This comic probably gives you a clue as to what I’m suggesting, but let’s go back in time and I’ll tell you the whole story…

I’ve been in Orlando since late 2001 and have had my share of dating adventures. I’ve dated some great people, made some great friends, and sifted through hundreds if not thousands of “meh” profiles.

After my last relationship ended, I was back on match.com seeing what I could see. There were the same old faces that were on match every time I search for the intelligent set. There were a few new ones, but nothing was panning out.

I was telling my tale of woe to my friend Maria one night when she asked me if I had heard the story of how she met her husband. She told me how she had similar problems with match.com in town, so she decided to do something totally out-of-the-box.

She set up a custom search with everything set to “perfect man” standards. Then she extended the search radius to the entire country. “At the very worst,” she said, “I’d end up with some cool friends that shared similar interests!” But she ended up meeting Russ, who was living in another state at the time. They dated long distance for a year and then he moved here, they got hitched, and it’s been bliss ever since.

So I figured, hey, what can it hurt?

I put together my perfect geek boy list. I narrowed my normally broad age range down to closer to mine and set the height at 6′0″ or taller (sorry shorties, tall is sexy!). I also required that he be Never Married, have at least a Bachelors degree, and an income equivalent or higher than mine. (This indicates he has a career, not just a job.) Bonus points if he was turned on by brainiacs!

The first time I pulled up Mutual Matches, I got nothing.

Yep, nothing. But let me fill you in on a secret - match.com’s search functionality is not bug-free. When I returned the next day and did the same search, I was greeted by a list of geek boys meeting all my crazy criteria. Tons? No, but hey, I set the bar high!

I sent out a few emails to the ones who caught my eye and within a couple weeks, I was talking regularly with a redheaded programmer from Detroit. We were both still semi-seriously dating folks in town and griped about similar problems in our respective dating pools.After a while, we realized we liked each other a whole lot more than just internet buddies. I flew up there on my Christmas break and the rest is history!

Like the cartoon above, long distance does suck pretty hard sometimes, but we are hopeful that eventually we’ll manage to live in the same zip code.If you’re having similar problems in your hometown, give it a shot! You never know, you might find the geek of your dreams!