So here is what I submitted to match.com about how E and I met and feel for each other...I'm hoping this scores us a spot on the next advertising round:

Match.com's intense marketing campaign finally overrode the social stigma I had long associated with online dating. And I'm glad that it did...because it meant that on my third match date I met E. We talked nonstop for the entire two hours and then again on the second date, and again on the third...but even as I knew I liked him, I wasn't quite sure whether this was going to turn into anything romantic, so I continued going on other match dates and E kept fielding emails from women who wanted to be brought to this country and married. It wasn't until our fourth date, a gray day where I wasn't even in the mood to see anyone and I didn't think I believed in true love anymore because one of my girlfriends was going through a divorce, and I was cranky and petulant and not at all sparkly that I started falling for him. I called E and he told me to come over to his house where he set me up on the kitchen counter with a glass of wine and proceeded to cook me dinner, all the while being completely nonplussed by my diatribe on why relationships don't work. He gave me tastes of the spaghetti sauce he was stirring, making excuses to lean past me to get various spices and I felt my mood going from 'is it even possible to have a successful long term relationship these days' to 'I'm not sure I can live without this man in my life'. And that was it...I was smitten, and unable to go without some type of E-contact everyday from that point on.

We have begun working our way through the relationship milestones: me being introduced to his dog; an evening of karaoke; drinks with each set of friends; our first sleepover; realizing neither of us would be taking advantage of the Match.com Guarantee; dinner with colleagues; meeting my parents; our first trip away together; saying the ILY's; inviting each other to weddings that are months and months away; giving house keys (well, I haven't given him one yet, but it's only because I'm moving next month); letting him drive my car - and in the case of each one, as I get nervous about what come next - what will happen during our first fight or whether his parents are going to like me; I know that it will all be fine, because I know that every time I get to see E, my day gets better.

So, next week is Meet-His-Parents. I'm probably going to make cookies.