Online Dating, I am a bit scared but it is my only choice.

At various times of the year - when it is sunny, when there are events on, holiday time, Christmas - I wish that I have a partner to enjoy the times with.

I also, and I am ashamed to say it, look at women that are in relationships and then ask the universe 'really, what is so wrong with me?'.  I know I am not the best looking woman out there, I know I am not the thinnest woman out there but judging by recent pictures I have seen, I am certainly not the ugliest or fattest woman out there.  I know, I have said all this before, blah blah blah, but I am intelligent, I am practical, I own my own home, I have a good job, I can cook, I can do DIY, I can do basic car maintenance (change tyres, change oil, fuses, break fluid, bulbs), I am not a panicker, I am not a girly girl, I like SCI-Fi, I even (and I have never used this as a plus before) have big boobs!  Back in the 40s I would have been considered quite a catch but these days I really do not know what men want!  

I know that I don't go out anymore, but years ago, when I did, I always felt invisible, blokes would push past me to talk to the woman behind me, I struggled to get served at the bar.  I seemed to be wearing a permanent invisibility cloak, even before Harry Potter was a twinkle in JK's eye.

I have tried online dating in the past and it was not at all successful.  Although you can reasonably limit who you search for (with some agencies at least), you cannot limit who contacts you, and everyone who contacted me would not have been with my search parameters, not least because they were all 100s of miles away.  People who I contacted either just ignored me or said thanks-but-no-thanks.

I have tried the paying sites too, eHarmony actually refused my application telling me I was unmatchable.  I know I am never going to meet anyone at work or on the bus so if I want a relationship I am only left with online dating but I am wary.

I know that if anyone does talk to me (unlikely) and want to meet up that I am going to have to leave the house, and that is an obstacle in itself.

Does anyone have any positive online dating stories to reassure me a bit?

Unless anyone has a brother, friend, dad who is looking?