Tag: online dating

Tips to Survive Cuffing Season

The air is getting colder and the desire to spend Sunday afternoons snuggled on the couch with someone is increasing rapidly.  This can only mean one thing, we are now approaching Cuffing Season. Summer is a great time to hang out with friends, spend your days at the beach and embrace your single self.  However, once the temperature drops, you’re on the hunt for a cuddle buddy to cuff for the winter months. The truth is, you don’t know if this relationship will survive the snowy season, but you also don’t want to be the only person without a date to your friend’s NYE party.  Keep reading for tips on what you can do to ensure you cuff the person you want to spend your “Netflix and chill” time with.

Check out my posts on Is Cuffing Season a Good Time to Meet Someone?, My Top 3 Online Dating Tips, and Dating Apps to Try in 2017

Change Up Your Look for Cuffing Season

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How to Be More Attractive

So I’ve been reading through lots of Reddit posts on r/dating and r/dating_advice to look for some patterns. One that keeps popping up is guys think the only way for them to be more attractive is by working out. Or making more money. Other then that it’s all genetics and they have absolutely no control.

As a woman I’m bombarded with ads of products that will make me more attractive. Advertising tells me there’s billions of ways for me to improve my beauty. I guess men haven’t had that same message their entire lives. So here you go men (all humans really), here’s all the secrets to being more attractive.

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Is Cuffing Season a Good Time to Meet Someone?

Tis the season… to get into a relationship? Cuffing season is here where single people (hand)”cuff” themselves to a partner so they don’t have to brave the winter (and holiday gatherings) all alone.

What is Cuffing Season?

“Cuffing Season” is the time of year beginning mid-Septemberish when summer has come to an end and single people start looking for relationships. Cuffing season happens because it’s dark and cold and single people don’t want to be the only one without a partner for Thanksgiving/Hanukkah/Christmas/New Years. People who normally are comfortable casually dating more than one person  at a time are too tired and cold to put in the effort. They want to find a partner they can stay cozy and warm together inside. They also don’t want to have the annual conversation with their parents about why they aren’t married yet.

When is Cuffing Season?

Cuffing season begins during the fall and really heats up near Halloween. Starting to date at Halloween is the perfect amount of time to be dating for it to not be awkward to spend the holidays together. Halloween also coincides with daylight savings time which is another incentive to cuff. Plus for girls who were dieting for Halloween this may be their peak body time and they’d really like to put on a sweater, get a boyfriend, and start eating again.

Is Cuffing Season a good time to meet someone?

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Dating Ring

One of my favorite Podcasts is StartUp which talks about what it’s like to get a business off the ground. The second season recently started and I was so happy when I heard the business was not only headed by 2 women in their 20s, but it’s also a dating company! The company is called Dating Ring and it’s already up and running. What makes it different is that unlike Tinder or OKCupid you are not scrolling or swiping through an endless sea of choices, you are only given 1 match per week. The other big difference is instead of being matched by an algorithm like they do on OKCupid, Dating Ring uses real life human matchmakers. The matchmakers comb through the extensive database and recommend 1 top match per week. You are then texted a link to a brief profile and pictures of that person on a special phone number that allows you to set up a date without giving out your personal number. I also love that the number expires in 7 days so it’s only supposed to be used to set up a real date not for people who want to be pen pals and never actually meet up! This whole system also cuts down on the time you do searching or browsing online for dates. It cuts out all the annoying time wasters who want to wish you a Happy Hump Day! Dating Ring has you actually meeting up and on dates to figure out if there is real chemistry.

You can sign up for Dating Ring for free, but they also have 2 paid levels of membership. The first is $80/month for 3 months and that includes 1 matchmaker-curated match each week (free subscriptions only make you eligible for matches with paying members, but matches are not guaranteed). If you get the free membership you can send your friends a free match and earn one for yourself for every two friends you refer. You also get a $25 credit to your account for every friend you refer. I asked Dating Ring for a personalized referral link so that I could put it on the blog and earn some more matches for myself and they gave me an awesome coupon code: blushing60 which will get users $60 off of a paid plan! Continue reading “Dating Ring”

New Tinder Plus App Costs Money

I had heard rumors here and there about Tinder possibly charging for features over the last few months and those rumors are true it appears! Tinder Plus is an in-app purchase add-on with four main new features: You can change your location, rewind your last swipe, get unlimited likes, and turn off ads for $9.99-19.99 per month in the US (the prices vary in other countries). Tinder Plus has decided to charge different rates for different ages so if you’re in the US and under 30 you pay $9.99 per month and if you’re over 30 it’s $19.99. I read a tweet that said over 28 and almost had a minor melt down (I am 28), but the 28 year old cut off appears to be in the UK . They decided this after a bunch of testing in various countries showed them that people under 30 are more broke/cheap and over 30 are more desperate for love and booty I suppose. You can still download Tinder and use the features you’ve come to know and love over the past couple years for free, but more ads are coming so get ready. Let’s break down these 4 new features: Continue reading “New Tinder Plus App Costs Money”

