Blind Date, Anyone?

Spring is here, love is in the air...and matchmakers are on the loose! It's time for them to find you the perfect date and they nag you until your strength depletes and stamina wavers so you agree. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Now you're in for it!

I've been on a few blind dates in my younger years after high school. Two were particularly strange.
BLIND DATE NUMBER ONE: Good friends John and Mary asked if I'd go on a blind date with John's friend, Sam. Apparently Sam had been ill, was recovering, but had lost all his hair (I can't remember what the illness was). I agreed, figuring I'd known Mary since grade school and John since we took accordion lessons together in middle school. Surely their friend would be a pleasant date, and hey...I considered myself an interesting and fun person to be around.

Wrong.

Not about me, but about Sam. The entire evening had me conversing with John and Mary. Sam barely uttered ten words, very few in sentences. Our trip to a club proved disappointing. He didn't dance. When we went to a diner to eat, he scooted into the booth seat next to John. In the car, he sat in front with John and was the first to be driven home.

We then figured Sam still had issues with being out in public (although I don't think I kept looking at his bald head even though I knew it was there). Blow to my ego? Kinda. I felt like I wasn't interesting enough to make him comfortable.

BLIND DATE NUMBER TWO: Carol, my college roommate and her boyfriend, Bob, set up a blind date with Jim, a friend of Bob's at their college. Carol was sure we'd hit it off as he'd dated another of her friends and I was "just like her". Bob came to our college to pick us up and drove to his and Jim's college. We were dropped off to spend the night in a sorority house.

Strange thing, though. Every time I told girls there I'd be going out with Jim Smith, I'd get the weirdest reactions. Some just blinked, others whispered to each other. And their responses were always "Oh".

Jim and Bob came to pick us up at the sorority house. I took one look at him and thought dreamy, handsome...trouble ahead. He flashed a big smile to ALL the girls there and flirted before we had a chance to leave.

We went to a frat party where he led me to the chairs, said he had to talk to someone and would soon return, and stayed away for twenty minutes. I was annoyed as I watched him flit about the room being sociable. When one of his fraternity brothers asked me to dance, I did. I danced with him for another twenty minutes until my "date" showed up to claim me.

I was out with an ever-popular playboy and apparently wasn't his type. Nor was he mine. When it came time to leave, he hugged and kissed me and we parted after talking about our friends and the argument they'd had. Jim promised to pick me up for church the next morning so I figured I'd see him one last time.

He came to get me, and had four other girls in his car. Jim drove us all to church and sat in a pew with five girls surrounding him.

When it came time to drive us back to our college, Bob stopped at Jim's dorm to see if he'd like to go with us. I told Bob not to bother as I already knew he wasn't interested in me. Bob seemed surprised and said I was wrong. He went in, came out alone and angry, and said Jim had to study. I thanked Bob and Carol but said ours was not a match Jim wanted any part of. Nor did I.

Later this month, I'll blog about two blind dates that turned out fine. Good things can happen, but watch out for the toads if you agree to a blind date!

Matchmaking is a job one of my heroines does. In "Second Sight Dating" by Marianne Stephens, Serena uses her "second sight" to match couples. Read it to find out about one client she can't seem to find a perfect match for. Is it because she wants him for herself?

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