I will say, each of my 31 Dates was better than I could have imagined. But that's not always the case with dating, is it? We all have those horrid stories when we walked away wondering if we would ever dare date again. I've had my share too. For example:
Rick.
We went out a few years ago. A mutual friend had been trying to set us up for a while. When we finally went out, we went to a restaurant not too far from my apartment.
"We're headed to the 'hood?" I asked.
"It's three blocks away," he said.
Um... fast-forward to the end of dinner... and I saw that my purse had been stolen.
I wasn't asked on a second date.
And then... there was Mike.
I had wanted to ask me out for over two years. Two years!!! And when he finally did, he came over to my apartment with dinner. My very food-motivated dog ran out into the hallway and I was so nervous Watson would just jump up and eat all the food Mike had brought. As I chased the hungry pup down the hall, the door to my apartment followed and locked behind me.
My superintendent - gone.
Maintenence guy - gone.
Friend who had a key - out of town.
And then as I was standing there, holding onto my dog in bare feet, I remembered that one of my windows was cracked. As a friend held onto Watson, Mike and I crawled through the alley where they keep all of our trash and then we scaled the wall into my window.
No second date on that one either.
But there have also been those dates where the time just passes and I realize several hours have magically disappeared.
Those are some of my favorites.
So what about you?
What are your most memorable dates?
TAMARA DURICKA JOHNSON ~ Author ~ Speaker ~ Journalist ~ Coach
15 comments:
I used to road trip--a lot. Between conventions, gigs, and vacation I put thousands and thousands of miles on my car. At a convention in Tennessee I stuck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. I ended up asking her to have dinner with me after the convention that night and everything went great, no climbing through windows and no purses stolen.
I actually developed quiet a crush and was sad to be leaving the next day to drive to Maryland. At the time I lived in Houston, TX so I worked up the courage to ask her to have dinner with me again when I drove through her hometown of Charlotte, NC. She agree! Putting aside any reservations about how many hours this would add to the long drive home, I mapped out my new course.
Being totally new to Charlotte, we agreed that I would park my car at a Lowes Hardware store by her apartment and then take her car to dinner. Well, date number two was better than date number one, and knowing that saying goodbye would mean putting a thousand miles between us, we did everything we could to make the evening last (and no it wasn't just me drawing things out!). When we finally did call it a night it was after midnight, I still had over twenty hours of driving ahead of me, and the Lowes Hardware was closed.
The Lowes closing was no big deal except we failed to notice earlier that they had big gates that now blocked both exits from the parking lot. We tried banging on the front door until the night guy came, mumbled something through the glass door about not having a key, and walked away into the dank, fluorescent recesses of the store. So there I was, a thousand miles from home, do I ask this girl if I can spend the night? No. We built a ramp out of spare lumber lying around the parking lot and busted my car out.
Very memorable. No third date.
I once went on a group date where my date was so excited that I only saw her for 10% of the date. She just kept running off and doing other things, we went to a dance and she ran into the middle of the crowd and by that time I had given up, so I just talked with a friend who had also lost his date by this time.
No second. :D
-Jon F.
I got set up with a certain someone's "Handsome son" by his lovely mother. Activity #1 for our date, he took me to his mother's church activity. Met the whole family, out of state visitors included. Then off to Activity #2, dinner. He complained about his food to the server at least 5 times. Activity #3, he asked me what I wanted to do: my choice, it's been nice, just take me home now...No gave me the choice of hanging out with his friends, or going to a movie. We headed across the parking lot to the movie theater. He asks if we can go to his house to get socks, for his cold-flip flop wearing feet, and also, calls his MOTHER to invite her to come to the movie with us!! this is our first-blind date!! Thankfully his mother had plans to go get ice cream with girlfriends, but BUMMER..maybe some other time??
