'Handsome Paul' Takes Quest for a Wife to the Internet
June 14, 2011 -- He describes himself as a balding drifter with a future mobile home and hamsters, but Paul Gutierrez of Elgin, Ill., hopes he'll find love with one special lady -- so much so that he's hedging 50 percent of his yearly income on it.
"It's a small price to pay. I've never had a girlfriend," Gutierrez told ABCNews.com.
"I failed at everything. When I was younger, I went to nightclubs and bars, but I never met anyone."
Gutierrez, who works as a limo driver, estimates his income for 2011 will be between $30,000 and $40,000. He said he'll donate half of that to charity if someone helps him succeed in finding a wife.
Gutierrez said he has tried everything from looking for a mail order bride to online dating sites but has been turned away by thousands of women.
"Everyone was too perfect," he said. "They put on there what they wanted -- height, weight, job. I didn't come close."
He decided he had to take a different approach, so he launched a blog, Handsome Paul, in which he gives 38 reasons why women should date this lonely 38-year-old, complete with supporting anecdotes.
Some of the reasons sound pretty standard, such as No.12: He's a giver. Gutierrez posted a letter from the Elgin Boys & Girls Club thanking him for donating a Playstation 2, Nintendo DS and games.
Others are to be read at your own risk -- such as reason No. 16: He's compassionate, in which he shares the story of a fast-food meal gone bad and his frantic search for a private bathroom (to spare the people in the public bathroom) that didn't end well.
Gutierrez says if women are turned off by reading that story on his site, then they're simply not right for him.
"The woman I want will laugh at it," he said.
But there's such a thing as too much public sharing. "Women like men with a sense of humor, but that should come out in private conversations, not a blog," said Maria "the Date Coach" Avgitidis, owner of New York City-based Agape Match. Avgitidis said the stories, such as the bathroom anecdote, are filled with too much information and show a "complete lack of self-awareness." She doesn't believe Gutierrez will have much luck with his approach.
Gutierrez hasn't gone any dates yet, but hopes and is ready for that first date. He even knows where he'd like to take the lucky lady.
"I know it sounds corny," he said, "but I would love to take her to the zoo."
