HERE'S TO TRYIN NEW THINGS!
OK, so here it is. I’m not paying 5 different long distance charges to recount this story 5 or 6 times. I talked so much last night my mouth is still dry.
I attended my first speed dating event last night. It was pleasantly surprising. I guess I went in under the faulty assumption that only certain types would be attracted to this sort of event but all 25 dates were really different. – I know, sounds crazy! I went on 25 dates last night.
It was an intense ordeal. I wasn’t expecting to be as nervous as I was. I kept dropping stuff and getting all tongue tied. I think I spilled water on a couple of ‘em too. I’m usually not such a clutz and I left feelin like I hadn’t really been myself all night. What was annoying tho – was that each time I just started getting comfy and getting back into my element the bell would go off and we all had to rotate (men rotated, women remained seated). Then the tongue grew thick again and the hands got all re-buttered.
The age range was 25-35 so I came in fairly close to the beginning of the bracket. Some of the men seemed to be a lot older than me but most fit nicely within the bracket. The women all seemed to be a bit younger – everybody I met was under 30. There were 25 men and 25 women, the room was abuzz with good energy.
-Dan, I know u’r dying to squeal so go ahead and do it already- I’ll just interrogate myself on ur behalf.
The first guy turned out to be someone I knew. We were in the same salsa class and we had chatted just last Friday and Monday. I felt kinda bad that I didn’t recognize him but in my defense, salsa class is almost as bad as speed dating with switching partners so often.
The second guy sorta stole the show (I’ll just call him #25 for now). He was hot (the kinda hot that makes ya wanna grab him and suck on his lip for a while) and he was funny and charming to boot. I marked a big YES next to him on my scorecard. It turns out that all the women I talked to afterwards had done the same thing. This guy was definitely in a league all his own. I know for certain that 9 women there had marked him down for a yes. That’s a pretty impressive number and kinda daunting for me. What r the chances?
I wish I remember what I had said to him but honestly by the end of the night, all the conversations were bleeding together. I was tired, dazed and overwhelmed. What amazes me and really just makes me crush on him harder is that everyone I talked to had a completely different conversation with him. #25 was not one to reuse material. He talked to one girl about shoppin another about cookin and with me – well we talked gender stereotyping in dating. We came to the conclusion that men would love to have flowers sent to them at work too.
The rest of the first half was a blur. I remember I marked some guys down as maybes but nothing else about them. So at the end of the night I ended up fillin those boxes in with a yes even tho I had no idea who they were but hey – the point of the exercise was to meet ppl and I’ll be dammed if I don’t. It became a little painful – on both my ass and my psyche. There were a handful of guys that were really hard to talk to and they somehow seemed to cluster. We broke for some food after about 13 dates. The last 5 that I sat thru before the break almost made me wanna poke my eyes out just to amuse myself. Again, following with pattern, every woman I talked afterwards remembers quite vividly these particular guys.
I tend to have wandering eyes even when (some would say especially when) I’m talking one on one with somebody. It’s not that I’m bored or anything like that – my eyes just really like to wander (I’ll hafta remember not to do this at clubs tho with strangers and strange drugs floating around). During the first half of the dates I kept lookin over to the other side of the room and noticing that the cute ones were also clustering and I was in for an interesting second half.
Here’s the thing that surprised me most. Goin in I thought that 3 minutes would be only enough time to assess purely on physical attributes. I was sure that everyone would have made up their minds within the first 10 seconds but no – there were a couple guys that I actually changed my mind about. There was one guy in particular (I’ll call him the teacher) that I wasn’t instantly attracted to but as he talked I was became ever more distracted with thoughts like, “hey – that’s kinda cute” or “why didn’t I notice that before” and there was a bit mental swooning goin on. So I’m happy to learn that 3 minutes is enough time for some chemistry to develop.
As we were nearing the last couple of dates, my ass went completely numb (sitting on a bar stool for 2 and half hrs is not recommended – if u need to sit for that long get a chair with a back and some cushioning!) I was exhausted and just lost some of my steam. I found that I was often forgetting if I had already asked certain questions, was that this date or the last? It was an ordeal for sure.
All in all I’m really glad I did this. I had some reservations goin in but it really was just a lot of fun. Outta the 25 guys I think I marked about 5 or 6 yes and 2 or 3 maybe (which turned into yes by default) but outta all my yeses I think there’s 2 that I’d likely date. The rest were people I had fun talking to and I don’t know anyone that ever regrets makin more friends. And who knows, if chemistry can be developed in 3 minutes, what happens with time for a real date? Hmm…I guess this can go either way.
