Speed Dating

Oh. My. God. Speed dating was so freaking fun! I had a total blast. It was really fast paced, in a totally cool club, and there were actually a lot of really interesting people there. Did I make a love connection? Well, the jury is still out on that one. But, I did meet a lot of cool guys, had a really fun night, and would totally do it again! Even the guys I weeded out right away as no-goes for me were generally nice guys and pleasant to talk to for the few minutes we had together.

Okay, so here’s my play-by-play rundown of the night:

Even though I left on time, there was traffic, and I got to the event a little bit later that I intended. For three reasons. It was held at this club in downtown, which, of course, meant (reason number one) no parking. So, I circled forever and finally ended up lot-stalking this one guy coming out of the GAP until he finally found his car and gave me his space. Then, just as I was pulling in (reason number two) it started raining and I had to dig through my trunk praying I had an emergency umbrella with me. It was completely clear when I left the house. I was so not dressed for rain – a see-through flowy black top (thin – brr!) and opened toed sparkly silver heels (wet – brrr!), but I braved my way through downtown toward the club anyway. That is until I spotted (reason number three) the biggest used bookstore I had ever seen. I told myself to just keep walking. I even got past the front door… but then I turned around and ducked inside, telling myself I’d only be there a minute. They had a HUGE mystery section and, even cooler, I found four copies of my books there! So, of course, I had to go meet the manager and sign them for him and, well, by the time I left I was feeling really late. So, I quickly walk/jogged the remaining couple blocks to the club and ducked inside.

Luckily they hadn’t started yet. The host for the evening (a totally nice, totally pretty gal. I was very glad she was not one of my competition that night. Lol!) stuck a name badge on me with my first name and a number, then handed me a scorecard with a bunch of other numbers on it. All the women sat at stations throughout the club and every five minutes the guys would rotate through to the next station. We’d then circle the little Y or N next to their numbers on our scorecards – Y meaning “hook us up!” and N meaning “no chance in hell”.

So, I grab a drink and sit down at the nearest station. Our host blows her whistle and the guys play this game of musical chairs, each one scrambling for a girl until she blow the whistle again signaling our five minute “date” has begun. And the dates (in no particular order because it was all pretty much a blur) were:

1) Older guy. Probably forgot to read the age limit before the event. Reminds me of my dad. Ick.
2) Mr. Geek Chic. Works at a computer company and proud of it. Said he forgets to date until Valentine’s Day rolls around and kicks him in the pants. Goes out a lot in March.
3) Single Dad, very down to earth, polite, well groomed, even had a good job. (Big ‘ol Y circled for him.)
4) Pilot slash former fire fighter. (Hot!) Seemed a little nervous, kept telling me how brave I was to have come to the event alone. When the gal blew her whistle again I was too distracted by how cute he was, and totally forgot to write down his name tag number. Crap. Luckily…
5) His friend came by my station and rescued me from a total blonde moment by giving me the Pilot’s number. (Yay!) My rescuer surprised me by asking questions no one else had yet that night. Wanted to know all about my “passions”. Hmmm… I gave him a Y. Maybe we’ll get a chance to explore those passions later. ;)
6) Next up was a very cute guy who told a sad story of being best man at a wedding twice last year. (Always a best man never a groom?)
7) K, gotta lump 7, 8, 9 and 10 all together because at that point in the evening they were staring to blur into one big mess. Suffice to say, while they were all nice guys, none stood out for me.
11) Movie producer. Hilarious, total character. While the spark wasn’t there, I totally wanted more than 5 minutes with this guy. Hoping he won’t take it personally if I email him later to pursue a friendship.
12) I broke policy with Number 12. While I usually don’t give out info about my books to guys I haven’t been on at least three dates with (‘cause, duh, they’ll find this blog! Ack!) he was so sweet and the clincher was when he told me his mother loves to read mysteries. I gave in and told him some titles to look for. Hope mom loves the books!
13) VERY tall lawyer who sort of loomed over me even when we were sitting down. Then he told me he’d rather be with a “nice” woman than a “smart” woman. He said if he needed intellection stimulation, he could always hang out with his friends, but he wanted a woman who was “nice.” After he walked away it sunk in… was my intelligence just insulted? Hmmm… don’t piss off the blonde. She gets way less nice.

After the last whistle was blown (and not a moment too soon – I was starting to lose my voice!) our host instructed us to take our scorecards with us and log our results onto the website that night. Which, I dutifully did. So, over the next week out “Y” matches should start trickling in. I’ll let you know if any of them pan out!

In the meantime… got some fun plans for the weekend involving a very built, very sweet ultimate fighter. (Yes, I’m a total sucker for big muscles.) Anyone else got fun weekend plans?

~Trigger Happy Halliday