Let the dates begin

I set up my account profiles and tried to be as honest as I can - particularly with my online profile pictures as that is the one area where it's a waste of time to mislead as the 1st face-face meeting will reveal the truth.  Nothing worst than to have the other person / date believe, at first sight, that you have misled them (appearance not matching enough with those online profile pictures).  I didn't spill my guts and put in everything onto my profile.  Put in enough for prospective dates to have a decent idea of who/what I am.  If there's a match, they can find out more via the online chats, emails and of course, face-to-face meeting.

I have been chatting online with 3 ladies and not rushing it.  I am taking the approach of I treat them like good friends first and go from there - that approach has less pressure or urgency on my part and therefore I can act more normal versus working too hard to impress when viewing them as dates.  Love to meet someone to date but also wouldn't mind getting some new friends via this online dating journey.  So far, it's the basic small talk, fact finding exchange, etc of where I live, what I do work-wise, what are my hobbies, etc.  My plan is to meet them at a bar during happy hour somewhere near their work place so that it's convenient for them and hope that venue is easy to part ways if somehow it turns out to be no connection at all.  Hope to meet at least one of them this week.

I picked these 3 ladies based on they have enough similarities with me.  I know opposites can attract but I'll start off with the ones who appear to be a personality match with me.  Their ages are 34, 36, and 36.  Two of them have never been married before and the other one was divorced and has a child.  I am not sure if I want to or able to take on another child into my life but I also didn't want to preclude myself from prospective dates based on their preferences that I have not yet fully internalized or know enough to have an informed decision.  I rather let the chats, dates, etc with them shape my decision on what I want or not want.  I hope to be decisive with these relationship so that I don't waste their time or my time if the connection is not there.

To my own surprise, I was not that focused on the looks - quite the stark contrast to my younger years.  That said though, the 3 ladies are attractive to me even though I picked them more based on my assumption of their personalities via the profile info and what their profile pictures seem to imply (I like easy-going laid back personalities; am too old to deal with hotties with high maintenance).  Hopefully, their personalities are what I assumed and I am what they presumed too.