The way it should be

Carolyn sat at her small kitchen table, eating dinner, while her tiny Yorkshire Terrier ran between her feet. "Stop that, Dino," she admonished, "Go lay down!" Dino sulked off to his corner while Carolyn laughed to herself. He was a really good dog but such a baby. Having his company had been so good for her.

Lately, Carolyn had really been feeling the pains of living alone. Without much prospect for love in her life, she had acquired Dino from a local animal shelter. "If nothing else, I have a great deal of love, time and attention to give to a pet," she told herself.

Friends had been recommending that she try online dating and, while she was intrigued by the idea, Carolyn was also nervous. She couldn't imagine it would be easy to connect with a stranger in a voiceless, faceless world like the internet. Still, online dating might not be a bad pursuit. It had to be better than sitting alone night after night.

That very morning, Carolyn had been awoken rather abruptly. She had been having the most amazing dream. In it, she was with a very sexy man. He had just made a highly intimate proposal and had started to kiss and caress her when the dream was shattered by the jangling of the phone. A telemarketer with the audacity to call at 9AM on a Saturday. Carolyn had dropped back into bed, thinking about her dream and she finally acknowledged to herself that she was really hungry for male companionship. Her sex life was non-existent and she craved physical attention. So, online dating it would be!

Finishing the last of her dinner, Carolyn quickly cleaned up the kitchen and took Dino for his evening walk. With her responsibilities out of the way, she was free to sit down at the computer. Opening a browser, she did a quick search for online dating websites and realized she now had an extensive list to consider.

Searching through the names of the sites, she was immediately able to cross a few off the list. They weren't the type of "dating" she was looking for - but a couple of sites did look nice. Reading through all of the supplied information, Carolyn picked her first one and started creating her profile. She was determined to set aside her normally reserved personality and really have some fun with this. If she was going to date online, she was going to date successfully and with gusto. Her ultimate goal was to make that morning's dream come true.