7 first dates

I went on seven dates tonight. Well, seven dates, that lasted approximately 8 minutes each. Yes friends, I went speed-dating. On Friday night, after I'd finished putting the final touches on a sewing project, I saw an ad on dear old Facebook for a speed-dating event hosted by this company called DateandDash.com. I emailed 3 close girl friends that I thought would be interested and after transactions were made, and we were all signed up, I couldn't help but to have a minor panic attack thinking, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" or better yet, "What did I get us all into!" I mean, you know me...or maybe you don't know me. But I don't normally DO stuff like this.

But, after shelling out 35 bucks...and remembering my new-found mission, I decided to try to have fun with it.

We all met at a very empty bar where we got our dating numbers, got our rating cards, and made small talk to avoid looking at all of the guys in the room. Literally, it felt like a middle school dance...well, minus the alcohol and minus the sketchy mirrored walls. Picture this: bad music, the girls huddled together talking to one another, the boys huddled together making jokes. Everyone avoiding eye-contact.

One of the guys started flirting with the organizer (I think someone forgot to tell him that she wasn't playing the game.)

8:30 arrived, it was time to begin.. The girls sat down at their respective numbers, the guys joined them, and small talk commenced. The first guy I talked to was the great opener. He was genuine and around the minute 6 mark we discovered that he had come with 3 of his guy friends. (Umm, 4 girl friends, 4 guy friends....can someone cue the camera crew for the cheesy chick-flick plot?) We laughed a little, just started opening up...and *ding!*...Time to switch partners.

Next guy was first the first guy's friend. He acted a bit weird when I asked him what he did for a living, but he explained that he was trying to make his bank job sound more interesting. We covered the basics: job, education, family, etc. I got annoyed when he'd ask a question, and then as soon as I answered, ask the same question again. But, I forgave him. It was a little intimidating knowing that you only had 8 minutes to talk and perhaps a little confusing trying to keep the dates straight.

So, I won't bore you with all the details, but all-in-all it was very fun. Really.

There were a couple of duds like the guy that I had nothing to talk about with, and the overly-religious guy who wouldn't step down from his soap box. And then a couple of gems: the cute guy who confessed to me that he doesn't like scary movies, and the guy from CO who has a close connection with his family.

After date number 7, we turned in half of our date cards (the other half was kept so that we could enter our matches online) we stood around talking to the guy-group and later comparing notes after they left. From the sounds of it, we all fell for one of the guys who wasn't part of the group, so it will be interesting to see if he matches with any of us. The 4/7 probability its looking good in our favor. And it will be interesting to see who, if anyone, matches me at all. I was pretty generous with my selections, choosing 5 of the 7 guys, so I guess, in 72 hours we'll see if anything was meant to be.

secretly waiting,
-L