence the picture is your first impression and it makes or breaks your dating profile. There are a lot of photographic services on the web which can touch up your picture to make you look even five years younger. I personally would not support those services because it's immoral in my book. However having a picture of yourself in your favorite outfit is definitely desirable and strongly recommend. If you're one of the many singles, who take their pride in work, having a picture of yourself in your work clothes is a good idea to. That just goes to show that you are single professional and you have a good stable career. Online dating is a crowded supermarket of singles, and your pictures can make you stand out among the crowd. Hopefully this blog would've motivated you to go back to your online dating profile and remove that picture of yours where you are having a cheeseburger and have mustard on your face.