Mona's Garden

The garden created and cared for in Mona's honor attracts a plethora of individuals and families. Roses, peonies, freesia, hydrangea, delphinium, among several hundreds species of some of Mona's favorite plants and flowers exist there to be admired and enjoyed by all. The garden is a comforting beautiful place for many people to reflect and meditate, to play or even to sleep. In this garden, many relationships have both began and come to an end, the benches are scenes of love at first sight, engagement proposals, and long chats about "its not you, its me". Click here to discover who has their marriage in Mona's garden.

Creative Gallery- Who Finds Love, Who is connected, and Who Ends Up Alone?

Mona

Jim

Paul
SallyIvan

Margaret

Mona

Mona was a beautiful mother of two children and a school teacher who married Paul when they both got out of college. She loved her children, Mark and Margaret, very much. Upon her death in a car accident, Mona had no idea how her family would be torn apart without her. Paul became an alcoholic and pushed the children off onto Mona's sister in law. Margaret lost her brother who ran away and her father who remarried 3 more times. Go back to the beginning. Mona's favorite flower was the Rhododendron, and there is a garden betrothed onto her family in her honor in the center of Margaret and Mark's hometown.

Paul, 60

Paul, Margaret's father who has been married and divorced 4 times, served as lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps and has been retired for 15 years. Margaret's mother, Mona, was his first and seemingly his only love that died in a car accident when Margaret was just 2 and her brother, Mark, was 9. Paul became an alcoholic and his sister raised Margaret and Mark until Mark ran away and disappeared, no one has seen him in 15 years, but Paul received an award from the Marine Corps identifying his son Mark as an exemplary soldier. The family remains in search of him, and Paul grows more sad everyday without his son. On Match.com Paul indicates he is looking for an older woman who just wants to grow older in companionship and love. Paul no longer drinks but still attends parties and although he smokes is in great health.

LA FITNESS

LA Fitness is the gym located downtown where Sally and Mark both have memberships. After an excellent first date and an even better second date, Sally and Mark ironically run into each other on the elliptical machines at LA Fitness. Flirting and giggling, Sally realizes she is in love with Mark. Sweating and feeling awkward, Mark realizes Sally is the most beautiful woman, inside and out, that he's ever met. After 6 more dates and a vacation in Florida, the two get married a year later and have 2 kids. Start Over

Ivan, 24

Ivan, a former soldier and health insurance salesman, seeks the companionship of an intelligent and active female. He has been single since high school and has used online dating for the past 2 years. Although no successful relationship has presented itself yet, Ivan has every faith that the right one will come along. After first convincing his cousin Sally to join LA FIT health club, Ivan helped Sally create her own match.com account. Ivan actively searches for his own partner but also helps everyone he knows as much as he can find love and happiness. Ivan can appear insensitive and has a bad habit of making inappropriate jokes, but he has a lot to offer a woman looking for a serious and hard working man.

Mark, 36

Mark is 36 years old and served time in the military right after graduating high school in Santa Cruz, California. Upon completing his duty, he played baseball at Fullerton. He has been in and out of serious and non serious relationships his whole life, and is looking for the right woman to settle down and start a family with. Although Mark seems like he's got it all, he lost both of his parents when he was 9, and seeks someone to share his life with. He is looking for someone that reminds him of his mother, Mona, a beautiful woman who constantly offered people nothing but inspiration and philanthropist. A fellow soldier, Ivan, suggested Mark get online and start looking for women because Mark's job doesn't leave a lot of time for bar crawling or mingling. At the gym he is a member of, LA FIT, there are not many women and plus Mark tends to be a little shy. The receptionist there, Isabelle, is the only woman Mark has ever had a conversation with at that gym, so there really are no other places where Mark could meet a woman and find love.

Margaret, 28

Margaret, Sally's best friend, is 28 years old and has a 14 year old daughter. She was married very young, in high school, and the marriage ended when she was merely 21. She and her ex husband share custody and since then Margaret has graduated from college and is now working as a fashion editor in LA. Margaret has been on hundreds of dates from match.com, some good, some bad, however not one man has ever met her daughter. She is looking for the man that she can introduce her daughter to. Her father, Paul, referred her to the site, as he has now had 4 marriages. Margaret enjoys running, reading, cooking, and hiking. She seeks a man who knows how to treat a woman right. By clicking this, find out who Margaret shares the rest of her life with.

Jim, 40

Jim, Sally's husband, has had a secret online dating account on match.com for about 3 years now, since before his marriage to Sally ended. Jim was in the closet his entire life, and married Sally because he truly did love her, just not the way that he or she wanted during a marriage. Sally and Jim remain great friends, and have began helping each other find the true loves of their lives. After Sally, Jim began his first homosexual relationship which lasted 6 months. The relationship failed because the emotional connection was not strong enough for Jim's needs and wants. Jim is looking for someone sensitive, loving, muscular, athletic, outdoorsy, and someone who enjoys quiet nights at home cuddling. Jim's niece, Isabelle, is the one who helped Jim make his online profile, and who is an expert on technology.

Sally, 32 years old

Sally is 32 year old, just got out of a two year marriage that ended badly. Her ex husband, Jim, had a turning point a year ago when he realized he was solely attracted to men. Sally is an esteemed black jack dealer in New Jersey's casino district. Sally's best friend, Margaret, convinced Sally just last week to build a profile and subscribe to match.com. Very timid, Sally agreed, and has already received numerous emails from interested, and interesting, men. Sally paid special attention to what her profile listed, and also takes very seriously what she reads in men's profiles. She knows the risks of online dating and the percentages of men and women who lie about such characteristics as weight, height, age, and income. Sally, traumatized from not knowing her husband's sexual orientation after 5 years of marriage, knows that profiles are not a true insight to people. She has become so paranoid that she googles men's names, as well as frequently after going to LA FIT with her cousin Ivan she logs onto his account to check men's true intentions.

Trailer time

I am going to be doing a series of blogs that are all linked and that unravel a story, or 10 stories, about 10 online dating service users who have found or failed at love. I want the work I have been doing on my project to reflect the many benefits and the many drawbacks of our society having become so much more reliant on technology, especially when it comes to the personal relationships we establish. It is important that we understand the impact technology has had on not only those who use online dating services, and not only adults in the dating scene, but everyone. Adolescents, for better or worse, now have access to communicating with almost anyone through either the internet, texting, video chat, digital pictures, or the most archaic form of communication- talking on the phone.

Creative Gallery

I have GOT IT! A great idea for my creatie gallery project pertaining to my newly completed essay topic! I am very excited, and relieved, to have grasped something.

In class a few weeks ago we learned how to connect blogs within blogs to create a story, we saw an example of this through someone who had connected their blogs about who killed someone in a fictional setting.

I have decided that I am going to create a story about 10 adults who are online dating customers trying to find love on the internet. They will all weave together, and by the end of every blog connection, it will be revealed who winds up together, and who winds up alone... I will make it juicy and dramatic and entertaining! YAY!

Revised Love At First Cite

I have completed and revised my essay about online dating websites and how they have changed romance! Here