Nightmare Blind Date

09/04/08 Update: Two out of three members of my bishopric justified my attitude based on this blog entry. One of them even called this experience a "date from hell".

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09/02/2008 Update: Okay, I feel a bit guilty about this entry, especially after all the talks in church this past Sunday on courting and relationships. The talks were reprimands to me to give men more of a chance and not too expect too much in the temporal and material of them. I realize that not every woman will marry a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief and there are lots of plain Joes who earn a good honest living sufficient to sustain a family. Still, I think this was a funny entry in my journal, so take it with a grain of salt and keep in mind that this happened ages ago and I'm trying to not be so materialistic ...

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I found this journal entry the other day on a flash drive -- I must've forgotten to transfer it to the home computer and print it out for my journal file. The entry was dated 09-29-2005, but upon reference to my planner the date took place on 04-11-2003 -- I know, I'm so good at recording my entries in a timely manner. I am trying to be better ... While I'm now once again open to set-ups, please make sure that we have more in common other than we're both single and LDS. Thanks!

Note: I will refer to my blind date as "K" to protect the innocent.

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It has been AGES since I’ve been on a blind date, and the last one was more than adequate to make me not ever want to go on another blind date.

I had been emailing a man who is a couple of years older than I for a few weeks when he started pushing for a meeting. I wasn't quite ready to meet him, but agreed to the date. Since I work downtown, we agreed to meet at a mall there after work on a Friday before heading out to dinner.

Prior to meeting "K", he sent this cute picture of him with several of his nieces and nephews. It was therefore a surprise to me when the face that greeted me didn’t quite match up to the photo I had seen. In the picture, the man with all those cute kids had fuller hair and was at least 30 pounds lighter. But whatever, I’m not that shallow and since we were already here, I had to give him a chance, right? Right off the bat, he wanted to give me a hug ... which I half-heartedly responded to. At the time, I had been experiencing some back problems, so I asked if he wouldn’t mind going with me to a drug store first to get some kind of pain reliever before heading out to dinner – I mention this because this comes in handy as I now have a valid and true excuse to end the date if it ever becomes too painful.

So, we got my drugs and I thought that dinner would be nice as it will allow us to talk and get to know one another. Since he doesn’t come downtown much, he asked for a recommendation for a restaurant. I mentioned a few, but they were apparently out of his price range as he then mentioned that he didn’t "have much money" and asked if we could go to an inexpensive restaurant instead. Hmmm. At least he's honest and upfront about it. He was game to try just about any types of food. So, I recommended Mi La Cai, a dive that offered great Vietnamese food and he agreed to go there.

Since I knew the way and my car was nearby, I drove us to the restaurant. I recommended my favorite items on the menu and he ordered the same things I did. With that out of the way, I started to ask questions to get to know him better. His answers were short for the most part and what followed is why I'm cured of blind dates for the time being.

1. When "K" asked what I did for a living and I told him, he ranted on how much he hated lawyers because "lawyers are liars". I mentioned that not all lawyers are bad and that if you really think about it, Christ is going to be our ultimate defense attorney. He got all huffy and called me blasphemous. Why does he hate lawyers so much? "K" was apparently in a car accident (where I assume that he was at fault and caused some serious damage) and the other party's lawyer took him to the cleaners. That explains a few things ...

2. "K" lived with his brother who just got fired from his job at the DI (Deseret Industries -- a thrift shop). How the heck? The majority of people who work at the DI got the job from the LDS Church to tie them over until they acquire some other skills for better employment. The only way I can think of someone getting fired from such a job is if they stole or did something illegal on the premises. Winner!

3. "K" recently quit his job so he can "focus" on his schooling. Not bad, he's trying to better himself. "What are you studying?" I asked. I'm thinking a different degree, post-graduate work, a thesis that he is finishing up ... No, he gave up a job at Albertsons so he can focus on becoming a Certified Nurses' Assistant. A CNA? Those courses only last a couple of months, right? How hard could it be that you'd have to give up a job to focus on it? Basically, he gave up a minimum wage job stocking shelves so he can clean bed pans for a couple of dollars more. Okay, fine ... I'm being a bit shallow and materialistic here. In my defense, at this stage in my life, if I am to get serious with anyone, I want someone who can afford a family. The biological clock is tickin' and as soon as I'm married, I'm goin' to start poppin' out them babies as fast as I can and he better be able to afford 'em 'cause I ain't workin' no more.

4. At one point during dinner, my napkin slid off my lap. I bent down to pick it up and as I got up, I caught a glance of a patch of white on his khaki pants. What the ... ? He had a hole on the crotch of his pants! What am I supposed to do with this information? Do I tell him, do I not? Argh! ... I ignored it ... the date wasn't going very well anyway and my back is starting to hurt again (probably from the stress this is putting me through). Took out the pain reliever and popped a couple of pills ...

5. The tab arrived and the server handed it to "K". "K" looked at the tab, put in some cash and slid the tab to me. I took a look and he had put in exactly the amount on the menu for the entree -- no tax, no tip, and apparently he did not intend to pay for his drink. Nice. I forked out an extra $8 to cover his shortcomings. This date is definitely over.

6. I told "K" that I needed to call it a night because of the back pain and offered to take him to his vehicle. "Oh, I wasn't planning on our date ending so soon," Special K said, "the next bus doesn't come around until 9 o'clock. Will you take me home?" OMG!!! I took him home (in Holliday and he showed me the Albertsons where he used to work on the way there) and I tried hard not to stare at the hole on his crotch. Date started at 6:00 p.m. I was at a Media Play near his apartment by 7:30 p.m. checking out some DVDs and trying to calm down.

Thanks to caller ID, I was able to ignore his phone calls in the next couple of days. About four/five days later, I thought I better tell him that I'm not interested in another date. I emailed him (since that's how it all started) and told him that I had enjoyed meeting him, but that it doesn't seem like we had a lot in common and wished him luck in finding someone. Multiple responses from "K" containing racial slurs and he called me shallow and materialistic. Blocked him from ever sending me an email again. Nice. Never again!