An Effortless First Date
I met up with the (last?) girl from Friendster last night. All-in-all, it was a very positive encounter. We’d planned on meeting for drinks at a restaurant/bar just down the street from my place. I arrived a couple minutes late, but, fortunately, still beat her there. When she walked in the door, I recognized her almost immediately. She looked very cute and well put together. She was on the shorter side, her curly, sandy-colored hair, pulled back in a ponytail, and she was wearing a casual sport coat, perfectly matched to the top that she wore underneath. She actually looked very much like Sarah-Jessica Parker (as such, I’ll call her Carrie from here on out).
We sat down at a table outside, ordered up a round of drinks and snacked on some chips and salsa. The conversation flowed effortlessly. I found her very easy to talk to and we seemed to share many of the same views. I happened to glance down at one point and was amazed to discover that over two and a half hours had passed since we’d sat down. This is usually my criteria for a good first date; if a substantial amount of time passes, and I don’t notice, I consider that to be an excellent sign. Even when we got out to the parking lot to part ways, we still ended up talking for another 15 minutes or so.
I should also note that when I first saw Carrie, I was certainly attracted to her, but I wasn’t completely gaga over her (I think I was in an extra critical mood, for some reason). By the end of the night, though, her personality had really shown through and I found myself very attracted to her. Funny how that works.
I would certainly like to get together with her again. I had a great time and I think if it hadn’t gotten so late so quick, we could have easily spent a few more hours together. I definitely got a good feeling from her as well; I noticed that as the night wore on, she became much flirtier; touching my arm and leg on multiple occasions to drive home points she was trying to make throughout the conversation. We closed the night out with a very natural feeling hug and mutual wishes to see each other again soon.
When I got home, I stopped by TheNeighbor’s place, since I had told her earlier in the day that we would hang out that night. I wanted to keep my word, even though it was later than I’d planned on being up. I stayed and talked with her for about an hour, and it was interesting to note the contrast between hanging out with her and my date earlier in the night. Where the conversation and general interaction with Carrie had been completely second nature, I felt like things with TheNeighbor were a little more forced and I really had to put effort into keeping the conversation flowing. The part of the night that amused me the most was when TheNeighbor informed me that she had been on a date the night before. I asked her to tell me more about the guy and her only response was, “He’s completely enamored with me.”
Of course he is. The pangs of jealousy ripped through me like a toothless old geezer tearing apart a piece of steak.
When our time was up, I got up to leave and was half way out the door when she stopped me. “Are we going to hook up again anytime soon?” she asked.
“I don’t generally schedule my make out sessions,” I told her, “but, I’ll let you know.” And, with that, I called it a night.
Same ol' song and dance
Friday night, I went out to a karaoke bar for a friend's birthday. I invited DoubleDown along because he was looking for something to do and he does a killer Enrique Inglesias impression; I invited TheRoommate along as well. TheRoommate and I got to the bar around 11:00PM and DoubleDown was already there. We all grabbed a few drinks and tried to find somewhere to stand as the place was well beyond capacity. The bar was composed of two areas; a main bar area and a karaoke section. The two rooms were separated by a waist-high wall, so the whole place was pretty open. In the main room, there was also a pool table behind the bar itself. It was there that we decided to camp out since it was the only part of the whole place with any semblance of breathing room. What killed me and, for some reason, totally pissed of DoubleDown, was that as crowded as the bar was, there were still people trying to play pool. Talk about having total disregard for everybody else in the place! Of course, every couple minutes we would have to slide around the table so that one of the players could line up a shot. Every time they missed, it was some sort of small, poetic victory celebrated by the three of us.
While we were standing there, there were a couple brunettes (one that was really cute and a second that wasn't too bad) talking to each other on the other side of the table. Periodically, I would catch one of them looking in our direction. I let DoubleDown in on my little observation. He'd noticed it, too. There were a couple guys standing to their left, and I couldn't tell if they were with the girls or not, so I suggested that we lay low for a little bit and see if their actions gave them away.
Around that time, I ran into some more of my friends and pretty much forgot about the girls. I spent the next half-hour or so talking to the birthday girl and a couple of her friends and basically just catching up with people I hadn't seen in a while.
Our glasses had run dry and DoubleDown wanted to take a lap around the place, so the two of us pulled up anchor and started trolling around the bar. We took on fresh supplies and continued seeking out a couple fair companions. DoubleDown happened to notice the two girls from earlier were now sitting at a table by themselves in the karaoke section. We made our way through the crowd to where they were sitting.
I asked if we could join them and they allowed us to share the table with them. The two of them were sitting on one side, I was sitting on the end, and DoubleDown was sitting on the side opposing the girls. Having the best access, I started trying to make small talk with the girls. With regard to us, the less attractive one registered about a four or five on the Scale of Genuinely Interested, while the cute one was at about half that value. At that point, I knew that this was probably going to go nowhere, but DoubleDown wanted to stick it out for a bit. The less attractive girl announced that she was going to get another drink and disappeared into the crowd. This left me sitting alone, next to her friend (DoubleDown was doing his own thing by then). I tried engaging her in conversation, but all I got back was one-word answers and a general feeling that I was wasting her time. Now, I really don't mind if you have no interest in talking to me, but at the very least, be somewhat polite about it. Humor me for a minute or two and then we can both be on our way. This is especially true if you're not a complete knockout and your other prospects for the night have been bleak at best.
Since DoubleDown was no longer interested, and I certainly had no interest in continuing forced conversation, I merely stood up and walked away from the brunette. No goodbye's, no thanks for your time, nothing. After all, I would have hated to have wasted any more of her time with such pleasantries.
With that behind me, I started looking for TheRoommate to see how he was doing. It became quickly apparent that he was no longer in the bar. Being that he was my ride home, I began to worry that he may have left without me. I called him up, and sure enough, he was already in his car. Well, that is to say that he was sitting in his car where we'd parked, hours previously, passing time, alone. Seems he freaked out in the bar about 45 minutes before, was feeling antisocial, and had to leave. That pretty much meant my night was over as well, so I said my goodbyes and we headed home.
I went back home for Mother's day on Saturday, so I don't have any tales from that night. Before I left, however, TheNeighbor stopped by and insisted that we get together some time this week. I told her to pencil me in for Tuesday. I also happen to have an after work date with another Friendster chick that same night. I think that will be the last one of those for a while. Sure, it has provided me with quite a few dates, but the girls really don't seem to be my type. Wednesday, I have a happy hour scheduled and then on Thursday, I'll be headed back to Las Vegas for a friend's birthday. Incidentally, I've been told I'm sharing a room with a couple of her single girlfriends, so that might prove interesting as well.