My Awkward OkCupid Date Immortalized in Cartoon

I was bored and browsing Twitter the other day (btw let’s be Twitter friends! I’m @blushinginhwood) when I saw OKCupid had posted this:

www.blushinginhollywood.com

I thought “I’m a dating blogger, I’ve got this” and sure enough they picked mine!: Continue reading “My Awkward OkCupid Date Immortalized in Cartoon”

A Song About Modern Dating by Erin & MeLissa

I went to a comedy show at NerdMelt (great place to see a show BTW) last night and saw these girls performed and they are SO funny!! They’re Erin & Melissa and they are a musical comedy duo that performs regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade. I love this song “Based on What I See” which talks about a girl knowing a guy is ~the one~ based on his social media. I think it’s safe to say we’ve all been there before. I even tried to pick up a dude on Instagram recently. Anyway check out this video of them singing this hilarious song:

http://youtu.be/z-3dtGr2fIM

You can see them Tuesday, November 25th @ 9:30pm at UCB Franklin in The UCB Thanksgiving Parade and they’re performing Monday December 1st @ 8:30pm at the brand new UCB Sunset in Erin & MeLissa: One Night Only. Both shows are $5 and excellent date ideas.

 

You can follow them on Twitter @ErinandMeLissa

My First Grouper Experience

When I first heard about the concept of Grouper I was intrigued, but instantly was turned off by it. Grouper is a social club that sets up drinks between 2 groups of friends: 3 guys and 3 girls. I immediately thought, but what if the guy I like likes one of my friends? That always sucks when that happens! You also get no choice as to who you are set up with so it’s a totally blind group date (except you know what your 2 friends look like because you invite them). You also have to pay for Grouper and I have never used a dating site I had to pay for. Grouper costs $20 per person plus a 10% tip for your server which covers their introduction and concierge service and a free first round of drinks at the bar they select for you (the concierge part).

Grouper is actually not claiming to be setting you up on a date and people who sign up don’t have to be single (but God would I be annoyed to go out with a group of guys who were all in relationships wtf). They are planning a night for you with the perfect girl to guy ratio and giving you ideas on how to make it fun. These ideas include preparing “two truths and a lie” before the date for a fun discussion or playing the iPhone game “Phrase Party”. I will say that going on a Grouper definitely takes a lot of the pressure off of the conversations you’re having and you feel less like you’re on a job interview and more like you’re hanging out with friends which is nice. Going out with friends also forces you to be a more authentic version of yourself because your friends might call your ass out or tell the embarrassing stories you might have tried to avoid which does help you get to know each other much faster. It also forces you to actually make a plan instead of getting stuck in chatting or messaging back and forth purgatory.

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Tinder Tips Tuesday # 5 – Take the Shame Out of Your Game

tinder-tips-online-dating-shame

One of the many trends that turn me off of someone’s Tinder (or Okcupid) profile is when they post something like “don’t worry I won’t tell anyone how we met it can be our secret ;)” or “we can tell everyone we met at IHOP”. Ok, thanks bro. I am truly not interested in anyone who is ashamed to be online dating. Are you better than Martha Stewart at thinking of good ways to do things? No? Well she online dated and if she’s not too good for it neither are you 27 year old guy who “has a real job, not in the BIZ” with pictures of you surfing and with your boys at da club in Vegas and a car selfie with sunglasses on. You can be good looking, charming, successful, and still want to try online dating. The guys that say these things never seem SO good looking and SO successful and SO amazing that no one would EVER believe they’re looking for love on the internet either. The other part that annoys me is they’re throwing shade at me by saying these things. They mean it as a cute little compliment, but the underlying thing they’re saying is oh how could I bring myself to this low point and actually send my computer signal to space to try to find a man?? #shadyboots

The other ways guys (I guess there’s probably girls out there that do this too) let their shame flags wave high is not having a profile picture. It really cracks me up when they try to give reasons why they couldn’t possibly put their pictures up. “I’m in med school I’m not allowed.” Really? Why are there like 20,000 other med students on dating websites showing their faces? “I don’t want people at work to find me” Jesus Christ please get over yourself. If you are that powerful and important you would post yourself online with pride realizing that no one is going to say shit about it. Same thing goes for writing in your profile “wow I never thought I’d be online dating I can’t believe I’m on here”. Girls want a strong man that will stand behind their actions. They also want someone with enough humility to realize that doing something like dating online does not even matter in the slightest in the grand scheme of life. Check your ego little Kanye. When everyone on Earth says they’re looking for someone who is confident, this is not what they mean.

What do you think? Do you have a theory as to why people are still ashamed to date online in 2014?