Some of the girls clustered afterwards to debrief and some of the men tried to cluster in with us. I know of 2 girls that had marked “no” to everyone except for #25, the guys averaged out at about 3 or 4 yeses and the girls anywhere from none up to 3. I had marked the most yeses by far. Strange – what does that say? The girls discovered one guy that was makin his way around by makin stuff up. We all got different stories or contradicting angles of the story. I give him props for it tho – I was telling the truth and I was exhausted by the end of the night – I can’t imagine makin that much stuff up on the fly.
My only regret was being so nervous and fumbling so much. There was a marked difference between me in the speed dating and the me that was lounging around afterwards just chattin with random strangers. I’m generally a bit of wise-ass and I’m constantly crackin’ jokes or giggling ‘bout one thing or another but there was a definite lack of this during the event. I feel that I didn’t quite put my best foot forward but I was really too nervous to deal. And this, I’ve learned, is a gonna be a common trend when it comes to dating and first dates.
Wow! Listen to me! It’s like accumulating a life time of dating experience in one night. I’ve not dated much, in the last 10 years I’ve gone on a whompin grand total of 1 date – like real dates meaning someone I barely know with the intent to go on a date. Does that make sense? I guess it’s not really fair to discount the guys that I’ve sorta dated after first developing a friendship with. Don’t get me wrong, these are great fun too but there’s something about the real dates that I feel a need to pursue. I’m one of those people that settled down way too early and for way too long. I wanna really get a feel for the single life before settling down again and dating is supposed to be a big part of that – isn’t it? I’m actually pretty fuzzy on what I want right now – I was a completely different person (just a kid, really) the last time I was single so I’m as good as a first-timer. I have no idea what I’m doin, I’ve never been a single adult before and I’m in utter awe of the whole situation. It’s fascinating and exciting. Scary at times – but for now still an experience I’m dying to explore.
they'll be sending me an email with my mutual matches (u don't get to know if it wasn't mutual) within 2 days. eek! what if i don't get any matches?!?! the anticipation is killin me! i honestly left with no clue whatsoever if anyone was actually interested or not.
-OK Dan, that must be meaty enough, even for u! did i miss anything? feel free to squeal sum'ore.
I attended my first speed dating event last night. It was pleasantly surprising. I guess I went in under the faulty assumption that only certain types would be attracted to this sort of event but all 25 dates were really different. – I know, sounds crazy! I went on 25 dates last night.
It was an intense ordeal. I wasn’t expecting to be as nervous as I was. I kept dropping stuff and getting all tongue tied. I think I spilled water on a couple of ‘em too. I’m usually not such a clutz and I left feelin like I hadn’t really been myself all night. What was annoying tho – was that each time I just started getting comfy and getting back into my element the bell would go off and we all had to rotate (men rotated, women remained seated). Then the tongue grew thick again and the hands got all re-buttered.
The age range was 25-35 so I came in fairly close to the beginning of the bracket. Some of the men seemed to be a lot older than me but most fit nicely within the bracket. The women all seemed to be a bit younger – everybody I met was under 30. There were 25 men and 25 women, the room was abuzz with good energy.
-Dan, I know u’r dying to squeal so go ahead and do it already- I’ll just interrogate myself on ur behalf.
The first guy turned out to be someone I knew. We were in the same salsa class and we had chatted just last Friday and Monday. I felt kinda bad that I didn’t recognize him but in my defense, salsa class is almost as bad as speed dating with switching partners so often.
The second guy sorta stole the show (I’ll just call him #25 for now). He was hot (the kinda hot that makes ya wanna grab him and suck on his lip for a while) and he was funny and charming to boot. I marked a big YES next to him on my scorecard. It turns out that all the women I talked to afterwards had done the same thing. This guy was definitely in a league all his own. I know for certain that 9 women there had marked him down for a yes. That’s a pretty impressive number and kinda daunting for me. What r the chances?
I wish I remember what I had said to him but honestly by the end of the night, all the conversations were bleeding together. I was tired, dazed and overwhelmed. What amazes me and really just makes me crush on him harder is that everyone I talked to had a completely different conversation with him. #25 was not one to reuse material. He talked to one girl about shoppin another about cookin and with me – well we talked gender stereotyping in dating. We came to the conclusion that men would love to have flowers sent to them at work too.
