I knew you'd see that title on your blog roll and drop everything. But I did. I went on a blind date. And it was a doozy.
His name is Jeff. Don't get me wrong, he is a really nice guy. And my roommate who set me up? She's nice too. I did not kick her out. I may or may not have flipped her off. But I repented and apologized. So here are the deets.
Long story short, my roommate set me up with a friend from her singles ward. Somehow, I didn't catch on when she said she didn't think I would like him, but our ideas of what we think is attractive are pretty different. I honestly don't know how I missed her sarcasm or facetiousness but she did try to warn me and I guess I just really wanted to go on a date. I don't know what happened or at what point I lost control of my faculties. So I had a date.
Caitie set it up and told me Jeff would pick me up on Friday at 6. Since it was a blind date, she and another friend setting us up made the executive decision that we should go dutch, he would plan and pay for the activity, I would be in charge of dinner. She thought I could make dinner or something. But I don't make dinner unless I'm trying to impress somebody, so he got to choose between Cafe Rio and Five Guys.
He picked me up around 6:10. Picture a 6'2 Harry Potter. He carried a box of cookies. I never know how much shooting of the breeze should happen before we leave, so I ushered us out the door. I think he was probably confused. He chose Rio, which is always the right choice. He was very polite and opened the door for me. His car was quiet, I learned later that he would rather pay attention to the roads and drivers around him. (He is from L.A. and finds Utah drivers suck. Which is true.) We got dinner, I paid, again he seemed a little confused and when we sat down I asked if they hadn't told him of the "dutch" arrangement. I don't recall him answering. Thinking back, I think he was extremely nervous or generally awkward. It could also be that he is very indecisive (of his own admission) and my quick decisions and actions may have been disconcerting to him. My favorite line from our dinner conversation:
me: "It's just funny how dependent on technology my students are. . . "
him: "Yeah. . . .I bet back in the day. . . . .they were like. . . . .why are you spending so much time with that handcart?"
cricket. . . .cricket. . . .
me: "haha. . .yeah. . .those self-sustaining farms. . . ."
Anyway. Towards the end of dinner, I asked what time the improv show was that we were going to, and he said "well, we found out it isn't until 10:15." It was currently 6:45. I waited a few minutes and then excused myself to go to the restroom, where I called Caitie. I had almost run out of questions over dinner, so I demanded she and the friends she was at dinner with return home and play games with us, or it would surely be an eternal three hours. She said they'd come when they were done eating.
We decided to go to my house and play a game. We broke out the Scrabble. I was game, I love me some Scrabble. I was nicer than when I play with my family, accepting and following his interesting point techniques (I put down "Jew" on a triple word box and got 39 points. He put an 's' down and got 45. That's not legal.) I didn't question some of his words but drew the line at 'ret.' "How would you use it in a sentence?" I asked. "I don't know." "Then you can't use it as a word." I replied. Seemed logical.
We used every single tile except six. I don't know if I've ever done that. Of course, we did play for two hours. There was a lot of thinking and quiet involved, but we had some tunes playing that broke up the silence like a champ. I will have you all know that I won by 22 points. I was extremely proud of myself. Caitie and her friends got to the house towards the end of the game, and we played a couple games of Uno and Chutes and Ladders. It was a good time.
Finally we went to the improv show at The Empress Theater in Magna. I was pleasantly surprised, it was much better than I thought it would be. It was also free, since it was held upstairs instead of in the actual theater. After intermission it got kind of long and drawn out; that's the problem with a lot of improv shows/sketches, they don't always stop when they should. If it's not working, end it. It was a long show and didn't get over til around midnight. On the drive home, after a few comments, I ran out of questions to ask and we drove the last five minutes in complete silence. Total and complete silence. It was so funny to me. When he walked me to the door, I thanked him and gave him back his cookies. He said he brought them because he had heard I was making dinner and he thought he would bring a contribution. He really was a nice guy, I just think he probably hasn't had a lot of social opportunities.
The end.
