Alberta woman aims for 30 dates in 30 days
Lisa Mitchell returned from abroad and didn’t like the dating apps, so she swiped right to the IG
Lisa Mitchell returned to Calgary after being abroad for a spell, but when she set out to date, things had shifted a little.
"I returned to this dating scene that I was super unfamiliar with," Mitchell told The Homestretch.
"It was all online apps that I didn't relate to. I found them really impersonal, I didn't like how you use them. A friend had an idea, that we personalized to me, and it was a lot more exposed."
And exposed is a wide-open Instagram account for all the world to see, documenting her self-imposed challenge of a date a day for the month of September. Instagram is where she has met most of her dates and through friends of friends.
"I went into it knowing that I was going to put everything out there. Photos, about the date, who the guy is, their age, was it good, was it bad, everything," she said of her 30 dates in 30 days project.
It was far from the hot mess she feared.
"The first few I was nervous about. What are we going to talk about? Are we going to run out of things to talk about? But I thought, they are probably just as nervous as I am," Mitchell said.
"It's just a conversation. You have more in common with people than you know and people are interesting. They have so many good stories to tell."
The dates have not been money or time-intensive, by design.
"Most of the dates have been really creative. Sunset over Crescent Heights hill, going to plays, Cirque du Soleil. A lot of the guys I have gone out with, have made the plans, so not all dinner, not all drinks."
Calgary has 'masculine energy'
But if apps are where you want to be, a Calgary matchmaker says women have the online advantage.
Barb Sim has 26 years in the matchmaking business.
"There's a lot of masculine energy in this city," she told CBC News in an interview.
Alberta is the only province, according to the last census, that skews more male than female, in part due to employment opportunities.
So, Sim says, men have to bring their digital A-game which can lead to the assuming of more traditional gender roles, for good or bad.
"This is where a guy will really be a guy for you," she said. "He will buy you lunch and he will take you out for dinner."
'I learned I am brave'
Meanwhile, for Mitchell there have been no third dates so far, but three second dates. And she says the process has opened her eyes.
"I think it's been really good for me to open up about dating, and it's been so good for other single women, who have reached out to me to say thank you. 'You are showing me dating is fun, it's actually not that scary,'" she said.
"I learned I am brave and that I can put myself out there."
With files from The Homestretch, CBC Calgary News at 11 and Jessica Barrett