The rest of the first half was a blur. I remember I marked some guys down as maybes but nothing else about them. So at the end of the night I ended up fillin those boxes in with a yes even tho I had no idea who they were but hey – the point of the exercise was to meet ppl and I’ll be dammed if I don’t. It became a little painful – on both my ass and my psyche. There were a handful of guys that were really hard to talk to and they somehow seemed to cluster. We broke for some food after about 13 dates. The last 5 that I sat thru before the break almost made me wanna poke my eyes out just to amuse myself. Again, following with pattern, every woman I talked afterwards remembers quite vividly these particular guys.
I tend to have wandering eyes even when (some would say especially when) I’m talking one on one with somebody. It’s not that I’m bored or anything like that – my eyes just really like to wander (I’ll hafta remember not to do this at clubs tho with strangers and strange drugs floating around). During the first half of the dates I kept lookin over to the other side of the room and noticing that the cute ones were also clustering and I was in for an interesting second half.
Here’s the thing that surprised me most. Goin in I thought that 3 minutes would be only enough time to assess purely on physical attributes. I was sure that everyone would have made up their minds within the first 10 seconds but no – there were a couple guys that I actually changed my mind about. There was one guy in particular (I’ll call him the teacher) that I wasn’t instantly attracted to but as he talked I was became ever more distracted with thoughts like, “hey – that’s kinda cute” or “why didn’t I notice that before” and there was a bit mental swooning goin on. So I’m happy to learn that 3 minutes is enough time for some chemistry to develop.
As we were nearing the last couple of dates, my ass went completely numb (sitting on a bar stool for 2 and half hrs is not recommended – if u need to sit for that long get a chair with a back and some cushioning!) I was exhausted and just lost some of my steam. I found that I was often forgetting if I had already asked certain questions, was that this date or the last? It was an ordeal for sure.
All in all I’m really glad I did this. I had some reservations goin in but it really was just a lot of fun. Outta the 25 guys I think I marked about 5 or 6 yes and 2 or 3 maybe (which turned into yes by default) but outta all my yeses I think there’s 2 that I’d likely date. The rest were people I had fun talking to and I don’t know anyone that ever regrets makin more friends. And who knows, if chemistry can be developed in 3 minutes, what happens with time for a real date? Hmm…I guess this can go either way.
Some of the girls clustered afterwards to debrief and some of the men tried to cluster in with us. I know of 2 girls that had marked “no” to everyone except for #25, the guys averaged out at about 3 or 4 yeses and the girls anywhere from none up to 3. I had marked the most yeses by far. Strange – what does that say? The girls discovered one guy that was makin his way around by makin stuff up. We all got different stories or contradicting angles of the story. I give him props for it tho – I was telling the truth and I was exhausted by the end of the night – I can’t imagine makin that much stuff up on the fly.
My only regret was being so nervous and fumbling so much. There was a marked difference between me in the speed dating and the me that was lounging around afterwards just chattin with random strangers. I’m generally a bit of wise-ass and I’m constantly crackin’ jokes or giggling ‘bout one thing or another but there was a definite lack of this during the event. I feel that I didn’t quite put my best foot forward but I was really too nervous to deal. And this, I’ve learned, is a gonna be a common trend when it comes to dating and first dates.
Wow! Listen to me! It’s like accumulating a life time of dating experience in one night. I’ve not dated much, in the last 10 years I’ve gone on a whompin grand total of 1 date – like real dates meaning someone I barely know with the intent to go on a date. Does that make sense? I guess it’s not really fair to discount the guys that I’ve sorta dated after first developing a friendship with. Don’t get me wrong, these are great fun too but there’s something about the real dates that I feel a need to pursue. I’m one of those people that settled down way too early and for way too long. I wanna really get a feel for the single life before settling down again and dating is supposed to be a big part of that – isn’t it? I’m actually pretty fuzzy on what I want right now – I was a completely different person (just a kid, really) the last time I was single so I’m as good as a first-timer. I have no idea what I’m doin, I’ve never been a single adult before and I’m in utter awe of the whole situation. It’s fascinating and exciting. Scary at times – but for now still an experience I’m dying to explore.
they'll be sending me an email with my mutual matches (u don't get to know if it wasn't mutual) within 2 days. eek! what if i don't get any matches?!?! the anticipation is killin me! i honestly left with no clue whatsoever if anyone was actually interested or not.
-OK Dan, that must be meaty enough, even for u! did i miss anything? feel free to squeal sum'ore.
posted by tunabelly at 1:19 p.m.
2 Comments:
wow i've always wanted to go speed dating... thanks for sharing your experience, that was excellent! :)
-jaded
Thanks for writing about this. I've been curious about the phenomena.
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