One of my guilty pleasures in life is reading Craig's List SF Bay Area Missed Connections.

It all started when a friend of mine told met that he found a post about someone wanting to meet him. I told him that he could never be sure that was post was about him. If he answered it, he could be making a total fool out of himself. He said it didn't matter anyway, because the girl who sent it wasn't that cute.

The thought of someone posting on a board, lamenting that they didn't speak some cute person, is romantic to me. Okay, maybe screwily romantic, but romantic nonetheless. I find it intriguing that someone would go out their way to post an add about someone they'd never met, in hopes of meeting them. But people post more than ads about missed connnections on this webpage. There are lists galores, cries for helps, and even erotic stories. Someone was posting very erotic stories a few months ago. To whom these posts were intended, who knows, but they were fun to read.

I even posted myself once, mostly to complain about writing and not having enough time, or some dribble like that. A few people even responded to me, offering advice, sympathy and tips.

So I read Missed Connections daily, secretly hoping someone will post an ad about seeing me and wanting to meet me. I'm not sure I'd ever answer them, but I would greatly appreciate the thought. Or, at least the chance to dream, to wonder if that post is really about me. I'm not a very romantic person; boyfriends have complained about it even. I find most men are way more romantic than I am. It's not that I'm not romantic, I'm just not romantic in an obvious way. If anything, I'm a closet romantic. I'm a little too practical to really be romantic, but I do fantasize and dream like everybody else.

Craig's List Missed Connections is my secret daily dose of fantasy, my escape from reality, a much needed amusement to my day, and sometimes an inspiration for future stories. Romance stories, of course, which of of course I will secretly publish under a different name. I wouldn't want to ruin my image, after all.