Yeah...no second date out of that one!! =)
When I was in college, a friend of mine asked me if I would go on a double date with him and his girlfriend because his girlfriend's roommate wanted to go out but didn't have a date. I am generally a nice guy, so I said I would go despite my distaste for blind dates in general. My friend set everything up and asked me if I would call my date the day before to confirm the time I was picking her up. So I call up this girl that I had never met, seen, or spoken to and ask her if I can pick her up at 6. She proceeds to tell me that she decided to hang out with some other friends instead. Yes. I was stood up on a blind wingman date.
No first. But at least I didn't suffer.
I LOVE that you are doing this! And I can relate to your frequent experience of bad dates! I had so many over the years that I started a blog about it! www.howtofindmrwrong.blogspot.com - they are all true!!! I also had to take the best one off because one of the guys found my blog and got mad:) So let me know if you want to see that one and I will e-mail it to you.
I think the one and only blind date I've ever had was also one of my best dates... so enjoy!
Well...it is great to see that I made it to one of your two most memorable first dates...no second date...sure, but think about the friendship afterwards...;)
That was seriously the worst feeling knowing that your purse got stolen on my watch. I felt like a complete incompetent fool.
I do believe though that the food was pretty tasty!
Thanks to Emily, I have found this blog and am now riveted. Can't wait to see how the story ends. As for memorable dates, I ended a long two-year date-less streak with a hook-up from some mutual friends. Sweet and attractive, I'd been gushing from a distance for several weeks before my loyal friend dropped the hint in his ear and he asked me out (inherent shyness - one reason for the date-less streak).
He met me downtown Portland and took me to a nice restaurant on the waterfront. It being mid-summer, the weather was beautiful and he had reserved a table for two on the patio at the perfect time for a romantic dinner at sunset. We started chatting, at first rather awkwardly, and then warming into the flow of conversation. By the main course, he was pouring his heart out to me about the laundry-list of past addictions and iniquities, fearful that he would not be strong enough to maintain his dedication to a new leaf. Eek! I was trapped in this bizarre dichotomy: a pleasant dinner with a handsome man or an impromptu counseling session with a troubled recovering addict.
I made a lot of sympathetic noises and looked for the first opportunity for escape. I would have loved to help this torn man, but felt beyond my depth. Looking back, I regret not extending the hand of friendship after that harrowing date, but I was young and (as mentioned) painfully shy.
My Memorable Date?
My 21st Birthday. I was stood up, by the guy I was dating at the time.
Needless to say, we didn't see each other again after that. :)
It's been requested that I add this story.
I was on a date with a guy I met on an online dating site. We found out we lived in the same neighborhood, so we met at a bar that split the distance. The date went really well. We had a lot in common -- we were both musicians, vegetarians, and we shared similar political views. Until...I was in the middle of telling a story (to be specific, I think it was about how in college my friends said if I were an animal I'd be a pelican) and all of a sudden he hoped up and said, "Well, it's been a great evening, but I should go". Not only was I mid-story, I had just ordered a new drink, so I wasn't sure exactly what to do - I wasn't ready to leave yet. He practically fled out the door, leaving me alone with my beer. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I hope I hadn't offended him with something I said. Maybe he was sensitive about pelicans. Maybe his mother was a pelican. I had an inkling though, it had something to do with the pizza he had for dinner before the date - he mentioned it hadn't settled well. For the next few days, I debated back and forth alone and with friends (yeah, you don't want to date me, I tell my friends everything) why he left me hanging. Finally, an email: he made it home 'just in time'. I think we all know what that means. Unfortunately, he said he realized he wanted to take a break from dating for a while. Which is odd because he continued to be active on the dating site...hmmmm. Perhaps he really needed to take a break from the dairy products.
