Date Night

Last night was date night, baby!  My roommate proposed the idea to me a week ago that I join him and several of his friends on a big group date. We bandied around a lot of ideas: camping, having a bonfire, going to the lake for the evening, making home movies, etc.  Eventually we decided to take our dates on individual dinners, then meet up for an evening of hide-and-go-scare in the music building on campus.

My date and I met in the audience of campus devotional a few days ago, randomly seated together by some overzealous ushers who were eager to get us in our seats on time.  We had the opportunity to exchange pleasantries before devotional began and she made some insightful remarks as it progressed.  She was cute in that neat-and-comely kind of way, and I have been feeling guilty lately for being such a negative bump on a log in regard to the fairer sex, so I decided to ask her out.  It was kind of like in  movie: she got up with a "nice to meet you" and lingered above me for a minute before walking past me and out towards the aisle.  I started to say her name, then hesitated, and by this time she was up the stairs and too far to yell after.  I gave chase, finally catching up to her and asking her if she'd like to have dinner with me that night.  She politely replied that she had work, but here's my number and could you call me later that week?

So when my roommate invited me to join his group, I figured this would be an ideal opportunity to take her out in a nice, low-pressure setting.

I spent the day washing my car and cleaning and vacuuming the interior, ironing a cool shirt, and generally spending way too much time and trying way too hard to preen myself and look good (even when I'm acting straight, I still can't help to throw in a little gay), and finally the hour came and I picked her up.  She remarked on how she liked my car, an immediate plus-point in her favor.  We discussed a couple dinner options and chose a restaurant in town that neither of us had tried.  Our conversation was labored and a little bit sleepy, but gradually the discussion became more natural.  One thing that helped was my harsh termination of a gigantic rabbit that roosted on the highway (and left a crack in my bumper and fog lights, thank you kindly), because it gave her something to laugh at for a minute or two.  Oy.

Apparently, our conversation was so fatigued because she had gotten up at 4 that morning to go jogging, a full 22 miles.  NBD.  And her healthy habits didn't stop there.  We got to the restaurant where she ordered a salad-and-soup combo and water.  For me?  Bring on the steak and chocolate milkshake!  She proved her humanity however by ordering pie for dessert.  Thank goodness, because a girl who doesn't like pie is no girl for me.

We drove back to campus to meet our group and had a fun game of couples hide-and-go-scare, but I could tell that my date was getting tired.  It was 10:30 and she hadn't slept in 17 hours, and had run a near-marathon as well.  Still, she was game for getting ice cream, and I appreciated the effort she made to make the date fun.  After ice cream, she asked, very politely and with much apology, for a ride home so she could wake up for church in the morning, a request to which I was a little disappointed to oblige, but I understand completely why she asked.

She is a nice girl.  I'm interested to see if she's more talkative when she isn't exhausted and sore, but our date was probably too labored for anything to really be there.  I guess I shouldn't judge too immediately, and I'll probably make an effort to see her again, but I'm sure it'll probably be just as polite acquaintances.  There was no spark.

I'm not surprised, though.  It's a rare, rare girl that catches my attention.  I asked her out, because I haven't "tried on" too many people at my school and I decided that I should make more of an effort to put myself out there.  I'm too settled in a routine, too stuck in a rut, to really find new friends and meet new people.  In one of my ideal outcomes, I am a guy happily married to a girl, and I want to give myself opportunity for that to happen, and so it is that I date, hoping to find another girl that intrigues and attracts me enough.  I'm a solid Kinsey-5, but there's still a chance, right?

Plus, I've never tried to generate a relationship out of thin air before.  Every date I've been on has been with a girl I knew already, so I wanted to see what it would be like to date a stranger.  It's nothing I've ever done and I wanted to see if I could do it.

(Boy, it's a good thing I don't have that attitude in reference to illegal drugs or stealing cars or something.)