Dating Mishaps...

are one of my favorite subjects. I love hearing people’s stories, hence my viewing of TLC’s The Baby Story and The Wedding Story in college. I guess dating stories are interesting to me now because of my stage in life. A lot of my friends are married, so they don’t have any new stories to share. And from what I have observed, once you have children, stories centering around bodily fluids and functions and sleeping habits become fascinating and appropriate to share with others, even large groups of acquaintances! I digress.

I had never been much of one for dating simply because I hate the awkward conversation of telling someone I do not want to go out again. My solution was to just say no to the request for the date and avoid any future discomfort. Plus I usually “know” that someone isn’t a fit very quickly—no meal required. But last year I decided that I needed to be more open and give dating more of a try. A series of dates followed—including several blind dates. One of my favorites was a friend’s coworker. Admittedly I did not know much about my date prior to our meeting, but I quickly learned enough when he mentioned that he had a photograph of Ronald Reagan in his bedroom. This date was a favorite of mine because it only lasted an hour, and we both reached the same conclusion at the end of a rather quick dinner; we’re not a match. He didn’t even say he’d call me. Perfect.

The string of dates included another lawyer who asked me how much I weighed on our first date (he also wore a scarf in 60 degree weather); a guy who told me that he was meeting another girl for drinks after our date (of course, I had asked if he had ever had two dates in one night….but still…); a professor who wanted to know if I had ever dated a black person because he will not date women who have; and a guy who was such a fantastic conversationalist that we talked for 90 minutes before we placed our order.

The professor also told me about the woman he had really liked that he dumped after eight dates. I made the mistake of asking why, and he explained that she told him that she was a virgin. Since the professor had told me he was a Christian, I was especially stumped as to why this was problematic. And yes, I asked why that was a deal breaker. He told me that he “wanted a woman who can take care of” him, “if you know what I mean” (wink wink). The professor then proceeded to let me pay for more than my fair share of the meal, not giving me any change back from the money I offered him. On a funny note, when I went to the bar at this restaurant to get our food the bartender handed me a small note. I opened it, and it said “Your date sucks. Hit me up for a good time.” And an e-mail address was scribbled. I guess my disgust was visible.

One of my all time favorite date stories was my ex-boyfriend Blake’s. I can’t do justice to the story (it did, however, involve the aforementioned bodily fluids), and it would take too long to tell anyway, but suffice to say that his date story also qualified as his most embarrassing moment ever.

I haven’t heard a “good” dating story in months and am long overdue. Surely one of you has one. And despite what you may think after reading my dating stories, I do like happy ones!