ERG!

So much for "plans this weekend!"

We agreed on a late afternoon/early evening Saturday second date. We hadn't decided exactly what we were going to do, but we did nail down a date and time. I'm sitting at the car wash watching the little Mexican man make my baby all shiny around noon on Saturday when I get a call from him. My heart skipped a little beat. Unfortunately the call was only to be informed that Mr. Porsche Guy thinks he has "food poisoning" from "bad oysters" the night before and doesnt know if he's going to feel well enough to keep our date.

Food poisoning? Really??

Granted, he might be telling the truth. There is always that. But from personal experience, I know that I've used the food poisoning excuse more than a couple times, yet I've NEVER actually HAD food poisoning in my life. Food poisoning is just one of those convenient little excuses. It comes on quickly and suddenly - meaning you don't have to fake like you're starting to "catch" anything. It doesn't make you sound or really look any different - meaning you don't have fake it necessarily. And it goes away within 24 hours - meaning you're free and able to do other things semi-quickly. It's the perfect excuse for bailing on someone.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he reschedules. If not, oh well. Porsche guy can take his poor-man's Porsche (aka a Boxster) and enjoy his oysters elsewhere!

Porsche Guy

Finally a first date that I can honestly say went WELL and that I thoroughly enjoyed!

I started talking to Porsche Guy a few weeks ago. Well, hold on, let me back up, I didn't KNOW he had a Porsche at that point. He started quizzing me on my interest in "driving" and my general car knowledge. Perking my car loving heart, I had to ask what kind of car he drove since he seemed so taken with the concept of driving. Coy as he was, his only clue was, "It's made in Stuttgart, Germany." BINGO. Any European car enthusiasts knows that Porsche's are made in Stuttgart.

We met at a little Pho bistro/bar for a pre-dinner drink. I was plesantly surprised that he actually looked a lot like his photos. (Thank goodness!) We began talking right away and getting through the typical "what do you do, where did you go to school, did you grow up around here, tell me about your family..." stuff. We both drank wine. Finally, I guy that can appreciate a glass of wine! Not that I have anything against other drinks, but sometimes it's just nice to share a glass (or bottle!) with someone. We had a good time talking and joking around.

After drinks we headed over to the restaurant he picked out - an authentic, little Italian place. It was super quaint and definitely authentic and had a fun Italian (or at least how I picture Italy since I've never been there) feel. I wasn't sure what to order so I asked what he was getting. After he told me, I told him I'll have the same thing. Is that weird? I have a thing about asking everyone I'm dining with what they're having before I make a decision about what I'm having. His choice just happened to sound good. When the waiter came, he ordered for the both of us. I was disappointed he didn't order anymore wine - guess it's better I dont get wine-sloppy until a later date, though. LoL. Again, dinner was filled with pleasant conversation and laughs and joking around. Good times.

It started to rain as he walked me back to my car (he lived in the area, so he walked) so our good bye was short, but nice. No kiss. Just a hug and smile. I texted him when I got home thanking him again for a nice evening and hoping the rest of his week goes well. He asked when he could see me again! Squee! He said we'd make plans for this weekend...

Yoda? REALLY??

I know you are all salivating for another juicey dating disaster entry, but unfortunately I don't have much to report about my date on Tuesday night other than there was just no romantic "spark" there.

First off, NERD ALERT! We get in the car to head to dinner and this navigation is in the voice of Yoda. YODA! REALLY?? Anyone that knows me knows that I've seemed to fall for dorky guys - but this, this was far past my realm of dorkiness. There is a definite difference between dorky and nerdy. This guy was nerdy. And not nerdy in the emo, I-wear-black-rimmed-glasses kind of way that I usually fall for, but nerdy in the "Star Wars is my favorite movie ever" kind of way.