My most memorable date was 99% blind. I had seen a photo and had a short email and that was it. No common friends, no prior meetings. I met him in a neutral location and we went somewhere safe -- Saturday Market in Portland. I went in with the idea of only making friends with like interests so I would always have something fun to do and remain unattached and free forever. However, what I found was a sweet, real gentleman and a soul mate. It was random, unexpected and unexplainably calming to be near him. 11 1/2 months later we were married. I still call him my best friend and every night I call him to dinner! :)) Good luck. Without the adventure there is never the reward.
I went to dinner one night with a police officer--cute, smart, but a little cocky the way most police officers can be. He parked his car in front of my apartment and we decided to take my car. I failed to clue in that his car was parked in a reserved spot until we almost back to the apartment after dinner.
I mentioned that the complex kept threatening to tow cars parked in reserved spaces when he, somewhat arrogantly (but still cute, I swear!) told me that they wouldn't tow HIS car. The words were still hanging in the air when he looked around and said, "Wait a minute. Where IS my car?"
Yeah--it had been towed. About five minutes earlier. Thankfully we caught the tow truck guy and got the car released so the police officer could still make it to work on time.
I did get a subsequent dates--but he has yet to return to the scene of the crime. :)
Met a guy through an online site who seemed normal (as "normal" as any of us are, I suppose) - nice-looking, educated, good job, etc. We e-mailed several times and then chatted on the phone several times before finally agreeing to meet. I drove 50 miles out of my way to meet him. When I got to the specific restaurant, he called my cell to say he was running late. No big deal. I waited....and waited....and then he finally called again to say he was on his way. I actually stepped out onto the sidewalk to watch for him and saw him drive by (he was talking to me on the phone at the time). He waved as he drove by and said he was parking in the nearest garage. And then he just never showed up. (And wouldn't answer his phone...) Now, I was dressed very nicely, and I pretty much look exactly like my pictures that he had already seen (and am generally considered attractive by most people - do some acting and modeling work), so I'm not sure what turned him off. However, it was quite a blow to my ego, and then I was just mad. What a jerk! I made sure to report him to the online dating site, but I don't really know if that does any good. I just didn't want some other woman out there to be stuck by him, too.
I don't remember any incredible first dates or any horrible ones. I remember a first and only date that didn't go so well, but it wasn't horrible, I was in college and I had yet to learn life's many lessons. All these years later I'm still trying to learn 'em.
On one first date it had snowed about a foot the night before...yet we still went hiking near my house. After hiking for about 2 hours in the snow, we decided to give our wet feet and legs a rest and get a bite to eat. We laughed the entire time...when it was time for my date to take me home, the sun was still shining so I asked him to come in to dry off his socks. I also offered to dry his jeans which were soaking wet but, as a gentleman, he declined joking well then if I were to give you my pants then I'd be sitting here in my underwear. Well, he went through my library of books - reading snipets here and there....when I noticed his eyes were bothering him....I suggested he use my eye drops to soothe his eyes, which he did. OK, here's the thing....I accidently gave him contact cleaning solution-oops! I was upstairs when I heard a loud AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! What did you give me???!!! OMG - oh no, how did I do that?? I ran downstairs to realize my error. I read the bottle of drops which suggested I call Poison Control should I get this in the eyes...so I did. The Operator at PC asked for his last name, which I didn't know, so I handed the phone over to my date, then he asked for my address, which my date didn't know, so he handed the phone back. Now, this whole time I was struck with the nervous giggles and just couldn't stop laughing...it was nerves!! Well, as it turned out, he had to get in the shower & rinse out his eyes for 15 min....so, here I have a first date that I poisoned in the shower and so I go running to the store to get him his favorite candy bar - he told me about on our hike earlier that morning. Well, as it turns out he was headed to the Domican Republic in 2 days....and he saw an eye doctor emergently before his trip...."stay out of the sun for 2 weeks" was the prescription. So, one would think - no 2nd date, no way.....yep, much to my amazement this one came back - called me from the DR on Valentine's day (our date was Feb 11) and even brought me back a gift-go figure!! Well, it's 5 years later and we're married now! He has never used my eye drops again.
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