Would you ever...

Once in a great while, the natural order of things is reversed and I RECEIVE an unsolicited message from a woman. 

Rather than my own well-written, personalized notes, these tend to be much shorter and to-the-point.. 

A couple of examples:

"You look like a nice guy.  Message me."
"Good morning.  How are you?"

Oh, to be a woman.  If I could send out notes like this and expect any sort of response, my life would be so much less-stressful.  But that is a discussion for another time.

I received one of these notes last night.  Upon clicking and reading, I spit my Sprite Zero all over my keyboard.  No, that's not a euphemism for anything.  I was drinking a Sprite Zero, watching a movie, and tying to find the love of my life all at the same time.  Gotta multitask these days if you're going to stay ahead.

Anyways, on to the note.  Here's how it read verbatim:

"Are you open to dating a married woman?"

Now my initial thought was to delete the message, run to the bathroom and scrub my web-surfing fingers with bleach, and then try to block it from my mind.  But then I thought... wait, isn't this exactly what your blog is all about?

I took a look at her profile.  Yup, married. Open relationship, likes ponies, long walks on the beach, etc., etc.... oh wait- is "Poly".  What the hell is "Poly"?  I know it means "many", but what about in this context?

Thank goodness for google... and wikipedia.  Poly is actually short for "polyamory", which is, according to the wikipedia post:

"Polyamory (from Greek πολύ [poly, meaning many or several] and Latin amor [love]) is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved."

Curiouser and curiouser...I crafted a quick response asking what one would expect in that type of relationship.

Her response?  It would be just like dating anyone else. 

Ummm... no, it would be the exact opposite of dating somone else, actually.  I send this back, and she comes back and tells me that the only difference is her availability... and that she has to ask her husband if she can go out and play.

We message back and forth a couple more times before I give a polite but firm "Thanks, but no thanks."

Reflection time: Despite what you may think, reading this blog, I'm actually in this to find someone for the long haul.  While I can't fault someone for living a different lifestyle, this polyamory stuff does NOT fit in well with my future plans.  What kind of future can a person have with someone that's already married and plans to stay that way?  I mean, I'm sure it would be fun while it lasted.  But how does the old saying go?  Oh yes... it's like masturbation; it feels good while you're doing it, but you're really just screwing yourself.

Also, even if the person and I were a perfect match, I know myself; I would become jealous, and would end up heartbroken.  Jealousy is a powerful emotion that, given the proper fuel, can become stronger than love.  People do crazy things when overcome by jealousy.

Finally, there is a child involved.  Says so right on her profile.  Enough said.