The Match.com pictures were more attractive than the guy was in person overall, so that was a disappointment - BUT his pictures didn't show that he had really pretty light blue eyes, so that was a plus I guess. I'm a sucker for nice teeth and while his teeth weren't horrible by any means, they weren't your typical "nice" teeth either, ya know? They were kind of minorly spaced out and blocky. Nothing 12 months of braces couldn't fix. Anyway, he was very nice, very gentlemanly (opened my car door, etc), and a good conversationalist when he wasn't nerding it up. He asked me a lot of questions, which was a nice change from the last two dates.

So yeah, not a disaster, just not even a remote romantic spark. I guess it's on to the next conquest!

Wish me luck!

Another date tonight with a new Match.com boy. Hopefully this one lasts longer than 50 minutes. :laughs:

Speed Dating

That's right, friends... another episode of Crazy, Wacky, First Dates with your host, ME!

I've been texting with this guy named Robert. He lives about an hour south of me and is a 30-year-old middle school drama teacher. He's very good looking, well spoken, and seems like generally a nice guy. It became kind of apparent why he's probably single at the age of 30 though (and has only had 1 serious, long term relationship) - he's chronically busy. I know I talk about how busy I am. We're all busy. We all have crap that needs to be done in our lives. But this guy takes the cake for busy-ness it seems.

Anyway, he was planning to be up in the area to see a play at the University of Portland on Saturday evening - so he asked if I'd like to meet up before hand for a light dinner & drinks. Sure, sounded good to me. Originally we were suppose to meet around 5:00 and his play was at 7:30 nearby. I get a text from him around 4:45 saying he's running late and needed to push it back to 5:45/6:00. OK, cool. We decide to meet at a brewery in downtown. Thank the heavens, this one drinks! He gets there before me and sends me a text while I'm parking asking me what I'd like to drink. Aw, sweet, right?.

I'll just jump to the meat and potatoes. Dude was TALKATIVE. I mean to the point where I almost couldn't get a word in edgewise. It didn't seem like it was nervous talkative either. It was just genuine "I like to talk" talkative. So more of the "conversation" (term being used loosely as I deem a conversation a dialogue, not a monologue) was him talking about stuff. Ok, not horrible. He was nice to look at, was well spoken and actually had interesting stories - but HELLO, can I interject at all?! I didn't think it was going horribly - but beause of his tardiness the stupid "date" only lasted about 50 minutes or so! A 50 minute date! Can you believe that? Gives new meaning to the term "speed dating."

When we had discussed actually making said date, we talked about meeting before his play. then meeting back up afterward for another couple of drinks and conversation. Fast forward to 11:00'ish that night - no call, no text, nothing.

:throws hands in air:

Sarcastic Flirting?

Alright – so I have my first Match.com date story! First off, I want to say that I think I’m brave for putting myself out there like this. This is completely outside my realm of comfortableness, but I figure, why the heck not?!

Alright, so a little about him. He’s 25 and lives in one of the suburbs here but works in downtown, actually very close to my work building. He has a double degree in Political Science and History though his current job utilizes neither of those degrees. (Why do people do that?) He's currently an events/vendor coordinator for a marketing/event firm. He has his own place and drives his own car. (A must have.) We started talking on MSN Messenger, and then shared Blackberry PINs and began chatting via Blackberry Messenger. One thing I noticed right away was that he was overtly flirty. I mean, it’s cute and whatever when a guy is coy and flirty, but I was kinda like, “Umm… this is a little excessive.” I laughed it off and said I was curious if he was this way in person or if he just felt more “free” behind the shield of a computer screen or phone.

So we agreed on a Friday night sushi date since I mentioned I still hadn’t found GOOD sushi here in town yet. He picked me up and all was good. We got to the sushi place and got seated. I then learned that he doesn’t drink. AT ALL. Which isn’t a huge deal because I’m not some big drinker but when I go out for dinner I like to share a couple glasses of wine or a few pints of beer and what not. What do you do in a situation like this? Do you forego the drink because you don't want to seem like a lush? Do you stick to your guns and throw caution to the wind? Well, being me, I still ordered a glass of wine, but refused the refill as not to come off as a lush. (Haha)

