Best Dates/Worst Dates

ahhhhh
one of my most memorable dates was probably one of the worst this fella ever had (at least i'm hoping this wasn't one of his best dates )

i had been talking to this guy on the phone for a little while. he'd met an old room-mate of mine on a cruise, and went out for drinks with her and other cruise-mates later on. we'd speak for a few minutes if i answered the phone when he called to set up a group get-together.

he asked me out for dinner. i figured, how bad can it be? V likes him, he has a nice voice (i have a voice thing), he seems innocuous enough.

sooo, we meet at a restaurant, he's not ugly (maybe a bit too Elvis-y, but nothing horrible), we speak for a few minutes, we order our meal. Then we really start to speak. He worked for the transit commission as a subway guard. Not the driver. The guy in the middle who checks to make sure no one's arm is gonna get caught as the subway pulls away. Well, he LOVES his job. He wants to tell stories of breaking up fights on the subway. After about five minutes, I realize I am already soooooo bored that I'm thinking of killing myself. I panic. I say "oh my gawd! I forgot that I've got to get groceries tonight. I have to leave right now!" (what? groceries? can you say LOSER? ), and stand up. He says that's ok, we'll just tell them to pack up the food, and take it with US. WHAT ? He's going to take me grocery shopping I say "no, that's fine, i can go myself". "oh no, I'll go with you." So we went grocery shopping. He drove, helped me carry the groceries to the porch. I told him the date hadn't worked out, told him to keep the food from dinner (which he was still trying to give to me), and said goodbye. A year and a half later he was still calling, trying to set up a second date. I had to leave town to get him to stop calling. Well, I was leaving anyway.

Bizarre. He really thought that was a good date and wanted to do it again?




hmmmmm, just thought of another time I was probably someone's worst date ever. but since my dad posts and reads here, i think i'll have to leave that one.

Best: A Grateful Dead concert

Worst: The guy who cut the evening short when his boyfriend called.
I was really young. and totally clueless until co-workers explained
things to me. (he worked at the same place)

Worse date I ever had. This was about 1993. I was working for a restaurant equipment repair company and just about quitting time my bos makes me run an errand that I couldn't get out of. I called my date to let her know that I would be late. She was cooking dinner for me and then we were going to go to the movies. I called her when I was on my way over which took about an hour and a half in Portland rush hour traffic. By then dinner was ruined and needless to say she was fighting mad. We opted to go out for dinner and for some reason she just had to bring her sister along. She insisted on driving that night which was a mistake because the girl flipped out and started speeding recklessly through residential neighborhoods. She was laughing and crying all evening. Needless to say that's the last time I went out with her...

Best date? Well compared to that one, every date since has been the best date.

Worst date? It probably wasn't as bad for me as it was for her.
I had a friend, who was married but his wife had a girl friend and both of them conspired to set me up for a date with this girl friend. I had little interest but after some cajoling agreed to a double "date". We all went to a drive-in movie in my VW Van (this was the 60's). This apparently was a major "date" for this girl, which I could never understand as I'm no "hunk". I had hair down to my waist and at the time was a perpetual student (and perpetually broke). She was obviously quite nervous all evening and on the way back from the drive-in in an attempt to appear calm and "cool" tried to light a cigaret. Instead (and I'm not making this up) she set her purse on fire. She panicked and tried to put the fire out by flinging the pures out the window and beating it against the side of the van. So their we were speeding down a major thoroughfare in a VW Bus being driven by a long haired hippie, a burning purse slamming against the side of the vehicle, its contents scattering to the four winds.
Needless to say we went our sperate ways after that.

What if the two were combined? Met a girl at 15, she had the hots for me...first date, sex was on the table, and she had a bad case of what I learned years later was vaginosis. I nearly died from the smell. Talk about mixed messages.

that acquiunk - hot stuff!

I had a date with a guy (an actor/comedian) I met online - actually, I had 2 dates. The first date, he showed up to the restaurant late. He was a bit flitty? Like a smallish bird - not relaxed. The second date was to a comedy club. He proceeded to make himself the butt-of=-the-joke for one comedian's whole set. And, by proxy, I got it too. We had an email exchange after date #2 and then never spoke again.

That was the worst date in recent history. I'm sure there have been worse.

laughing with acquiunk..

well, now, best, don't get me started.....

worst, there were a few of those, the primo one, being formative, was when I was 13. We were younger then than now, in some ways if not all.

I had been asked out for my first actual date by a fellow I had no idea at all of his liking me. He asked me to the movies, to see, ahem, Taza, Son of Chochise at the local theater. I think I reacted in some stunned way, and said yes and probably thank you.

I worried so beforehand. I hardly knew him. (His cousin had sent me a valentine in fourth grade, now there was a hunk. But I was pleased and horrified that this fellow liked me.)

So, he came to the door and somehow we got down the steps and walked the two plus sort of long blocks to the bus on Ridge Avenue. On that walk I asked him all my prepared questions, fairly slowly, the answers were short. The specific one I remember was if he was going to go out for basketball. (no). I finally gave up, I was not at all a natural at conversation. We got the bus. We saw the movie (Jeff Chandler, Rock Hudson..) and took the bus back and walked to my door, where I said something and he said something,
end of story.

Agggggggh. He was 5' 4", which doesn't, we know, necessarily preclude a lot of people having fun at basketball - my favorite basketball being the under six foot tournies at Venice Beach; so, he could have been a point guard, but nooooooooooooooo. My father was 5' 6", it never occurred to me such a question could hurt. And the date had gone to hell before that anyway. But that must have been the capper.

Best date: I was 17 and in Paris for the first time. Mom's college roommate's two sons (21 and 18) took me out to a movie and then dancing. I was in over my head, but it was a blast.

Worst date: My last blind date (ever I hope) was a couple of years ago just before Valentines. He bought me a card and flowers. A little over the top for someone you haven't met yet, wouldn't you say?

oh, best dates too? I'm not traditionally much of a dater. Until recently, I'd meet someone through friends/work/proximity/etc - we'd know that we liked each other, so we'd just start going out . But, lately I've tried actually dating. So, all my dating stories are from recent times. Anyway, I'll have to think of what my best date was....

mac - that sounds like FUN!

Mac in Paris, I want to hear more and more. Tell, tell.... perhaps on the travel forum... I wanna hear.

O, Mac, people have been to Rome before me and Paris before you and written countless books and painted countless paintings and composed various pieces of music and poetry. I've also read about those places, somewhat, and people there have certainly done this too. (I am reading Umberto Eco's essays right now...)

Still, I would so much like to hear your own experiences, because you are Mac.

You're cracking me up, osso! I haven't told that story much. But just for you, I'll start a thread in travel about ... what should I call it? Peak travel experiences?

YES!

When I was in high school, I was asked to the senior prom by a really great guy so I accepted. I bought my dress and shoes and all the accessories...a week and a half before the prom he reneged on his offer...saying something like, "it's too expensive". I was furious! My mother was furious! Anyway, to make a long story short, it was a blessing in disguise...I still had another offer after that, and was asked to go with a guy, that I later ended up marrying...however, about 6 years later we divorced.

I don't suppose anyone here read "Seventeenth Summer" by Maureen Daly or someone with a name like that.

Sigh.

Over it now, some time later.

Sorry Osso, I don't remember that one.

No, because of our different decade's experience. Very popular as I was about sixteen. Thrilling even.

Life wasn't that euphoric or simple even then, but those books were part of my stretching into normal lives.