As mentioned in
my previous entry, I am predicting a cascading crisis with my parents in the near future on the issue of my dreaded single-dom. This past weekend while visiting my parental units, my father "casually" (read - 'not so') dropped the word "girlfriend" in conversation about eight times -- up from four about a month ago. This constitutes a 100% increase in nagging in a one-month period. Extrapolating this trend outward, I anticipate that I will get approximately 16 nags next month, 64 nags in three months and 256 nags in 6 months. After 6 months, pretty much every word coming out of my dad's mouth will be
girlfriend! Girlfriend!
Girlfriend!
Girlfriend! Girlfriend! Girlfriend! Girlfriend!Utterly petrified by these implications, I have since been on a
dating binge to find a girl who measures up (and one
pretty enough for my dad) to my parents' exacting standards. Mostly, I've simply decided to grow myself a spine and asked eligible young debutantes out for food, coffee, or an awkward 2 hours sitting adjacent to each other in a movie theater. In all, I am proud to say that I have been on dates with 6 different girls in the past month (with a few follow-ups too!) Amazingly, I have yet to be slapped, stabbed, maced, or groped (SIGH!
) in any of my outings.
What I have learned from all this is that
dating is hard work! Not to mention expensive. In addition to the regular dinner/coffee/movie routine, some of the more eccentric dating adventures I have tried include
OkCupid.com and
CrazyBlindDate.com (See entries
#1 and
#2). Several weekends ago, I even dared to venture into the precarious an irrefutably hilarious world of
speed dating! The only experience I've had with speed dating was on the big screen, namely movies like
Hitch and
40 Year Old Virgin, in which singles busily mingle over little square dessert tables adorned with small candles. So when the opportunity arose, I thought, "Why not?"
My experience, however, was definitely
NOT like Hitch or 40 Year Old Virgin... Firstly it was at a bar, not scenic restaurant or posh-y lounge. Imagine a loud, boisterous, sports bar with drunken Irishmen fighting over football and you, along with other hopeful singles, trying to find the love of your life. As soon as I walked in, I knew I had potentially made a mistake. The room was filled with mid-to-late 30's and early 40-year old geeky men who had the look of desperation as if this was their last shot at meeting a real woman. The "girls" (read-
women) were equally
vintage and had similar looks of desperation (and possibly menopausal).
It was not until approximately an hour into the "pre-social mixer" that actual
girls who didn't look like they needed the services of a fertility doctor arrived. Soon thereafter, the speed dating was underway! Unfortunately, the set-up wasn't what I was expecting from my film research. Firstly, there were no aforementioned square tables...or seats for that matter--at least not for the men. Instead, what resulted was the ladies sitting against the wall on bar stools while a
train of men--what I affectionately called the "
meat-train" cycled passed from one
station to the next. You would introduce yourself and answer a plethora of obligatory questions such as "name, location, college, job, duration in DC, etc," and just as you are getting into some meaty conversation, a lady would ring the "
nazi bell" and you would have to cycle to the next station and start all over again. By the third girl, my throat and mouth was so parched I was literally rasping for a drink of water! When you feel like you liked a person and wanted to meet her/him again, you write their assigned number on a card. The girls do the same and afterward, the facilitators will look for "matches" on your respective cards and email you the contact info of your matches.
Overall, I did meet some nice and interesting people. I even started a "bromance" with a cool dude named "Andrew" who is a chef and is opening his own restaurant. (You could always use a bro to cover your back in
Left 4 Dead or
Call of Duty!) However, there were a couple of
unique individuals on both sides of the meat train. Certainly unique people go to speed dating events.
Have you been to a speed dating event? Had luck finding someone?
True
Comments (10)
haha, my parents dont like the idea of me dating
then again im young
it was interesting to read
and personally no, ive never (nor do i anticipate i will in the future) speed-dated somebody
love hearing others personal experiences though :P
x
Wow I hear you...I have friends who are still in the dating pool and it gets tougher and tougher to meet people now a days. I went speed dating once to keep my friend company and she was highly disappointed by the experience. I seriously think that you would have a better chance meeting someone online because you're not being forced to move along after 5 minutes.
I actually wrote about something to that effect: http://www.datingish.com/709115039/good-on-screen-better-in-person/Best of luck to you!My experience with speed-dating was that the people there were socially-awkward. It is as if they don't know how to interact with the opposite sex! Being amongst that group made me feel normal...
Speed dating? No offense, but how more desperate do you have to be to join?
Never been to a speed dating event.
Wait a minute...those really happen?
I'd never go speed dating :/
But I want to say, you don't need to go dating random people because your parents are nagging you about it! If you want to meet someone, go for it, but I noticed you were looking for a girl who "lives up to standards" and "measures up".
Who are you dating for, exactly?
i enjoyed this
Oh, wow! I thought I was the only one to be given this treatment by my parents. They're not pushing yet, but I do notice my father finds excuses to help encourage me to leave the house to places where there will be single ladies. Personally, I'm not going to worry much till I'm done with college.
I've never been to one but I guess I would give it a try if I was still single.