Here’s the kicker, guys. He wasn’t overly flirty (thank goodness!) but he was overly sarcastic! And I'm not talking sarcastic in a funny-haha way, but in a... a... I'm making fun of you but covering it with sarcasm sort of way?? It was really off-putting! I didn’t know how to take it. He asked about where I grew up since I said I hadn’t found good sushi in Portland yet. I told him I was from the LA area and immediately he went into dogging on the Lakers and professing his love for the Trailblazers. OK, that’s great – you’re a Portland native and love the Blazers – but don’t hate on my home team! There were other little things he would say sarcastically that I was just kind of like “Uhhh??” But I mean, other than that he was a perfect gentleman. He opened my doors for me, he paid for dinner, he was polite to the servers, he was an attentive conversationalist…

After he dropped me off at home and I got into my comfy clothes, I BBM’ed him thanking him again for dinner and said I had a nice time. We talked a little bit and then I decided to bring up the sarcasm thing. He apologized if I took anything seriously and said it was just “nervous flirting.” Ok, nervous flirting is one thing – but I still think it was a little over the top. Oh well. We’ve talked regularly since Friday night and he still hasn’t said anything about a second date. Is there some guy code about how soon to ask for a second date? LoL.

So, yeah, anyway, interesting first Match.com date experience. HAHA.

An intro of sorts...

I’m at a complete and total loss as to how to “meet people” now-a-days. I currently work Monday through Friday from 8:30AM – 5:00PM and then usually have class Monday through Thursday from 6:00PM - ~9:00PM. That doesn’t leave me a lot of time for a social life or to go out much. With failed relationship after relationship and the age of 26 (gasp!) approaching, I’m feeling more and more pressure (from myself only, mind you) to find “the one.”

I mean, seriously – assume I met someone today (which is obviously highly unlikely) – I’m 25.5 currently. We hit it off and begin a relationship. Well no one really moves on to the “next step” (I.E. engagement) until you’ve been dating for at least a year, if not longer. So that puts me at 26.5, say, if/when we were to become engaged. Then you figure about a year for the engagement, so that puts me at 27.5. Then you’ll want to be married for at least a year before you even consider having kids, so now I’m at 28.5-29. You’re pregnant for 9 months (which is damn close to a year) so figure I won’t be having said child #1 until I’m pushing 30. 30 to have my first child?! I’m so screwed! Then you figure you wait a couple more years for the second – now I’m ~32. UGH, I don’t want to have kids in my thirties! :( And this is all assuming I meet someone today. Today!! Not even feasible. What if I don’t meet that person until a year from now… or TWO years from now!? :headdesk:

Anyway… the purpose of this blog is to bitch and complain about how I suck at meeting people – mostly because of my busy schedule. Friends have suggested everything from meeting someone at work (everyone in my department is middle aged – I work in Accounting for heaven sake! I’m the youngest person in my entire department by a good 5 years), meeting someone at school (I go to night classes therefore the majority of people there are middle aged as well – usually looking to make a career change or getting their degree now that their kids are grown), meeting someone at a coffee shop (yes, this was honestly suggested to me. ME! A person who absolutely hates coffee), meeting someone at the gym (I rarely work out and when I do, I have a free gym inside my apartment complex – no use wasting money on a gym membership), etc. The list goes on of places that just don’t work for me. And I definitely don’t wanna meet some guy at a bar, you know what I mean? I’m not saying it can’t happen, but chances are somewhat slim I feel.

So I did what all depressed, lonely (ok, I'm not really either, but work with me here) 25.5 year olds do – I put a profile on Match.com. Am I the most pathetic person ever?! A dating website, guys! I’ve resorted to a dating website! I figure the most I have to lose is a $30 subscription fee. Even in the worst cases, I guess I can get a couple free dinners out of it and some comical first date stories to share with all of you here. So I did my best to be completely honest on my profile. I even said that I was unsure about this online dating thing, so I wasn’t putting too much stock in it. I’ve had a plethora of both nice messages and just downright retarded ones. We'll see how this goes...