So today was the day that I went Speed Dating.  Yes, little readers.  I am violating the 8 second delay rule for you (that’s dedication).

I went in there thinking, “I can do this.  I will be like the Dalai Lama.  I will not judge people.” ” I will not be that person that is referred to throughout Gladwell’s “Blink”.”  But apparently I can’t do that 2 days in a row.

I felt like I was in a store that had been raped by crazy holiday shoppers.  There were only a few items left.  Most of which were reindeer sweaters.  There were a few salvageable items but I think that they may end up in the pile of things that get returned (we will call them slightly imperfect).

So the deal with the Speed Dating is that you go on 10-15 5-minute dates.  Today they were skimpy on the dates so there were only 7 to endure (BTW. This means that I get to attend another session for FREE).You get a score card to write down notes.  At the end of the night you get to run home to the interwebs and fill out a form on the website to say who you want to see again.

First off, I was completely out of my element.  The event was in a bar downtown that I never go to.  Granted the live sharks were a good topic of discussion so I can’t complain too much.  But seriously.  There must be a better venue for this uncomfortable situation.  Maybe a coffee shop.

So here is the rundown of my dates for the night.  I had a lot of down time so I wrote up some notes in my journal (I am a good analoguer).

1. Military guy- first thing I noticed was that his fly was OPEN.  Not down, but slightly ajar.  This dude was not impressive and he is apparently moving in 2 months.
2. The foreigner- apparently he is a freelancer working for the man.  He decided to come to the event because he is in town visiting relatives and wanted to make friends. WTF mate.  He is supposedly into volleyball.  A CL post would have been much cheaper.
3. M’s cousin (sort of)- So an acquaintance of mine popped up the mix.  We caught up during our 5 minutes.
4. Seattle transplant - This guy I could actually hang out with again.  Dork boy with social skills.  Although not quite my type.  The one thing that really stuck out was that he said that I looked like I was one of those people who lived downtown.  I guess my outfit was more artsy/urban than usual.
5. The waiter-  before you guys start on me and my judgements, I have NOTHING against waiters.  They actually make more than chefs in many establishments. This guy fits in more with my crew but I’m not really into dudes without hair.
6. IT/musician- This dude had social skills too.  Not into him though.
7. Guy I barely remember- I was getting tired of this thing.  I remember him being from the east coast.  I saw him and all I could think was, “reindeer sweater”

Most of the conversations started out with the usual where do you work, live?  What do you do in your free time.  After the 1st one I was ready to start making shit up.  I often turned the discussion to the sharks.  I wanted to test these dudes to see if they know much about the downtown area.  Most people were unaware of the PETA/ASPCA issues and the fact that bar owners are not skilled in the area of shark caretaker.    I also talked about my vast knowledge of water quality and the fact that if you go to the right faucet you will get your water with a shot of prozac (but you didn’t hear that from me kids).

Now that the dates are over I filled out my scorecard (and had a big piece of chocolate cake from the Real Jew’s B-day party). Unfortunately you didn’t get to grade the dudes on a scale of whether or not you wanted to see them again (not on your life to HELL YEAH!).  The options were yes or no.  I said that I would be willing to see 4-6 again.  I will most likely run into 3 because we have mutual friends.

in 24 hours I should receive some sort of notification on who wants to see me again.

Stay tuned (and stay warm)