December 3, 2006 2:08am

Call it "playing the field", call it "taking a chance", call it "wow, you're a pathetic loser". Call it what you may, but I decided to enter the online dating world.

Actually, I did it a while ago, I just didn't say anything.

My first venture has been into eharmony. The creepy guy on tv who owns it finally brainwashed me into shelling out the money for it.

It took me 3 days to fill out the 7000 question profile.

In the past two months since I've been on it I have been matched with over 300 people.

A large majority of them never bothered to pay for the service. This means that they can never actually communicate with me.

Of what was left, some closed me out because I am too far away (I am trying to find someone inNJ) and some closed me out for an unknown reason. I am assuming I'm just not hot enough.

From those that were left, I recently started communicating by email and phone with 2.

We will call them Bachelor #1 and Bachelor #2 for short.

Bachelor #1 seemed like a nice enough guy. We had quite a bit in common. He lived not too far from me. But.......he seemed a little....boring. Maybe he was just nervous the first few times we talked. Maybe he doesn't ALWAYS talk about the same things over and over. So we went out while I was home. Apparently, he DOES ALWAYS talk about the same topics over and over (military life, military history, and sci fi shows). I'm a sucker for a soldier, but even I can handle this. Then, when we spoke last night he started going on about these very strange stories about his father that just made me really uncomfortable. Got to cut that one loose.

Bachelor #2 I only talked to on the phone for the first time tonight. He is very bright, much less nervous than #1, has a good sense of humor, and he has the ability to switch between topics in a conversation. I didn't want to slit my wrists after 2 hours on the phone, so that was a good thing! He's had a very interesting life. Grew up in Egypt. Speaks 3 languages, has an MBA, wants to meet up while I'm home for Christmas.

I just keep reminding myself to keep an open mind and enjoy whatever good experiences come my way.

If I repeat that over and over enough I just might start to believe it.